Slipping from the Podium

Abstract Three authors, Michael Kugler, Kelli Y. Nakamura, and Julie Rancilio, teach at a community college or a small evangelical college. Their training in PhD-granting institutions did not prepare them to teach students who took history courses as a box to check on the way to a degree, students whose attendance in class was just one stop in a busy, daily itinerary that also included jobs, care for family members, and long commutes. They expected to have students who, like themselves, had an intrinsic desire to learn. Very little in their training gave them models for what to teach their students, how to reach and inspire them. Each author wrote History Unclassified independently describing in similar ways the mistakes they had made in the classroom. We connected them and asked them to compare notes. What follows are excerpts from their conversations.