Customer Reviews

Holler If You Hear Me: The Education of a Teacher and His Students, Second Edition (Teaching for Social Justice)

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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

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....

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!!

As a struggling first year teacher Michie's book proved to be a breath of fresh air. I can't really say I learned any theory or got any teaching ideas from it, but I learned a more important lesson: even great teachers struggle. As all the other reviews ave said Michie does not merely show us his successes, more often than not we see him fail, but everytime he fails we see him learn something. This is the art of reflective teaching. Michie helps remind us that the best way to improve your teaching is to reflect on it, to understand your failures and attempt to implement successes. I wish I had read this book in college, although I don't know if I would have appreciated it as much unless I had experienced the kind of failure Michie discusses and the kind of reflection. Along with Michie's ideas we also see narratives by the children he teaches, which reminds us that we often don't listen to the kids we teach like we should. Michie shows us they often have a lot to say and can be our greatest teachers about teaching. Michie's style is also very approachable and easy going, I couldn't put the book down and ended up nearly finishing it the day I bought it. Try it you'll like it.

This is a beautifully written and compassionate account of how a very good teacher learned to teach -- by genuinely listening to his students and by continuously reflecting on his experiences. It is a book with heart and insight. And it's inspiring to see Michie's growth as a teacher from one experience to the next. This book is as real as it gets. Use in in your classes, if you teach prospective teachers. Buy it for anyone who cares about kids and public education. I love this book!

To start, I must first address that I have been interested and mystified by the harsh violence and prejudices that many minorities students are faced with everyday. Growing up in a small predominantly Caucasian community, I cannot fathom the idea of dodging bullets, watching drug smuggling and gangsters take over a neighborhood, or having to quit school at age 10 to work and support my family. These are the dirty truths that author Gregory Michie discovered as he left his North Carolina security blanket and headed for Chicago's nororious South Side. As Michie signed up for a $54 a day substitute he had no idea what challenges he was up against. He knew the "Back of the Yards" was the poor section of Chicago. The section which was home to Mexican AMericans, Polish, Palestinians, and African Americans who worked in the slaughterhouses and factories. Home to families of 12-13 children. These children whom are put to work in the same factories at the ages of 13-14 years old. Back of the Yards features no YMCA, movie theater, or fun club for the children. What it does boast is a liquor store on every corner, graffite, and the oozing smell of the slaughterhouse (a pungent reminder of where most of the children will spend their future career). Mr Michie quickly finds out that the school is not kept up to proper educational code. Students are given academic books from 1972. They are not equipt with a proper ventilating system for the frigid winters or sweltering summer temperatures. As if the classroom environment weren't discouraging enough, the students are also faced with the continuous taunting from teachers "Your dumb" or "stupid gangbanger". Michie's mission is to prove to his students that he does care. He throws out the textbooks, provides multicultural tools, and demands the students to critcally analyze what fears and frustrations they have. He explores how life in the Back of the Yards is comforting and terrifying. Part of Michie's magical touch is his ability to understand and empathize with his students. He goes out of his way to take students to concerts, make home visits, and attend parades in the barrio. Gregory Michie is not the sole author of this book. Throughout the whole story, students voices are heard in their writing and quotes. They depict relentless hardships they are forced to deal with everyday. These hardships which include abuse, both physical and mental, poverty, and gangs. Yet, they still show up Quincy Elementary School at 9 A.M. everyday hoping to salvage some integrity and prove that they can be successful. The rollercoaster ride that Greg Michie takes provides to be one of great highs and extreme lows. While he is persistent in the hope to make a just society for his students, he is often faced with the perpetual downward spiral of social pressures. The staircase that leads his students after 8th grade graduation to pregnancy, jobs, and gangs. Teachers and students can gain much from this thought-provoking book, which effectively portrays the voices of the Mexican AMerican and African American students. While the negative stereotypical comments swirl around these students on a daily basis, they are driven by this ignorance to set a positive example. This book offers reinforcement that we as a society have much work to do. "We can make a difference." "We can change the world."

The authors's account of his experiences teaching in Chicago's public schools takes down the walls of mystery that surround the issues endemic to our nation's urban school systems. Michie reveals the heart of these problems one individual at a time, showing us the human face of the urban school child. The reader is led to avoid both despair and unrealistic hopes regarding the future of our cities and the families who struggle to raise their children surrounded by the dangers of poverty, racism and gangs.

I stumbled upon Gregory Michie's book and I am glad I did. As I former high school teacher, I have been frustrated with alot of the books being written on teachers that 'save' all of their students. These books, although somewhat entertaining, are not realistic and do not speak to the thousands of educators that go into the classroom everyday trying to make a difference. Michie's book does bring voice to these teachers and more importantly, brings voice to his students. If we all took Michie's approach and listened to our kids, valued their opinions and trusted them to make their own choices, we would be better off. I recommend this book not only for teachers but for anyone concerned about public education, children and our society. There are some powerful stories in Holler If You Hear Me of kids trying to do the right thing in a system that does not recognize them. Michie's book should be required reading for anyone who teaches in the schools and especially for anyone that is thinking about going into public education. I wish I had a book like this to read when I was in school preparing to teach. Kudos to Michie....I hear you!

Having read countless accounts of "heroic" teachers who selflessly devote their every breath and hour to "save" the "poor, inner-city" kids from their cultures and themselves, I read Michie's book with a genuine sense of relief. Yes, we get a vivid image of the struggles his kids face but we also get a sense of the valuable lessons he has learned from them. These, as all children, come to the classroom with enormous gifts that can provide a foundation for their learning and success. Michie is obviously aware of this and thus his students love him and neither feel pitied nor demeaned by him. What a marvelous read.

This book gives our kids a chance to tell their own stories of humor, growth, joy and pain, while Michie translates for those who might not readily understand. For those readers such as myself who are not from middle class white america, this book gives us an opportunity to understand why/how people like Michie come to work with us in the inner city. All around, this book opens doors and creates new opportunities for dialogue and understanding, and for bringing us all forward.