DEAN'S COLUMN
Did You Hear the One About...?

By Samuel H. Preston

A College of Arts and Sciences student told me recently that she never took a single note in a class taught by Jeremy McInerney, a prize-winning teacher in our classical studies department. The reason, she explained, was that all of his teaching was in the form of stories that were easy to remember.

Her remark helped to confirm an impression I’ve developed as dean that good teaching often includes a liberal dose of stories: chronological accounts of linked events, often with vivid characters and revealing scenarios. The Bible gains more of its instructional purchase from its powerful stories than from its lovely psalms. Our best communicators among recent presidents, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, were also the best storytellers. It is not far-fetched to argue that humans are wired to be unusually receptive to stories, perhaps because they mimic the serial way in which we experience the world. From the unfolding chronologies, we drew the lessons that were essential to human survival.

The discipline of history would seem to have a special pedagogic advantage because a major mission of the historian is to tell stories that are “true”—as true, that is, as distance and perspective will allow. This orientation may be partially responsible for the fact that our history department enjoys one of the highest departmental teacher ratings in the School. Rick Beeman, an historian of colonial America, embellishes his classroom stories by dressing as one of the featured characters therein. In the sciences, cosmology and evolutionary biology are the disciplines whose subject matter contains enough sweeping chronology to allow fascinating stories to be crafted. Again, these areas appear to spawn unusually popular teaching.

Stories are not the primary way that a chemist or neuroscientist investigates or talks about the world. These specialists, and many others, have developed complex analytic frames that are used to study a particular set of relationships. True, these relationships unfold in time, but often in microseconds rather than at the more stately pace of conscious human experience. Teachers of economics, another discipline long on analytic frame and short on chronology, developed a sensible seminar convention a decade or so ago in which speakers are asked to “tell the story” of their contribution before launching into higher math.

Aesop’s fables and Jesus’ parables still teach effectively, even though their stories were first told thousands of years ago. Whether or not our disciplines are conducive to storytelling, it makes sense for all of us who teach to be aware of the mind’s apparent receptivity to stories. They can lighten the spirit while teaching a lesson. And compelling tales like Jeremy McInerney’s teach lessons that last for a lifetime, which after all, is the point of an arts and sciences education.

Dean to Step Down

Samuel H. Preston, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences since 1998, has announced that he will step down when his seven-year term concludes in December. “As all who know him will agree,” said Penn President Judith Rodin, CW’66, “Sam has an unusual blend of pragmatism and vision, and he has brought both of those qualities into play in his quest to provide the best environment possible for both students and faculty.” Under his leadership, the School has pursued a strategic plan focused on faculty development, undergraduate education, and investment in core academic programs. “I look forward with pleasure to serving a final year as dean,” he said, “and returning to scholarship and teaching in the sociology department and the Population Studies Center.”