How to Survive in Your Native Land. [Paperback]

James Herndon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1977

In How to Survive in Your Native Land James Herndon details classroom life and the inescapable realities of a school situation. This is a compelling vision of what really goes on in school and how the conventional school structure actually affects teaching and learning. The realities may be hard, but Herndon's humorous touch makes this book easy to read.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“[This book] is a literary treasure, simultaneously a Beat novel, a great feat of storytelling, and a storehouse of educational wisdom. Herndon shows us, with great wit and good spirits, how good education can emerge in the most unexpected circumstances and how caring teachers can transform lives.”–Herbert Kohl --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

James Herndon taught in California for more than twenty-five years and was president of his local teachers' union. His writing about education, which also includes The Way It Spozed to Be (Heinemann) and Notes from a Schoolteacher, established him as one of the most important voices of the nation's school reform movement. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (Paper) (October 1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671230271
• ISBN-13: 978-0671230272
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,839,830 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A teaching must-read though not a handbook, August 23, 1998

By 

Brian G. Fay ([e-mail]) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Survive in Your Native Land (Innovators in Education) (Paperback)

The beauty of Herndon's work is that he is both a wonderful writer (he is featured as one of the better writers of nonfiction in William Zinsser's classic _On Writing Well_) and an astute observer of his own and his children's actions. How to Survive presents him at his finest, discussing not how to teach (he almost never does this) but what teaching and learning are like. He does this with humor, honesty, and an edge. No teacher, reading this book, can come away without a more thoughtful consideration of his or her own teaching. It is stunning and does not deserve to have been forgotten in the way that it has.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A modern classic, November 28, 2000

By 

Martha H. Garvey "book author" (Hoboken, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Survive in Your Native Land (Innovators in Education) (Paperback)

Great storytelling is great teaching, and James Herndon is both great teacher and grand storyteller. Though educational theory may have shifted, Herndon's stories about his students are indelible--brimming with humor, love and respect.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars top ten or 20 books I've ever written, January 26, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: How to Survive in Your Native Land (Hardcover)

Kite vignette was great; my fave part though was transcript of his lecture, "Public School... Or What?" A grrrrrrrreat book overall. Buy 5 copies and give them away. I wish it wasn't so hard to find though... Marco Capelli Frucht