How to Survive in Your Native Land (Innovators in Education) 1st Edition

by Jack Herndon (Author)

18 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0867094084

ISBN-10: 0867094087

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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.

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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

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.

Age Range: 5 - 17 years
Grade Level: Kindergarten - 12
Series: Innovators in Education
Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Heinemann; 1st edition (April 21, 1997)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0867094087
ISBN-13: 978-0867094084
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.4 x 8.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 18 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,288,979 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2312 in Books > Education & Teaching > Schools & Teaching > Education Theory > Reform & Policy
- #18687 in Books > Education & Teaching > Schools & Teaching > Instruction Methods
- #26205 in Books > Textbooks > Education

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Thomas P. Burwell

What is real education?

January 10, 2008

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Does education mean living up to other people's standards? How to write a "proper" term-paper, a "proper" lab report, how make a presentation that will meet your boss's expectations? If so, our school system is doing an okay job, and would be even more efficient if the government started using vouchers.

But Herndon would disagree. He understands that true education = creativity, and that true education only occurs when teachers act like humans instead of "Providers Of Things To Do" or "Entertainers" (pg. 44). That true education only occurs when student participation is voluntary, when they are not pressured or required to do anything, and when teachers are genuinely interested in what's being talked about (meaning they would think about in their free time) so that the creativeness the teacher has for the subject can then be freely spread to the students; just as interests spread between friends. Not that the System doesn't have its place! Just recognize that what usually occurs in schools today is training; preparation for the corporate economy. And not education.

His advice?

"resist every day all the apparatus of the school which was created in order to enable you to manage and evaluate a group, since it is just that management which destroyed the kids you have in your class." - (pg. 156)
"... but you can only live that kind of life in there if you are willing to realize that the dicta of the school are crazy but that at the same time the kid's life is connected to the school in complicated ways and you'd better offer him the chance to take any part of it he wants or has to." - (pg. 75)

Words for any teacher to live by.

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Herndon Gets it - what more can I say?

February 17, 2012

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When I first began teaching in the 1970s, this book was considered the mainstream classic of how to conduct yourself as a teacher. I left teaching for 14 years, and in 1987 picked the book up again when I re-entered the profession. I taught in San Francisco then, too, at a middle school entirely similar to the one Herndon was in 15 years earlier. How do I know that this is a relevant book? Although I read it just once, I can remember some of his insights almost verbatim.

"Time to put my feet up on the desk. Time to ask a kid about his life and how he was doing...Time to do all those things I had never taken time to do before." (paraphrase)

Education is the process of creating equity, creating memories, creating a sense of belonging in children. We spend 6 hours a day together(teachers & kids) for 13 years (k-12) and that should count for something. And that something is a sense of worth and a sense of hope that we too have a place in a better world. The subjects, the grades, the college apps - all the stuff that creates so much noise - is just that. Something else. Not the real thing. Not why people teach.

If you want to teach - and you find that this book "grabs" you - it's probably because you want to make more real, more actual, more tangible - the interactions you have with children in the classroom. This book delivers the "thinking" behind such an approach. I throw my 5 stars on the pile too.

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Doug M.

A junior high teacher shares the lessons he learned from his class.

May 3, 2015

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An honest and funny memoir of the daily experiences of a classroom teacher and his students.

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K Woot

Speak the Truth to Power

February 18, 2008

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In this age of standardized tests and reading programs, Herndon's clarion call sounds louder than ever. This is one of the best books written about teaching and education and should be required reading for every college teaching education course. It has certainly inspired me and I hope it inspires other teachers to speak and write truthfully about their experiences and stand up to a system that increasingly views our amazing kids as a set of numbers and data.

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B.A.G.

still good

May 22, 2014

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should be required reading and discussion for anyone becoming a teacher. I have given this book as a gift often.

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Robb Kushner

One of my all-time favorite books

February 9, 2001

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This book really says it like it is. Even though written decades ago, the basic tenets it lays out regarding schools and life within them still ring true.
James Herndon is a top notch writer and a notable explorer in the field of education. He is one of my heroes.

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Paul

Great writing, vulgar content.

September 1, 2015

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

The writing is good, as is the understanding and exposition of people, but the language is rough and I put the book down when he began describing incidents of kids passing pornographic pictures of themselves around the class. There's a trend out there that bundles vulgarity with art and it's not a trend I can go along with. There is so much non-vulgar subject matter for a teacher to write a book on. I didn't see the need for such a focus as this.

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Mocha4Man

Required College Reading.

July 31, 2014

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This was one of the many required readings that i needed for my undergraduate community college classes. Unfortunately the copy that i needed was incorrectly shipped to me. I was given a book on 16th century art instead.

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Most recent customer reviews

Joy

Use for starting a fire - otherwise save your money.

Imagine a guy smoking pot who then writes a book about teaching kids. It makes that much sense.

Published on March 1, 2016

Karma

Raises the bar on good nonfiction

I have nothing original to say, I only wanted to throw another five-star endorsement on the heap.
This book is so good that it made me want to be pickier about the books I...Read more

Published on March 30, 2008

Sam Yulish

If I Read this Again I'll Start Crying

James Herndon, in my opinion, has written the two best books about education that I have ever read. The Way It Spozed To Be and How to Survive in Your Native Land were used in...Read more

Published on September 21, 2007

Christina Dunigan

Briliant, droll, true to life

Herndon at his best. In this charming -- if sometimes bawdy -- little book, Herdon brings his students alive.Read more

Published on May 24, 2006

Jacob J. Hartog

Stranger in your own land

When I read this book, I was a crappy teacher in a crappy school in the South Bronx. Then I read it and read it, five or ten times, felt like someone had given me the key to the...Read more

Published on April 13, 2006

LD654321

How to Survive In Your Native Land

I bought a used copy perhaps 12 years ago. His writing has really stayed with me. Over the years I've read the book 3 times, called friends to read them chapters, given copies...Read more

Published on December 24, 2003

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