Wise Women: Reflections of Teachers at Midlife

• Published in: English Quarterly Vol. 33; no. 3/4
• Main Authors: Hancock, Maxine, Freeman, Phyllis R, Schmidt, Jan Z
• Format: Book Review
• Language: English
• Published: Toronto Canadian Council of Teachers of English Language Arts 01.01.2001
• Subjects: Class Size; Essays; Faculty Promotion; Females; University professors; Women
• ISSN: 0013-8355

This is a thoughtful collection of personal essays by women academics in the last stage of their careers. The essays are presented in five sections - "Body & Time," "Ripening & Rootedness," "Feisty Girls," "Teaching in Time," and "Community & Generativity." While, as in any collection, the style and even the standard of writing varies somewhat, there are many excellent pieces and some memorable ones. With the exception of short essay, "Reverie" by Jane Tompkins (pp. 47-48), which feels like a bone tossed carelessly by a name scholar to the editors, each piece bears the weight of careful reading. The reading of these essays has the effect of creating a "virtual community" of women who have reflected for a long time on experiences which for me, as a late-emerging member of the academy, are quite raw and new. My review copy is now underlined and marginated as evidence of the dialogue into which I was drawn. The introductory essay, itself worth the price of the book, skillfully surveys the terrain of women's experience as teachers and scholars over the past three or four decades.