Teaching of Thomas Farber:

About the teaching of Thomas Farber, Senior Lecturer in English, University of California, Berkeley:

"He expected a great deal from his students, held them accountable for their claim that they wanted to write, and won their respect not only by working them hard, but by taking seriously what they produced."

--Professor Page Stegner, Acting Director, Creative Writing Program, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1977

"What impressed [your students] was your attention to detail, your willingness to take their work seriously, and your very generous offer of your own time...This took a great deal of energy (as well as good faith) on your part, and they knew it."

--Professor Phil Weinstein, Chair, Department of English, Swarthmore College, 1981

"A gifted and engaged teacher. He made a tremendous contribution to our program and to our students."

--Anne Barrows, Coordinator, Master of Arts, Writing, University of San Francisco, 1988

"[He] committed himself totally to teaching and to the students here. Their evaluations of him reflected their appreciation of this: they praised his generosity, his willingness to be available for them, his close attention to every student and to every piece of student writing. Among the useful qualities he taught the students...was a sense of dedication, discipline, and meticulous care with writing. And not least valued by the students as 'his] management of the classroom with humor, efficiency, and fairness...His work as a teacher was outstanding in every way...It is a mark of [his] character that he gave so much of himself while was here."

--Professor Frank Stewart, Director, Creative Writing Program, University of Hawaii, 1990

"Students praise in particular his willingness to take student writers seriously, his openness in class discussions, the sense he gives of sharing his knowledge of books and of the practicalities of a writer's life, his ready and constant availability, his meticulous comments on details of writing, and the sense he gives of having real standards and making judgments. What impresses me, reading these student evaluations, is not simply the enthusiasm as such, but the fact that Mr. Farber seems to be able to be an open and supportive teacher without losing any intellectual or pedagogical authority."

--Professor Paul Alpers, Chair, Department of English, University of California, Berkeley, 1981

"I have never seen evaluations [by students] this good. They read like a wish-list of the praise every teacher longs to garner--and they are unanimous in their praise...Perhaps the most impressive feature of these evaluations is the recurrent emphasis on how 'inspirational' the class and Farber have been. [Students write] 'The feeling is calm, the atmosphere is trust and magic happens over and over again'; 'this class has a religious feel to it, as though something great is happening--almost as though it couldn't not be great'; 'I'll always treasure this fantastic experience'"

--Professor Jeffrey Knapp, Chair, Department of English, University of California, Berkeley, 1997

"Farber is praised as a great facilitator, with a 'wonderful style for leading discussions'; he creates a supportive environment in which students are nonetheless held accountable and 'very little slack is tolerated,'or, as one student puts it, this is 'a professional class in a casual atmosphere'...[One student] reports that he 'nourished an environment that was both encouraging of the students' skills as careful readers and critics, and of their growing willingness to expose themselves, to themselves and each other. He was crystal clear at the beginning of the course about what would be expected of us each week, what each class would be like, and what his goals for us were. So far as I can see, he accomplished them. A superb course from a superb teacher.'"

--Professor Janet Adelman, Chair, Department of English, University of California, Berkeley, 2001