Book Review

 

‘You Have to Go to School…You‘re the Teacher’: Book Review

Introduction:

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. (Francis Bacon’s Proverb). Most probably, a book ‘You Have to Go to School…You‘re the Teacher’ written by Renee Rosenblum  Lowden with Felicia Lowden Kimmel, serves the purpose of Bacon’s idea of  ‘some few books to be chewed and digested’. This is a handbook for the teacher which gives many classroom management strategies to make the teaching job easier and full of fun as claimed by the writers. Basically, the writer sees the teaching activities from many prospectives and shares tips from her lived experience of teaching career. She has not only shared the tips how to make classroom activities effective but also has focused on the methods of handling child and dealings parents at school along with staffs.

Summary: Content

In this book there are over 300 strategies on how to rapport with students and manage everyday school problem. Book includes many interesting topics like ‘How to begin an academic year, helping students responsible, Homework Strategies, Safety drills, How to communicate honesty and fairness, How to build students’ confidence up, How to prevent confrontation and showdowns, How to work effectively with parents and school staffs and many more.

The book consists eight parts with many headings and sub-headings of everyday school problem and proposes concise and convincing solutions and strategies.  For instance, Part V of the book has the topic of ‘Building Confidence through Earned Praise.’ Under this topic, she writes the issues of Self-Esteem Strategies with many sub-topics like “Praise, Praise, praise- But Don’t over praise”, in which she writes that students have to be motivated through appreciation which rarely we do. Likewise, in the section “Don’t Over grade”, she suggests not to award full marks to the students as it is better to leave a room for improvement for next time. If student is awarded with 96 marks, he/she feels still there is room for the improvement and he/she tends to work hard. Similarly, she encourages the teacher to pick up some positive traits of a child and share with the guardian frequently. Very often teacher shares only complain about a child and child is fed up with negative remarks of the teachers and parents. It demoralizes him/her. If the teacher develops the habit of sharing about child’s good attempt and performance with the parents, it not only boosts child’s spirit up but also pleases the parents. Every tip she writes here look very simple but plays important roles in shaping the child’s behavior.

Critique:  About Strengths

It is written in short paragraphs with subtitles which provide the opportunities to start the book from any pages of reader’s interest. It provides solutions to many situational problems which very often every teacher confronts in his/her teaching career. The language of the book is very lucid, simple and persuading and any teacher hardly needs to consult a dictionary for the vocabularies.

The most important thing about the book I felt is its strategies to treat a child psychologically with love and care, understanding their true feelings and without hurting them. She convinces the teacher to be like a psychologist, a therapist, a guardian, Counselor and sometimes, simply a facilitator. The book makes the reader realize many roles of the teacher in junior school. As the book is fully based on life experience of a teacher, whatever tips she shares look very practical and worth reading. This book can be beneficial not only to the teachers, head teachers but also to the trainers.

Critique – About Weaknesses

While talking about the weaknesses of the book, it is written in European context and may not be absolutely relevant in Nepali context. Every solution proposed for the problems are based on her experience. As a result, her subjective recommendation may not be applicable to all universally. Likewise, there could have been several ways to tackle a single problem, but she gives only her prospective. In modern time, every prescription demands research base result but her tips are absolutely based on her experience. Therefore, the reader may question whether her tips have validity. Last but not the least, she has included her daughter’s as a co-writer but discloses the secret that she has a very less contribution in the book. Is it ethical to go to that extent?

About book:

It has been published by Corwin Press, California in 2008. It has 178 pages on acid free paper and has already gone through the 3^rd edition. It contains two pages of appreciation from many scholars which also gives window view of the book in the beginning. Eleven pages of content with sub-topic give opportunity to select the topic easily before reading. Reading preface and words from the writer give the detail information of the book for the first time. Though there is not any reference citation, the book gives the list of some other books that is also beneficial for the readers to get similar types of book.

Conclusion: Recommendations

It is one of the best seller books and deserves the corner of the school library to be read by every teacher. I am highly impressed by the content of the book and its presentation. It has opened my eyes in several ways and has left me with a great impact. The book has changed my approach and methods of classroom activities. I even have gifted this book as a birthday present to my teacher colleagues. I personally, recommend reading this book before entering into the classroom as a teacher so that they can handle so many situational problems easily in junior high schools.

Reference 

Lowden, R.R. and Kimmel, F.L. (2008). You have to go to school…you‘re the teacher.         California: Sage Publications.