Customer Reviews

Losing My Faculties: A Teacher's Story

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While Halpin's candid account of teaching in the public schools of Massachusetts is by no means all warm and fuzzy, it is a poignant testament of one man's love of teaching. As a public school music teacher (and a first year at that), I found constant affirmation in reading Halpin's stories of the rollercoaster ride of American education. From student teaching dramas and locating a first job to dealing with administrative conflicts and parents, this book covers it all...and in a very informal, interior monologue kind of way. It is this journal-esque way of writing that really drives the story. I was pleased that despite Halpin's english teacher credentials, he was more than comfortable to write the book in a more relaxed style, complete with slang, colloquialisms, and less-than-perfect grammar. The book, despite its non-heroic ending, has inspired me and my teaching.

Losing My Faculties
By Brendan Halpin

Hardly a day passes that we don't read an article or hear a story about schools. Most often, we hear what's wrong with schools. Reports of promised reform and fix-it-once-and-for-all solutions are commonplace. And one has to wonder after a while, if these magical solutions are finally going to fix things, then why do we continue to hear about how bad schools are year after year after year?

Far too absent among the reports of what's wrong with education are the voices of teachers who spend day after day, year after year, in the schools that outsiders are always promising to reform!

Teaching is a special calling. It is not a profession one enters for the money, nor for the prestige (and certainly not -- contrary to oft-heard cynic's explanation -- for the easy life, clean work and summers off!)

By and large, most teachers want to do a good job. They want their students to learn and they try to do their very best to achieve those ends.

Losing My Faculties is the story of one very committed teacher who truly considers teaching to be a special and important vocation. And it is also a story of teaching as a profession that can't help but make the person choosing it as a lifework to wonder about their sanity from time to time.

Author Brendan Halpin tells his own story of his journey through his first eight years as a teacher in Boston area schools. This is Halpin's chronicle of his beginning years as he works in four different schools across the span the book. He tells of his good experiences with his students, his classes that are great. He acknowledges his failures and shortcomings as a teacher and he clearly considers what he, as one teacher, can continue to do to try to improve.

Brendan Halpin tells his story in a straightforward almost conversational way. One can imagine sitting with a friend as he relays the story of work across a series of years. The result is a comical, blunt and spirited book that always shows a profound concern for kids. There is no question but that Brendan Halpin should be a teacher. He;s a natural! Sadly, I could easily see him hanging up his schoolbag and finding himself a new path on which to travel.

There is ample evidence that schools indeed need to get back to basics and stop the business of constantly seeking to start over again. Education is big business for some. Reform is an industry into itself. Testing is a monopoly. There are as many educational experts and consultants as there are schools in this country! Few of these businesses are truly concerned about improving education.

If legislators and school leaders truly want to make improvements in schools, they need to start with hiring, paying and affirming good teachers. Start spending time with teachers. Listen to them. Work side by side with them for a while.

If someone regularly told me how lousy I was, or how bad everyone in my profession was, it wouldn't take me very long to get discouraged. We have far too many discouraged teachers in this country! We lose way too many new teachers each year because they are never given the kind of support and mentoring they need to become great teachers.

Yes, there are poor teachers. Get rid of them! Keep the schools as simple as possible. And, above all, yes, return to the basics. History long demonstrates to us that gimmicks aren't the answer. Excellent education happens where a safe and caring environment is created for kids to learn. Success happens where there are dedicated teachers with high expectations who care about their students. Excellent education isn't always found in affuent school districts or in the most modern of schools. It is found where competent people care, work hard and challenge their students to do the same. In these schools there is a fundamental affirmation for the sacred calling that teaching is for anyone who undertakes its work. And, the results show.

As Brendan Halpin chronicles his journey through the often-unpleasant start of his career, he indirectly tells us just what is wrong with education. Perhaps we need to listen more carefully to his story, and the stories of many others who have the courage and energy to do this same work with America's future on a daily basis. Stop paying the testing companies. Halt the consultancies. Forget the experts. We have them in our schools. Put some of the money being wasted on outsiders back into the schools. And, then and only then will education see true reform!

Highly recommended.

