This collection of essays demonstrates that using fiction, poetry, and drama in the classroom provides students with the best opportunity to learn about thinking, writing, and life at their deepest levels.

Russell Weaver received a BA in English from Tulane University and a PhD in English from the University of Chicago. He has taught English for thirty-two years, the last twenty-nine at Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio. His publications include two books: (Peter Lang, 2006) and Billy Budd (Peter Lang, 2015), the interpretive procedure of each growing out of his teaching experience.

«Reading these committed, intense essays about teaching literature at Ridgeview is a rejuvenating experience for me. I think of something the twenty-three-year-old Keats said in one of his letters: ‘Probably every mental pursuit takes its reality and worth from the ardor of the pursuer.’ There’s no doubting the ardor of these wonderful teachers of literature, nor the depth of engagement and insight that their fortunate students’ continue to experience in their courses centered on wonderfully generative questions about the works they study! Speaking of which, was Keats right? Was his a despairing comment? Something deeper? How does it relate to his matchless poetry? Such are the kinds of questions that students discuss in this superb school. Many congratulations on the ardor and excellence of Ridgeview!» (E. D. Hirsch, Author of and ) «Slow down, don’t move too fast. In essence, this is the approach to literature taken at Ridgeview Classical School, a charter K–12 where dedicated teachers turn ordinary kids into passionate, discerning readers. In an inspiring collection of essays written by both teachers and students, documents how close reading, when taught in discussion-based classes, can restore the Great Books to their necessary place in our schools, our minds, and our lives.» (Elissa Guralnick, Professor of English and Musicology, University of Colorado Boulder)

Contents: Florian Hild: The Ridgeview Way of doing Literature – Jennifer Tillson: From Student to Teacher – William Binder: The Text-Centered Classroom – Timothy Smith: R-Evolution of a High School Classics Teacher – Emmaline Ashley: Participation in the Conversation – Russell Weaver: The Origins of Ashland Connections – Seth Snow: Teaching the Text in High School – Michael McFall: On Teaching Without Lecturing.