A teacher for 90 minutes

There they were, 15 of the best and brightest America and the world had to offer, sitting around a table in Kings Court/English College House waiting for their discussion leader to give them their first taste of academic life at an elite Ivy League university.

They had read the book sent to them in mid-summer with the expectation that it would lead to a shared intellectual experience that would stay with them all year.

And I was the person who was supposed to give them that experience.

Why was I doing this? Its not because I have the academic background for itI neither hold a graduate degree nor studied literature in college. But that didnt matter to the Penn Reading Project (PRP) organizers. All that mattered was that I, like the 145 other faculty and staff members who led PRP discussion sections Sept. 4, had some familiarity with academic discussion and had expressed an interest in discussing Chinua Achebes novel Things Fall Apart.

Stuff to chew on

To help us in that task, three professorsSandra Barnes of anthropology, Jim English of English and Lydie Moudileno of Romance languagestalked about the book as literature, the society it depicts, the historical events that are captured in it and some ways to think about it in a one-hour prep session before we met with our students. Not all of the discussion leaders were presentuniversity presidents and school deans are very busy at the start of the yearbut most were. And while most were also faculty, a sizable minorityabout 35, according to New Student Orientation Director David Foxwere staff, mostly from the College Houses.

The incoming freshmen had been given some questions to think about on the PRP Web site prior to the discussion. A morning lecture put the book in the context of Europes late-19th-century scramble for Africa and discussed the social organization of traditional Ibo society.

Tara Mendola, a young woman from Alabama, had something to say on this last subject in my discussion group. No, this wasnt a primitive societyit had well-developed institutions, a functioning economy and a fairly democratic governing process, all of which Achebe describes in detail in the course of the first two-thirds of the book.

Some talk, others listen

In fact, Tara had a lot to say about the book and about understanding other cultures. I could have turned the steering of the discussion over to her, but it was my job to get as many of the students as possible to contribute.

I signed up to lead a section because I was familiar with the book, having read it in high school. So had about a third of the students in my section. The ones who had, however, did not participate in the discussion any more or any less than those who had not.

As it turned out, about five or six students did the bulk of the talking, three or four others made occasional contributions, and the remaining third kept quiet. This, I was assured afterwards, was par for the course in small-group discussions. You toss out your questions, prod some people for contributions, and see how the students run with the material theyve been given.

There had been some grousing about political correctness the last time the PRP picked a book by a black authorThe Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in 1992, its second yearand, Fox told me, there were similar grumblings when Maxine Hong Kingstons Woman Warrior was chosen in 1998. No such complaints surfaced this year, he said, which is testimony to the power of Achebes narrative.

After the discussion ended, two of the studentsMuchemi Wandimi, from Kenya, the one African in the group, and Way Tsui, from Singaporetalked with me some more about the book and Africa. They said they enjoyed the discussion. So did I. I might even try this again next fall. But I dont think Id want to do this for a living. That job I gladly leave to the faculty, who are much better at it anyway.

For study questions and library resources on Things Fall Apart, go to www.upenn.edu/nso/prp.