Lecture: Paul Tough

Education writer Paul Tough will give a talk associated with his newest book, The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us, which will be published Sept. 10. The event is presented by the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts and the Institute of Higher Education at UGA in partnership with Avid Bookshop. Books will be available at the event and may also be pre-ordered through Avid.

Tough is the author of Helping Children Succeed and How Children Succeed, which spent more than a year on the New York Times hardcover and paperback bestseller lists and was translated into 28 languages. He is also the author of Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America. He is a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine and a regular contributor to the public radio program "This American Life."

The Years That Matter Most tells the stories of students trying to find their way, with hope, joy, and frustration, through the application process and into college. Drawing on new research, the book reveals how the landscape of higher education has shifted in recent decades and exposes the hidden truths of how the system works and whom it works for. And it introduces us to the people who really make higher education go: admissions directors trying to balance the class and balance the budget, College Board officials scrambling to defend the SAT in the face of mounting evidence that it favors the wealthy, researchers working to unlock the mysteries of the college-student brain, and educators trying to transform potential dropouts into successful graduates.