If Holden Caulfield Were in My Classroom: Inspiring Love, Creativity, and Intelligence in Middle School Kids [Paperback]

Bernie Schein (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1591810760 | ISBN-13: 978-1591810766 | Publication Date: July 29, 2008

Contrary to traditional educational thought, true emotion, rather than pure reason, is the secret to creativity and intelligence. The truth is ultimately personal-that's why it's universal. By the time Bernie Shein's students arrive in his middle-school classroom, they are little more than a gaggle of defense mechanisms, needing to rediscover who they are. His goal is to help them with this joyous and difficult endeavor. Through stories from his classroom, he shows us how he does it.

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Sentient Publications (July 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591810760
• ISBN-13: 978-1591810766
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #439,160 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If Holden Caulfield Were in My Classroom: Inspiring Love, Creativity, and Intelligence in Middle School Kids, August 18, 2008

By 

Vladimir A. Kleyman (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: If Holden Caulfield Were in My Classroom: Inspiring Love, Creativity, and Intelligence in Middle School Kids (Paperback)

"If Holden Caulfield Were in My Classroom" came in the mail last night and I couldn't put it down. No work got done today, I just read and read and read. The book is great, of course, and the best part about it is that just by reading it - in the act of reading it - I was forced to cast away my own pretenses and inhibitions and reveal myself to myself as I had to many years ago when I was a student in Bernie Schein's middle school classroom. Reading about the kids - and seeing how mature, thoughtful, and sophisticated they are - made me realize (again) that "growing up" is all a farce. Adulthood is just another excuse the chronologically challenged use to hide themselves from themselves and from others. In every school, in every office, in every workplace, in every community in America, there is the same range of personalities - and the same range of conflicts - as Bernie Schein describes in his book. I will, as the author put it, "cajole, whine, get on my knees and beg, confront, challenge, shame (if [I] have to)" everyone I know into (buying) and reading "If Holden Caulfield Were in My Classroom". It's just a real gift, this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Breath of Fresh Air, February 22, 2009

By 

Shea St John "Shea St. John" (Carrollton, Georgia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: If Holden Caulfield Were in My Classroom: Inspiring Love, Creativity, and Intelligence in Middle School Kids (Paperback)

This book, like Bernie, is a breath of fresh air. His charm, wit, and technique are so infectious that kids (and adults) are instantly at ease in his presence. It is exciting and reassuring to see how students of all ages yearn to be better writers and scholars at his urging.

When people are around Bernie, it is easy for them to forget the rest of the world exists. His honesty and candor encourage others to seek that same level of truth in their own writing as well as in their own lives.

I was blown away by the creative techniques he includes in his book. While he teaches students academic skills that are essential in the educational experience, he is also teaching them valuable lessons about life. It makes me want to be a better teacher and instructor to the students in my own classroom.

As a public school teacher, I long for the uninhibited spirit with which Bernie approached lessons in his own classroom. This environment is conducive to both students and teachers alike. Should we interact at the level Bernie instructs us to do in his book, there would not be the stress and worry about test scores and AYP. Things would naturally fall into place, for we would be able to teach instead of spending so much valuable time bracing ourselves for failure under the "teaching the test" system so many public school systems are requiring.

All administrators and teachers should take the time to read this book. It is a stark reminder of what should be happening in every single classroom. I only wish my own children could experience this kind of learning in their educational lives.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book on Teaching, August 27, 2008

By 

T. Birdsey (Ripton, Vermont) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: If Holden Caulfield Were in My Classroom: Inspiring Love, Creativity, and Intelligence in Middle School Kids (Paperback)

Bernie Schein has written an important, necessary book that shows us what real teaching is. Teaching is not preparing students for tests, Bernie tells us; teaching is helping students, 12-14 year-olds in Bernie' case, discover the contours of their souls, and then helping them to express what they find there. His book shows that true teaching means giving children the time to confront what mystifies, limits, or terrifies them, and then showing them how to express the glory of their very deep, profound and human hearts.

Bernie Schein reveals himself to be a brilliant teacher: southern, Jewish, ribald, comical, loving, honest, and free. As a teacher he says what is on his mind so that his students can learn to do the same. His students are brilliant, creative, tenacious, idiotic, and real: they cover the entire spectrum of every kind of kid who walks into the rooms of our nation's schools. With Bernie they break every rule and expectation of those stultifying, conventional classrooms, and they create art, beauty, and true knowledge while they do it.

"If Holden Caulfield Were In My Classroom" shows us what great wonders can happen in classroom when a brilliant, innovative teacher uses his own experience to liberate and empower his students; when the teacher reveals to them that what they have to say is more important than all the No Child Left Behind legislation combined.

All teachers should read this book. All students of education should read this book. Parents, educational consultants, teachers in university education and teacher certification programs, members of Congress, school administrators, and board members of schools both public and private should read this book to see if the classrooms for which they are responsible are engendering the kind of love, creativity, and intelligence that spills forth from the classroom of Bernie Schein's teaching.