Daniel J. Maloney
Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA

Reading Faculties I was reminded of something Kurt Vonnegut said of Hunter Thompson: " I am told that {Thompson}...is being eaten alive by tinhorn politicians. The disease is fatal. There is no know cure...let all those who feel that Americans can be easily led to beauty as to ugliness, to truth as to public relations, to joy as to bitterness, be said to be suffering from Hunter Thompson's disease."
Brendan Halpin spent {at least} eight years in the Massachusetts public schools believing in the salutary effects of education on the teenage soul. That alone qualifies him as a Hunter Thompson disease carrier.
As a teacher I found Faculties a gripping read, filled with all the familiar feelings (sleepless weekday nights; fury at lazy, self-important administrators; bewilderment at colleagues more interested in real estate than real teaching). I rooted for the author to find the Holy Grail, the school with good people doing good.
Halpin tells the story as if he'd channeled one of the teenagers in his Boston-area classrooms. It's full of profanity and slang and long parenthetical asides that almost sidetrack the narrative. But he, mostly, pulls it off. Enough that anyone interested in being the fly-on-the-wall of a high school will find this account compelling.
Ironically Halpin cites the very characteristic that undermines the power of his story: "The {kids} papers kind of suck...mostly because they are long on opinions and short on evidence," he laments early in his career. We meet myriad characters in Halpin's world but very few, if any, are painted with enough detail for the reader to feel confident that they should share the author's {often-scathing} judgments. On almost every page I found myself talking to the print, saying, "Yeah, I know that jerk. We have one of those in my school, too!" And yet, despite Halpin's repeated confessions of his own failings the reader still is left with a nagging feeling that some of his villains might really be heroes (and Halpin occasionally switches sides himself, condemning people in later pages who were allies in earlier episodes).
For anyone who likes this kind of thing I'd recommend four other books of similar theme:
Shut up and Let the Lady Teach by a Newsday reporter, Emily Sachar covers the New York City school woes with lots more detail. True Notebooks by Mark Salzman spells out one year in a Los Angeles school by a teacher of writing. Another Planet is writer Elinor Burkett's year in a Minnesota suburban high school. None of these has Halpin's energy but each has the advantage of greater specificity.
And if you are looking for prescriptions for ameliorating the messes detailed in these books I'd tell you to read anything by John Taylor Gatto, John Holt or Frank Smith.
But don't hold your breath. Neither Halpin's book, nor the American secondary education system have, at present, a happy ending.

I don't know how Brendan Halpin does it. Over a period of ten years, working as a high school English teacher in at least three very different educational systems in and around Boston--and faced with occasionally disruptive students, frequently disgruntled fellow staff, and sadistic-and/or-stupid administrators--he nevertheless keeps his cool (for the most part), enjoys his work, and (perhaps most impressive of all) successfully conveys on the printed page what's so special about teaching. He has a genuine love for his vocation and a genuine fondness for his students. The first-person narrative really gives you a sense of what he experienced--the good as well as the (sometimes hideously) bad. I'm glad I didn't go into teaching--but it's nice to know that people like Halpin have.

Brendon Halpin has written a teaching story which will send any reader into a state of laughter. The twists and turns throughout Halpin's career would seem endless if not for the crude narration and comedy. As Halpin steps up the ladder he goes from a soft student teacher to a hard inner-city educator. There are many situations which will make you laugh, and others that will make you want to never go to school again. Halpin also touches on the fact that there really are A LOT of "bad" teachers out there. This is an excellent book for anyone to read - parents, students, new teachers and experienced teachers. Faculties is a quick, substance-packed book that will enlighten any reader.

... this is book is funny and so honest. oh, everyone says "funny" and "honest" about brendan halpin's writing. it's true!

i love the way he is able to show us so sharply the kinds of irritating people we all know in our workplaces, and the way he can show how he loves his students without being at all self-aggrandizing.

my favorite bit is when brendan is calmed by one colleague's extreme rage, as if there were only a certain quantity of rage available and the boss was hogging it all up.

i look forward to b.h.'s next books...

I am officially on page 60 and looking forward to the rest of this book. I am 11 years into a career in education, and what I like most about the book so far is that the book is supporting the things that go on in my head and it makes me feel I am not alone. Thank you, Brendan Halpin, for putting a voice to these realities.

This book is like an updated "Teacher Man" by Frank McCourt. I find Mr. Halpin extremely funny, but then I liked "Running with Scissors" also. The book is witty, honest, fun and tragic. His constant self-evaluation/criticism is very well-written. The humor and writing style is caustic and transparent and I don't think it's for everyone, but I thorougly enjoyed it!

It is not often that a book makes me laugh out loud. Brendan Halpin's witty memoir had me snorting with laughter almost every other page and yelling "Amen" at some of the truths he details about the current educational system. I'm a young public school music teacher, and his honest voice struck a chord within me and reminded me that I'm not alone in my feelings of inadequacy and frustration...this is a MUST READ for any teacher (especially younger ones).

As a young man I have often thought about being a high school teacher. This book really explores the life of a teacher and of a person who cares about the students. I really gained a lot of insight into what challenges and rewards some teachers in public schools must face. This book also educated me as to what personal qualities and beliefs an effective teacher may wish to have to survive and enjoy the profession. Halpin's writing style is fresh, to the point, witty, and very human. I am twenty something and totally enjoyed his realness and humor. He really cares about the students and is an honorable man. He was a joy to get to know. Stay strong