One of the recurring themes of the book is that education, in its highest form, is a dynamic process ... Even as she has become a master playwriting teacher at Yale, she finds opportunities to learn from those she’s paid to instruct. ... Ruhl is a diligent student, learning not in just elite classrooms or before artistic masterworks but from the tyrannous demands of motherhood, the vicissitudes of marriage, the frustrations of modern medicine and the unhurried nature of grief.
Lessons From My Teachers is a timely and lively reminder of what we owe them ... There are lovely stories here about professional educators who made a difference ... Reading Lessons From My Teachers feels like listening to a good friend share a few confidences on the fly, though Ruhl has taken care in the crafting of these essays. In an epilogue, she mentions 'sending what I wrote to all the teachers I wrote about, the ones who are still living.' This is obviously an author who wanted to get things just right ... Even so, a few of the essays seem shaped by expedience. Ruhl’s piece on her grandfather brims with affection, but she seems hard-pressed to find a compelling lesson from his life that might fit with her book’s theme ... Such occasional lapses are easy enough to overlook in a book that moves so briskly. Most of the essays are no more than a page or two, and readers can comfortably consume them in snippets. The format reminded me of a devotional volume, where small chapters offer short meditations to inspire a few thoughts on the higher things.
Moving ... Ruhl is generous in her praise for these teachers and in the lessons she shares with readers. Funny and sad, tender and profound, this collection celebrates the bonds between teachers of all kinds and their students. Best savored slowly, this is a touching collection that readers will appreciate.
An elevating memoir of lifelong learning, told by a playwright who makes the past come back to life ... [Ruhl] shows us how even the smallest moment can instruct, how a child can teach a parent, and how true creativity demands a willingness to learn. This is a memoir of brief anecdotes, told by a master storyteller ... Anyone who learns and teaches will find affirmation in this book.
Playwright and essayist Ruhl (Smile) provides a heartfelt reflection on her life’s many teachers ... She offers moving ruminations on the strong impression made by childhood teachers ... Some essays delight in their unexpectedness, such as the one about 'the falafel maker' whose advice that 'every good story has to have a love story' Ruhl followed in subsequent plays ... The book strays into slightly off-topic personal musings, though these sometimes offer Ruhl’s own cogent lessons on the creative process ('Ride the Amtrak quiet car' to battle writer’s block, she advises) and end up giving an intriguing if truncated glimpse of the playwright’s life, from her struggles with chronic illness to her study of Buddhism. Throughout, Ruhl couches her reminiscences on learning within a passionate critique of America’s cultural obsession with self-reliance. The result is an inspiring tribute to the supportive communities that make creative life possible.
