Customer Reviews

The Garden at Night: Burnout and Breakdown in the Teaching Life

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This book takes a look at the spiritual side of burnout and breakdown. As her experience is as a college teacher, this is where O'Reilley focuses her essays, but there are applicable lessons for teachers of all levels.

One of the strongest lessons is that everyone undergoes a "dark night of the soul." It is not unusual, nor should it be unanticipated. Not that these facts make it any easier to endure, as she herself acknowledges. She does advise that we look for the lesson in these situations, to see what we can learn from them. And that, sometimes, that lesson is that it is time to find a different profession.

O'Reilley also emphasizes the need for teachers to take time to meditate or pray daily. She discusses the spiritual traditions of Christianity and Zen Buddhism. These are not mutually exclusive. Both ask that practitioners take that time out of their lives to focus on something besides the problems constantly besieging them. The importance of taking time for one's self is an important part, perhaps the most important part, of avoiding a burnout--or at least putting it off.

This is an extremely interesting book that takes a look at burnout from a different perspective than others I have read. The practical applications are from a different direction. The philosophical stance is accessible and attainable. This is one I will need to reread to gain the full impact of, but it has already broadened my thinking on the topic of burnout.

I'm a real fan of Mary Rose O'Reilley's, but I'd have to say this was one of her most difficult books for me. I didn't always follow her train of thought. However, just when I felt hopelessly lost, there would arise a gem of wisdom or a note of practicality, and I would sigh with relief. I think the confusion comes from the fact that the reference point for her discourse is both highly personal yet purposefully oblique. And a part of me wonders if O'Reilley was forcing me into the "dark night of the soul" so that I could find my way out through some of the sparkling moments she offers, such as the advice given by Mark Doty to her students regarding habits of mind necessary to maintaining a spiritual outlook: 1) pay acute attention 2)inhabit paradox 3) resist certainty. This advice alone was worth the price of this thin little book. Not only does it remind us how to face those difficult days on the job or in life, it also suggests how to read O'Reilley's book.

This is an inspiring read for anyone experiencing burnout in any profession. As a teacher, the read was a search of the soul. Awesome!