Paul Tough #3: Mr. Tough answers our questions about “Getting an A”!
Paul Tough #3: Mr. Tough answers our questions about “Getting an A”!
Appears in this episode
Hi there! Two weeks ago, we read (and annotated) Paul Tough’s “Getting an A,” from his book, The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us. Last week, we shared our questions and first impressions. This Sunday, we’ll gather together to discuss the article (in-person and online). Please sign up!
Last Tuesday, I got to talk with Mr. Tough, and in this 30-minute podcast episode, he generously answers our questions and speaks about some of the themes we’ve been exploring. You’ll learn about how he began writing about education, how he met Ivonne and Prof. Uri Treisman, why he wrote the chapter, how it felt to sit in lecture classes and discussion sections, and why he still believes in college as a path toward social mobility in the United States.
I encourage you to take a listen and share your thoughts!
Does listening to Mr. Tough clarify any of your questions? Get you thinking in a different way, or strengthen your views?
All right, let’s discuss! To do so, click on the play button or the title, which will let you listen to the podcast episode and write your comments on the bottom of the post. If you get stuck, hit reply, and we’ll get things sorted out.
Thank you for participating in this week’s conversation. And if you’re free and interested, sign up for this Sunday’s Article Club discussion below. See you soon!
Article Club is a new experiment in community reading. We read and discuss one outstanding article or book chapter a month, both online and in person. We invite the author to join our conversation, too. If you’re interested, please sign up and check us out! Article Club is part of The Highlighter, a weekly newsletter featuring the best articles on race, education, and culture.
Paul Tough #3: Mr. Tough answers our questions about “Getting an A”!
Thank you for this podcast, Mark! It was great to hear more about the characters and actually made me more optimistic. It also made me understand a little bit more about the context of the chapter. I do still feel like maybe more credit is given to Uri than there should be. It seems to me that Ivonne and the graduate students are the ones who do the work of actually turning failure into success, but as I was not in the lectures, and Paul Tough certainly was, I walk away believing more in the power of Uri's teaching. I also still feel like Tough missed an opportunity to compare Ivonne to Erica who seemed to me to have much more in common.