Holler If You Hear Me: The Education of a Teacher and His Students (Teaching for Social Justice Series) [Paperback]

Gregory Michie (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0807738883 | ISBN-13: 978-0807738887 | Publication Date: October 1999

In this time of narrowed curricula and high-stakes accountability, Gregory Michie’s tales of struggle and triumph in Holler If You Hear Me: The Education of a Teacher and His Students are as relevant as ever. Since it was first published in 1999, Holler has become essential reading for new and seasoned teachers alike and is an inspiring read for many others. Weaving back and forth between Michie’s awakening as a teacher and the first-person stories of his students, this highly acclaimed book paints an intimate and compassionate portrait of teaching and learning in urban America. While the popular notion of what it’s like to teach in city schools is dominated by horror stories and hero tales, Michie and his students reside somewhere in between these extremes—“between the miracles and the metal detectors.” This updated 10th Anniversary Edition of Michie’s moving memoir of teaching on Chicago’s South Side features a new introduction and a new afterword that includes updates on several of his students.

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the moment Michie begins teaching in Chicago in the early 1990s, he tries to impress upon his mostly Mexican American middle school students the importance "of speaking up intelligently about matters that concern them." Buliding his lessons around the kids and their lives, Michie jettisons much of the back-to-basics coursework the central office wants him to cover. Instead he has students debate school policies, make audiotapes of relevant novels...and "deconstruct" the dubious social values of such pop-culture TV programs as Ricki Lake, Cops, and the Jerry Springer Show.

Michie writes as candidly as he does vividly, acknowledging occasional doubts about his teaching style...Still, the book is far from pessimistic. Michie is a passionate believer in the power of education. And his open and ongoing struggles to become a better teacher are inspiring--both to his students and the reader. -- Teacher Magazine, February 2000

Greg Michie has written one of the season's most fascinating, albeit under-publicized books. Michie moved to Chicago and became a teacher in an inner city school, where he basically found another world--not a foreign world, as many comfortable suburbanites may think of it, but one different in its innate toughness. There he met and was "educated" by his students as much as he helped educate them. Michie's book is full of passionate writing and is of immediate interest to anyone concerned about children and/or education. -- Creative Loafing, November 6, 1999

Michie wrestles with a lot of big issues here: segregated schooling, police brutality, drugs, gangs, sexism, racial bias, childhood sexual abuse. But he does so through the watchful eyes of his students, whom he never gives up on. -- The Progressive's "Best Books of 1999," Jan. 2000

There's a genre of education narratives that features a lone crusader who after minor setbacks achieves what everyone said was impossible: transforming a classroom of knuckleheads into high achievers. Michie's book breaks this mold. In the tales he tells, he fails almost as often as he succeeds. But there are lessons to be learned in either instance. -- From the Chicago Reader, September 24, 1999

About the Author

Gregory Michie teaches in the College of Education at Illinois State University. A teacher in Chi­cago public schools for 9 years, he received the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1996. He is the author of See You When We Get There: Teaching for Change in Urban Schools.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Teachers College Press (October 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807738883
• ISBN-13: 978-0807738887
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #126,934 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Holler If You Hear Me Is Tight, November 21, 2000

By 

Andy Merrick "pilgrim" (Nashville, TN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Holler If You Hear Me: The Education of a Teacher and His Students (Teaching for Social Justice Series) (Paperback)

In the very spirit of Greg Michie's approach to teaching, he titles his book. Throughout the book, Michie champions the idea of listening to the students in order to better understand them, and ultimately, better teach them. The title, "Holler If You Hear Me," is a colloquial expression used by kids in the inner-city. I, myself, am in college and seriously contemplating teaching in the inner-city and picked up Michie's book in a book store simply because I couldn't believe a teacher/author had used that phrase to title his book! Michie's approach to teaching was equally as amazing!

I read through this book in nearly one day because of Michie's complete candidness and acute observation in teaching in an inner-city school. He shares real-life stories of those he's taught and the lessons he's learned along the way.

If anyone out there is considering teaching (as I am), I would strongly recommend this book! And if anyone out there currently teaches in the inner-city and is feeling frustrated, Greg Michie's views may be just the kind of thing you need to get your teaching back on track. As my review title states, (and stealing another inner-city colloquial expression), this book is tight! (Which, for those who don't know, means "great"!) -Andy

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Hollering, But Hearing and Learning . . ., September 6, 2001

By 

Joey Rodriguez (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Holler If You Hear Me: The Education of a Teacher and His Students (Teaching for Social Justice Series) (Paperback)

Michie's contribution to the world of teacher education and everyday schooling practices is a necessary text. Too many college/university schools of education hardly address schooling practices and the turmoil and push and pound endured by students of all colors. Reading HOLLER IF YOU HEAR ME (1999) can bring a moment of critical consciousness, a moment of self-actualization if the readers/educators are learners willing to dive into their interior Self.

Sandra Cisneros' "Foreword" to the ethnographic work lends an essential perspective and direction, and we learn about the humanity of a caring teacher, Mr. Gregory Michie. From one chapter to the next, readers not only meet the teacher, but they also meet his students and their turbulent and triumphant journeys in their search for a sense of self and mission. The portraits of the students could only have been documented by a teacher who listens, thinks, cares, and believes without judgement, without a punishing distance.

This an empowering work, and I recommend it for its depth and vision, for its pragmatic teaching practices, for its entrance into the classroom of our students in U.S. schools....

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars holler if you hear me, March 16, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Holler If You Hear Me: The Education of a Teacher and His Students (Teaching for Social Justice) (Hardcover)

I am a teacher for Chicago Public Schools in an Hispanic neighborhood and could not put this book down. After reading it I have a renewed vision of what I would like to share with my students. Greg Michie shares stories, ideas, events, problems as well as solutions that any inner city teacher can relate to. It is written in an honest,candid style that is easy to read and anyone who comes in contact with children must read. What makes this book even more refreshing is the voice of the students and the relationships the Michie develops with them. I have already highly recommended this book to my colleagues. I would love to read more of his experiences!!