Customer Reviews

Students Who Drive You Crazy: Succeeding With Resistant, Unmotivated, and Otherwise Difficult Young People

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This book was quite possibly the most unhelpful professional text I have ever read (and I have read a lot). The examples are cliched and overwrought; the suggestions are simplistic at best - ridiculous at worst. (For example: p. 118 Teacher: "What I'm try to say Mrs. Whittaker, and I'm not saying it very well, is that my job is to help you do your job better. I have it easy - I only deal with your child a few hours a week, but you have to live with him. I'm wondering what I can do to help you.") Who would really say such a thing to a parent? I can't imagine much that would offend and alienate a parent more than that!
A colleague and I both ordered this book so that we might do a book study and work together to improve the behavior of a few students who are of concern to us. At our first book discussion we both realized this book did not meet our needs. I regret the time I spent reading this book as it could have been better spent on most anything else.

I didn't find anything earth shattering in this book that I didn't know already. It is okay for a few suggestions but basically the premise is treat everyone respectfully etc...

The second edition of Jeffrey A. Kottler and Ellen Kottler's STUDENTS WHO DRIVE YOU CRAZY: SUCCEEDING WITH RESISTANT, UNMOTIVATED, AND OTHERWISE DIFFICULT YOUNG PEOPLE is for any teacher at a loss on how to deal with student behaviors. Chapters show how to handle difficult kids, suggest new responses and approaches to misbehaviors, and offers charts of characteristics and accompanying guidelines for handling them. A key pick for education libraries.