Laurence Musgrove takes teaching to a different level and forces you to observe rather than simply listen. On one of his websites, theillustratedprofessor.com, he blogs about class lectures and other events in his life through rough illustrations that are quite entertaining. One of my favorites is one from Nov. 12, that reads: “There is about a month left in the semester, and most storylines are pretty well defined,” with this illustration:

I’m sure many teachers can relate to this, and it cracks me up. He also encourages students to illustrate lecture responses. For example, from November 3, his entry read; “Here is a great handmade response to Ernest Hemingway’s short story “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” from a student in my American Literature class. I’m continually amazed at the way my students use the Venn diagram in creative ways to depict their responses,” with this illustration:

Given that brief explanation of who Dr. Musgrove is, at SXSW, he will be talking about how there is becoming less and less emphasis on reading for pleasure and reading literature. Due to increased standardized testing, reading isn’t a decision anymore; it’s sort of a “requirement,” taking the pleasure out of it.

I must say that I completely agree with his point of view. When I was younger, I read all the time, but once I got to the grade level where reading was required, and it was only certain books, is when I started reading less. Granted, the books we were required to read are very important books, i.e. “The Great Gatsby,” “The Scarlet Letter,” “1984,” etc. the idea that I’m not at liberty to choose sort of took the fun out of it.

Musgrove’s panel, “The End of Reading in the USA,” is a “call to action” to get students interested in reading as a choice again. He uses his unique teaching style to literally illustrate the aesthetically pleasing effects reading can have as well as to take back schools from the testing bureaucrats and return it to teachers who know that reading is the life-blood of democratic life. His students are generally open to his style of teaching and he thinks his lectures are successful because the visual support better engages his students and helps clarify his ideas more easily.

Musgrove says we need “to be clear about the purposes of education in a democratic society.” He feels this purpose should be to promote our civil rights as Americans in regard to responsible citizenship and individual liberty. We are blessed with the ability of literacy, which is the means by which citizens learn about their freedoms and to make responsible decisions. He also feels that students need to learn the variety of reading choices and make informed decisions about what and how to read in the classroom.

He also suggests that educators should promote literacy and democracy in the classroom and resist the urge to analogize education as consumption. He quoted Thoreau: “Most men have learned to read to serve a paltry convenience, as they have learned to cipher in order to keep accounts and not be cheated in trade; but of reading as a noble intellectual exercise they know little or nothing; yet this only is reading, in a high sense, not that which lulls us as a luxury and suffers the nobler faculties to sleep the while, but what we have to stand on tip-toe to read and devote our most alert and wakeful hours to.”

He mentions five main metaphors throughout his teachings and blogs.  At the core of these he says is “reading is moving. And if reading is always moving, freedom and faith are also metaphors for reading.”
In regard to personal achievements, Musgrove says, “incorporating visual thinking in my research and teaching and life in general.”  And, “moving back to Texas.”