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Losing My Faculties: A Teacher's Story
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
As he's finishing grad school in the early 1990s, the author applies for positions in the Boston public school system; he wants to teach in an urban school, to work "with kids who might have their lives changed by me." In this absorbing, almost journal-like memoir, his second, Halpin (It Takes a Worried Man) shares his nine-year roller-coaster ride of life as a high school English teacher in Boston and two nearby suburbs. Halpin writes passionately about his work, from the highs of watching students "translate" scenes from Shakespeare-"One group... does a great job of turning Romeo and Juliet into something like Beavis and Juliet"-to the lows of not being able to control a room full of disruptive teenagers. He doubts himself and thinks about quitting. "I can't believe how much I suck at this job," he writes at one point (suck, one of the author's favorite words, appears a little too often). Halpin's story doesn't have a conventional happy ending, but he does accomplish his initial goals. In what he describes as "probably the best class I will ever have," Halpin reads Wordsworth's poem "We Are Seven" with a class of academically struggling juniors in Newcastle, Mass. "They speak honestly and movingly, and, best of all from the perspective of an English teacher, they keep coming back to the poem," he writes. "By the end of the class, they have done as thorough a job analyzing the poem as I could have hoped for." Though the memoir lags a bit in the middle, especially when Halpin recounts his frustrations with colleagues and school administrators, this chronicle provides an irreverent yet earnest look at the vocation its author clearly loves.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
A 10-year veteran of the Boston Public School system, Halpin shares his recollections with the kind of humor and affection reserved for a family scrapbook. Starting with his days as an exploited (read "free") student teacher, Halpin describes the trepidation he felt at entering a classroom for the first time and his often failed attempts to keep his rambunctious students focused on the business of learning. He shares his most fallible moments (like when a student nails him with a basketball during a lesson and he fails to respond.) We feel his frustration when, exhausted from trying to commute more than 50 miles to work and still come up with daily lesson plans, he breaks down crying to his wife, fearful he'll never measure up. How gratifying it is, then, to witness his golden moments in the classroom when he connects with his students, and they respond in turn with enthusiasm and ideas. A joyous trek through the memories of one dedicated teacher. Terry Glover
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews
As he's finishing grad school in the early 1990s, the author applies for positions in the Boston public school system; he wants to teach in an urban school, to work "with kids who might have their lives changed by me." In this absorbing, almost journal-like memoir, his second, Halpin (It Takes a Worried Man) shares his nine-year roller-coaster ride of life as a high school English teacher in Boston and two nearby suburbs. Halpin writes passionately about his work, from the highs of watching students "translate" scenes from Shakespeare-"One group... does a great job of turning Romeo and Juliet into something like Beavis and Juliet"-to the lows of not being able to control a room full of disruptive teenagers. He doubts himself and thinks about quitting. "I can't believe how much I suck at this job," he writes at one point (suck, one of the author's favorite words, appears a little too often). Halpin's story doesn't have a conventional happy ending, but he does accomplish his initial goals. In what he describes as "probably the best class I will ever have," Halpin reads Wordsworth's poem "We Are Seven" with a class of academically struggling juniors in Newcastle, Mass. "They speak honestly and movingly, and, best of all from the perspective of an English teacher, they keep coming back to the poem," he writes. "By the end of the class, they have done as thorough a job analyzing the poem as I could have hoped for." Though the memoir lags a bit in the middle, especially when Halpin recounts his frustrations with colleagues and school administrators, this chronicle provides an irreverent yet earnest look at the vocation its author clearly loves.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
A 10-year veteran of the Boston Public School system, Halpin shares his recollections with the kind of humor and affection reserved for a family scrapbook. Starting with his days as an exploited (read "free") student teacher, Halpin describes the trepidation he felt at entering a classroom for the first time and his often failed attempts to keep his rambunctious students focused on the business of learning. He shares his most fallible moments (like when a student nails him with a basketball during a lesson and he fails to respond.) We feel his frustration when, exhausted from trying to commute more than 50 miles to work and still come up with daily lesson plans, he breaks down crying to his wife, fearful he'll never measure up. How gratifying it is, then, to witness his golden moments in the classroom when he connects with his students, and they respond in turn with enthusiasm and ideas. A joyous trek through the memories of one dedicated teacher. Terry Glover
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews
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