WSJ profiles the Teaching Company
Wilfred McClay, a humanities professor at the University of Tennessee, writes a review in the Wall Street Journal on the Teaching Company, the Chantilly, VA-based outfit that provides courses on a variety of subjects on both Audio CD and DVD. Lisa and I have watched several DVD courses now, and we really enjoy them.
Many of the DVD courses are also available on CD. We've never really done the CDs: Lisa spends a fair amount of time in the car, but with the kids in tow, it's not time that's conducive to serious study. I'm fortunate not to have a very long commute, so the CDs wouldn't work for me, either. However, our friend Ed — who hopes one day to get a gig as a "student" for one of the Teaching Company tapings (they're just down the road from him) — swears by the CDs.
If you do decide to order some of their lectures, be sure to buy them when they're on sale. Everything in the catalogue goes on sale once a year, and the discount is substantial.
Comments
The review in the Wall Street Journal was good, and I understand his defense of traditional university classes, but he forgot to mention two points: for many, attending actual university classes is just not a possibility. In addition, some of us just don't want to go to school again. Our lives are busy enough, and we want to learn on our schedules. I live fairly close to a community college, but it's Teaching Company lectures that I absorb.
Posted by: Lisa Roberts | August 31, 2007 9:10 PM
Sounds like fun! John is a big fan of Books-on-Tape as he has a 45 minute commute each way. We listened to "Hard Times" by Charles Dickens on our Mammoth drive - 14 hour round trip. I read a lot these days but it is fun to listen to a skilled reader with all the various English accents and a little acting, too!
I looked at the Teaching Company website and found a lot of interesting courses there. I thought the series on the English novel looked promising. I am reading through Thomas Hardy at the moment so it would be nice to delve a little deeper. One question: Do you find that you retain the information just by listening? I always absorbed material best when I had to read, write and take a test. Nothing doth concentrate the mind like an upcoming final!
Posted by: Betsy Cuthbertson | September 3, 2007 1:55 PM
Hi Betsy,
I didn't know you were on the Mammoth trip, too. Bert mentioned Victoria and her friends, but since he didn't mention you explicitly, I mistakenly assumed that you weren't on the trip. Hope you guys all had fun!
As far as retention goes, I think we're doing pretty well. I think it helps that Lisa and I are watching the lectures together. That way, we can discuss each one with each other, ask one another questions, etc.. If there's something that one of us missed, we can back up and play that part of the lecture over (particularly useful when the kids are on their two-hundredth bathroom trip after bedtime). We've had the occasional lecture where we were just so tired that we didn't feel like we got much out of it. Our solution is to watch that lecture over the next time.
Posted by: Don Roberts | September 3, 2007 3:38 PM
We love the teaching co! I highly reccommend Rufus Fears - he is a very engaging speaker, and the kids like him, too!
Posted by: nicole Tittmann | October 2, 2007 11:16 AM
I do in fact swear by them. And since I have 40 or 50 courses, mostly history, I'll give anyone who asks a free review of any course I've listened to. Or I'll lend you the CDs. --Ed.
Posted by: Ed Powell | November 26, 2007 9:01 PM