LIFE LESSONS: REFLECTIONS ON THE ART OF TEACHING

What are the qualities that makefor the most effective teachers? Are there¿ life lessons to be learned for all ofus?Life Lessons: Reflections on the Art of Teaching¿ isa book that takes a fresh look at teaching as the most rewarding as well as themost demanding of the creative arts. With wit and wisdom, the author draws thereader into his own special world from the opening pages, presenting histhought-provoking ideas in a way that will both touch your¿ heart and¿ stimulate your mind.Drawing upon the experience ofover twenty-five years,¿Al Perry¿ presents hismessage in a conversational style that serves as its own best evidence thatteaching can be¿ a creative art and thatlearning can be an act of joy. As he writes in the introduction, "There are,indeed, life lessons to be learned for all of us."

Al Perry has experienced lifeboth inside and outside of the classroom. After graduating from Princetonin the nineteen-sixties, he traveled the country selling textbooks to collegeprofessors, and followed up with a¿ short stint on Wall Street selling stocksand bonds to his friends. Following the dictates of his heart, Al then enteredthe field of education, finding¿ a home for the past twenty-one yearsteaching English and history at the New¿ Canaan Country School in Connecticut.¿ In the words of a colleague, " In so manyways, Al Perry¿ is a child at heart, andhe never allows himself to lose his sense of what being a child is all about."