What Students Say To Themselves

This book is about the inner voice of the self. It addresses the ways students, teachers, and others speak to themselves about who they are and how they fit in the world.

This book is about the inner voice of the self. It addresses the ways students, teachers, and others speak to themselves about who they are and how they fit in the world.

William Watson Purkey is Professor Emeritus of Counselor Education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Co-Founder of the International Alliance for Invitational Education.  The Alliance is a non-profit educational group dedicated to creating and maintaining truly welcoming schools.          

William was born in Shenandoah, Virginia and went on to become a soda jerk, theatre usher, life guard, book store clerk, fish store manager, railroad yard clerk, gandy dancer, U.S. National Park Ranger, junior high school teacher, Explosive Ordnance Disposal Specialist in the United States Air Force, and tenured full professor at two major universities.         

  In addition to receiving the Board of Governors' Award for Excellence inTeaching, the highest award for teaching given by the University of North Carolina System, he also received the 2005 Excellence in Education Award presented by the Royal Conservatory of Music for his work in encouraging learning through the arts.         

William's mission in life is to invite others to laugh, learn, and live fully.  He now lives in Greensboro, North Carolina with Imogene, his bride of 54 years.