A professional writer (Keizer) returns to the classroom as a teacher after a 14 year absence. In a rural Vermont setting, he is confronted with the challenges of teaching in the setting of the data-driven modern educational environment. Perceptive, witty, and at times - poignant. Highly recommended for those in the pedagogical industry. And "industry" is not used loosely. ( )

I've never worked as an educator like many of the other reviewers, but I am curious about issues in education and so read this book with interest. My overarching impression during reading this book was that Mr. Keizer really hates his job as a teacher. Unlike many people who hate their job, however, he still puts in as much effort as he's able to and seems to excel at it. Then again, I know people in other professions who are so committed to excellence that I suspect the amount of work they put in might be the reason they hate their fields.
The tone throughout the book is critical and often sarcastic, and though I found myself largely sympathetic to his ideas, after a while the negativity became tiring even to read. I can only imagine how overwhelming the experiences must have been to the author himself. Mr. Keizer obviously cares a lot about his students and the (sad) state of education today, and expresses his opinions forcefully and clearly. Overall a very worthwhile read. ( )

While I enjoyed this book a bit as I was reading, it was somewhat of a disappointment to finish and realize that I hadn't found what I was hoping for in a teaching memoir -excellent writing and good ideas. In the end what I found was stale and oddly pedantic prose and a certain self-congratulatory air that seems unwarranted. I would not recommend this to an aspiring teacher. Sorry. ( )

Garret Keizer taught high school English for about fifteen years. He then quit teaching to be a full-time writer. Fifteen years later, he returns to the classroom for a year, during another teacher's leave of absence. This book describes that year.

Although my teaching situation is significantly different than Keizer's--different parts of the country, different ages, different subjects, etc.--much of what he writes explains my situation perfectly. Teachers will love this book because it validates their experiences. But teachers are not the audience that needs to read this book. Lawmakers, policy makers, parents, and all those who judge schools and teachers and find them lacking, need to read this book. Then they can become advocates for positive changes in our educational system, while recognizing, as Keizer points out, that ultimately educational reform is impossible without social change. ( )

This is a memoir. A memoir with insight. To think of it as much more would cause disappointment to the reader. To accept it as it is will guarantee delight. I thoroughly enjoyed it. At times Keizer was pedantic and nerdy, but what else would one expect from a teacher? There was such a human cocktail of cynicism and sentimentalism, undying faith in the good in students and teachers and despair that anything good will come of what has been invested in them that I really did feel like I was meandering through the highs and lows of the professional teacher through the school year (the chapters are ordered after the months of the school calendar).

The profession of the teacher is not dissimilar to my profession, pastoring. I could identify with the love/hate feelings toward the profession, the disdain for outside pontifications on one's heartfelt art and gift (the art and gift of teaching), and the emotional bond one feels with those that he has influenced. Or at least hoped to have influenced.

The book has many helpful insights, some good illustrations, and has a meditative quality about it that makes one ponder deeply about education and educators. It is also an informal study of high school society from the perspective of a self-described hater of technology. He is "repeatedly struck by what seems a compulsives, almost uncontrollable communicativeness on the part of [his] students" (64). There are plenty of anecdotes and one liners that serve as sage advice from an elder teacher to younger teachers.

For example, "Letting students 'find their own way' is just a euphemism for abandonment. Small wonder it's the lazy teacher's favorite cliché" (141). Or, this advice to his students, "Have a reason for working together besides fear of being alone" (112). And this wise advice to anyone about the importance of planning: "Any teacher worth his or her salt will tell you that there are gains to be had by laying the plan aside and going with the flow of a class's sudden inspiration, but show me a teacher who sees this as the norm, and I'll show you a teacher living in a pipe dream of delusional serendipity. In a word, I'll show you a slacker" (27). And sometimes there's outright cynicism: "You and say 'the kids come first' till the cows come home, but in practice the kids come fourth behind administrators, parents, and teachers -- or fifth, in a dairy economy, behind the cows" (20).

As a pastor, I could identify with this comment: "One of the more remarkable and, I think, telling things about the teaching trade is the number of people who need to believe that you love it" (248). Indeed. In fact, it's almost scandalous to admit that one doesn't love it. Pastors are like teachers, desperately looking for the next best thing so I got this point as well: "Excepting the misfits and burnouts, public school teachers are the original true believers: show them the latest thing in education and they'll soon be bowing down to it as a god" (61).

Because it's a memoir, Keizer's censorious pontifications and dismissals of politics and theories other than his own are forgivable. Like most, he truly believes he is an openminded person even while regurgitates closed-minded caricatures of other views that are beneath his intelligence, allowing for the fact that the more gullible of his readers will just take it for gospel. This is particularly clear in his forays into public policy and politics. But even though I disagreed with him on some things, I thought the book was good enough to recommend to all the public school teachers in my church.

One reason I think it ought to be recommended is because it is an empathetic "insider's" account of what may truly be the most misunderstood demographic in America: the public school teacher. They are so often disrespected, sometimes shooting themselves in the foot with stupid union agendas that come off as incredibly belligerent and unaware, but they too are people who suffer from the total unawareness of what their lives are really like. They deserve -- most of them -- to be given the respect that any of us would give to those who have chosen to live and love in a difficult environment.

I'm glad I was lucky enough to get an early review. ( )