Tales from the Teachers' Lounge: What I Learned in School the Second Time Around-One Man's Irreverent Look at Being a Teacher Today (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

After giving up his advertising job and moving to Santa Fe with his wife, Wilder (Daddy Needs a Drink) decided he needed a day job, so he signed on as an assistant first-grade teacher at a local alternative school. Its New Age pedagogy—pursuing kindness and peace, counting games with recycled organic materials, etc.—was fine, but he was spending most of his time tending a delusional nine-year-old girl, flushing bad boys' turds down the toilet and coping with hippie parents in denial about their bullying son. So he shifted to teaching seventh grade in a private day school, where there was just the usual preteen wackiness. Some days, so many of his students were hoisting the middle finger, a passerby might think he was teaching a lesson in profanity for the hearing-impaired. Teaching taught Wilder much about what to avoid, as a parent—especially about not being a helicopter parent, obsessively hovering over his kids' every move. He also learned there are two sides to this carpe diem coin—we want our kids to go ahead and try everything, but we're uncomfortable when our toddlers actually start dancing with the cross-dressers on Halloween. Wilder may be a bit potty-mouthed for the mainstream parenting shelf, but he's honest and funny. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

“Honest and funny.”—Publishers Weekly


From the Hardcover edition. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Delta; Reprint edition (August 26, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385339283
• ISBN-13: 978-0385339285
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #104,329 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #44 in	Books > Entertainment > Humor > Business & Professional
  #64 in	Books > Nonfiction > Education > Education Theory > Classroom Management
  #74 in	Books > Entertainment > Humor > Business

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Skewered, November 6, 2007

By	John Thorndike "Author: The Last of His Mind:... (Athens, OH United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Tales from the Teachers' Lounge: An Irreverent View of What It Really Means To Be a Teacher Today (Hardcover)

Rob Wilder has a wicked pen. He skewers everyone--students, teachers, friends, family, and above all himself--with a biting sarcasm, but also with grace and humor. Reading him, you have the feeling that if he got ahold of you, he'd show all your foibles, but it wouldn't really sting. He'd have you dead to rights, and all you could do would be laugh. That and moan perhaps, at Wilder's exposure of the educational and social subtleties of the classroom, the underbelly of today's schools.

"Never give a Wilder a microphone or a podium," the author says. "Like an infomercial, we'll be on all night." That's fine with me, because I'll be up laughing. Wilder outdoes himself with his versions of student retellings of books often taught in high school: The Great Gatsby, Hamlet, Song of Myself, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, and others. Brilliant. I wish, in the tenth grade, I'd had a teacher half as devoted, humane and funny as Rob Wilder.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tales From The Teachers' Lounge, October 20, 2007

By	S. Machen (Santa Fe, NM United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Tales from the Teachers' Lounge: An Irreverent View of What It Really Means To Be a Teacher Today (Hardcover)

Rob Wilder's latest book is an up-close look at the life of a school teacher. Very funny and at times very poignant, Tales . . . tells us much about Wilder's own experiences in the classroom and about that rare mix of humor, drama, knowledge of one's subject matter, and love of kids that makes a great teacher. I recommend it highly!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Oozing Sarcasm and Self-deprecation, October 17, 2008

By	Franklin the Mouse (Gorham, ME USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

Mr. Wilder's book is chock full of funny and creative metaphorical comparisons. However, there are few moments of serious introspection. For the most part, his memoir is a light, whimsical compilation of misadventures in the teaching world. In one chapter (pages 66-76 in paperback edition), the author either fails to recognize or felt it wasn't important to elaborate that two, "eccentric" outcasts in one of his classes were clearly Asperger (high-functioning autism) kids. The stories of dealing and observing these two students were very funny, but also a missed opportunity to educate the reader about autism. And that is the crux of Mr. Wilder's book. Lots of laughs if you like your humor somewhat caustic, but chances are you won't walk away from this volume being more enlightened about the teaching profession. This type of humor isn't for everyone. I found the book enjoyable and a nice, brief distraction from more serious works.