A veteran educator of more than 25 years, Shy is currently Head of Upper Division at Avenues: The World School in New York, and his recent book, “Teaching Life: Life Lessons for Aspiring (and Inspiring) Teachers,” is, he says, “a celebration of what it is to be a teacher.”

Shy’s writing has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Harvard Divinity Bulletin, and the Raleigh News and Observer. His work has been recognized by the National Book Critics Circle, and he is known for being a staunch defender of the profession of teaching.

“It’s glorious, important, and I think kind of unsung work,” Shy said. “Over the years, when I’ve told people I was a teacher, I would say I teach 7^th grade, and the response was always one of two things. People would either shudder and say, ‘I could never do that,’ or they would say something like, ‘Thank you for your service.’ It’s this view of what teaching is that led me to want to try to describe what it really is and what it means…And I think I said in framing my book that this is not a how-to; it’s a why-do. Like why do this work? The work will exhaust you unless you have a higher vision for what you’re doing. And my hope is that I have celebrated that higher vision for what teachers are doing in a way that is bracing for young teachers and veteran teachers.”

Join us at 7 p.m. in the Student Center Board Room for Shy’s presentation of Skimming Walden Pond: A Veteran Teacher Rereads Thoreau. Thanks to our network of donors, this event is offered to the community free of charge.