experiences to his teaching at Spelman and later at Boston University: "I discovered that if you go back and forth from the arena of social struggle to the classroom, your motivation for learning is enormous. It's very powerful motivation when you're looking at the law to see if people's rights are being violated."

Zinn believes that teaching and activism should go hand in hand. "It enhances your teaching if students know that you are active outside of class—if you've had experiences that you can relate to the students, if you are as personal as possible in the classroom. The self-professed secret to Zinn's teaching success—and his classes at Boston University often drew four hundred students—was to "let students know you're a human being." He says he didn't try to indoctrinate students, but rather informed them up-front about where he stood politically. "I never sought objectivity or neutrality in teaching," he explains. "I never thought that was desirable or even possible...at the same time, I made clear to my students that I was advocating—that I wasn't pretending to give them the final word, but that they were going to get from me a point-of-view." Yet in three decades of teaching, he never flunked a student. "I was not going to let that be a possible obstacle to free speech in the classroom."

Mark Twain once said that a man should never let his schooling get in the way of his education. One comes away from a two-hour chat with Howard Zinn feeling similarly forewarned. "The best learning takes place outside of schools," the veteran educator insists. His advice to students and teachers, after a career in the academy and on the picket lines, is disarmingly simple: "The most important thing you can do with your education is to be a more active and wiser citizen.... your profession should always come second to what you think and what you feel as a human being." If you're true to yourself and your own values, the message goes, success and admiration will follow. The remarkable story of Howard Zinn's rise from the streets of Brooklyn to household fame provides a powerful case in favor of such consistency and commitment.#