Resource review—the
teaching
Company
—Contributed by ETAF
Staff
The Teaching Company
is a for-profit corporation with a large catalog of
up-to-date, recorded lecture courses you can buy at what (we think)
are reasonable prices.
About the teaching company
The best way to learn about The Teaching Company is to visit its web
site.
About teaching company courses
Viewing one of these courses on your TV is
like attending school without leaving the comfort of your
home.
All courses are aimed at a general
audience without a college degree. Most lectures are pitched
at:
- Young (mature) adults heading for
college or adults without a college background who want to
broaden themselves.
- College grads who want to brush up on a
subject they took in school.
- Grads who never took that basic
English, music, culture, philosophy, history, religion, or
science course and always wished they had. Now they have
it!
Lectures are consistently worthwhile and
of high-quality, some brilliant. (Although never
substandard, sometimes you might wish for something a little
better or a little different).
Lots about the arts, but also much about
other subjects, too. Nothing that at least some audiences
wouldn't benefit from knowing.
more About Courses
- Range from high school to college level
(mostly college).
- Virtually no prerequisites except for a
love of learning, an interest in the subject, and the
ability to learn from the lecture format. (Even scientific
courses require no math).
- Cover a wide spectrum of subjects from
philosophy through literature, history, music, religion,
physics, math, political science, archeology, and much,
much more. (The catalog is growing all the time).
- Are taught by college professors and
other fully qualified and credentialed academics, many
famous in their fields.
- Course books, guides, and other
supporting documentation are available.
- Your choice of video and audio format
on VHS video tape, DVD, CD, and audio cassette.
More than courses
The Teaching Company is an academically-oriented for-profit organization,
a rare combination these days in the business world. Their admixture of
education and business seems to have influenced their intellectual climate
and affected the way they do business. For instance, in our experience,
their return policy has proven to be quite generous and they are helpful,
honest, and polite on the telephone; they appear to be as interested in
helping their customers learn as to "make a buck."* they offer a number of no-cost "perks:"
- A web site that includes teacher bios
and other course supplements.
- From time-to-time, they publish no-cost
supplementary features such as notices of cultural events in selected larger cities,
many of which are arts-related events.
*NOTE: Nevertheless, caveat emptor.
related resource reviews
You may want to explore other reviews on Electricka's Resource Shelf that
are related to The Teaching Company Resource Review you are now reading.
- Visit the resource review of Dr. Robert Greenberg:
click here.
- Visit the resource review of Dr. Seth Lerer:
click here.
ETAF recommends
Teaching Company courses are part of the ETAF-Amazon Collection.
Selected courses are available on DVD and video tape through the
ETAF-Amazon Association from sources affiliated with Amazon.
Teaching Company courses may also be purchased directly from The Teaching
Company and from EBAY.
