I like reading books about teachers and teaching. This one is by a veteran teacher from a challenged elementary school in Los Angeles. There is a good documentary about him and his work, The Hobart Shakespeareans, which I have seen and enjoyed. This book was a little preachy. He made his students sound like they are better human beings than most. And that's great. He's doing his job very well. Those kids are so lucky to have him in their lives. I think he just could have toned down the "us against the world" attitude. He takes his group to a night baseball game and finds fault with everyone sitting near them, everyone on the jumbotron, everyone in the whole stadium. His lessons would have been more accessible to me as a teacher if he wouldn't have talked to me like I was also one of the jerks of the world.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Just Finished
I like reading books about teachers and teaching. This one is by a veteran teacher from a challenged elementary school in Los Angeles. There is a good documentary about him and his work, The Hobart Shakespeareans, which I have seen and enjoyed. This book was a little preachy. He made his students sound like they are better human beings than most. And that's great. He's doing his job very well. Those kids are so lucky to have him in their lives. I think he just could have toned down the "us against the world" attitude. He takes his group to a night baseball game and finds fault with everyone sitting near them, everyone on the jumbotron, everyone in the whole stadium. His lessons would have been more accessible to me as a teacher if he wouldn't have talked to me like I was also one of the jerks of the world.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Your description of his book is one of the reasons why I generally avoid books about teachers and teaching (and I'm a teacher too).
~Lisa
It's too bad. He's a great person and a great teacher. It's just that the tone of this book was off-putting. I'd still read his earlier one, though.
Post a Comment