On the front of this book, in a review by Laurie Notaro, she says "I laughed out loud". I am on page 114, & I have yet to find anything that even resembles humor. I purchased this to give to a friend who is a second grade teacher, thinking she could relate to everyday happenings, such as kids talking out of turn, saying funny things, etc. You know, the kinds of things all teachers encounter.
But I am too embarrassed to give it to her. If she encountered anything in school even vaguely similar to what this book talks about, she would have quit long ago, I am quite sure. Yes, the author taught higher grades, but I simply can't imagine any teacher having to submit to such vulgar talk and disrespect, plus completely inappropriate comments directly to the author, in her classroom, concerning how sexy she was.
Perhaps most ridiculous of all was when the author saw a couple having sex in a staircase while classes were in session,
and what actions were taken? The assistant principal had a conference with the parents, & the mother of the girl tried to argue that the students weren't doing anything wrong, since it doesn't say in the school rulebook that students can't have sex! She was correct! The author said the school needed to add a rule, and specifically indicate the location where sexual activity is forbidden.
Much as I hate to, I am going to use this time-worn saying, "You've got to be kidding!"
If her examples of incompetent administrators and out-of-control students (and parents) is any indication of what is going on in many of our schools, our country is in seriously deep trouble.
And where is this school located, so any sane parents, with potential students, might avoid even considering the idea of moving there?
I am going to ask for a refund.
Update: Dec 15, 2018
After reading past page 114 , where I could find no humor whatsoever, the author shed a lot of light on what's wrong with our educational system; clueless administrators, endless catering to ridiculous helicopter parents, ineffective (actually, missing) discipline, and perhaps most of all, control of education by the federal government.
The author points out why schools strictly follow the Common Core standards: To get federal money. She mentions that out of the 135 authors of Common Core, only seven were actual classroom teachers, and none of those had any training in early childhood education. But she got to the heart of the problem by stating that the Common Core-aligned test was designed by the for-profit company, Pearson, which was paid $360 million of taxpayer money for that.
Texas alone pays Pearson $500 million for the contract with Pearson, a company that takes in $9 billion annually.
I could go on & on, but I will simply change my rating for the book from one star to 5, something I have never done before.
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