The science of folklore Book

Though this is about an elementary school teacher, there are a few strategies that are applicable to high school teachers as well.

And now it's time for a rant.

I'm sure the author is a great teacher and his kids learn a lot from him.

But--and this is very important--this is yet another book which describes a teacher as a saint, with sanctified kids, who sacrifices his entire life for his students.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing, and certainly Rafe Esquith seems to have done something right in his school. However, I resent the implication (one so often used in both books and movies about inspirational teachers) that a teacher's life begins and ends in his classroom.

How about a little moderation?

Sure, I can be devoted to my students and teach them to the best of my ability and inspire them to be all they can be. But I shouldn't be made to feel guilty because I want to have a personal life too.

In addition, I don't actually live in a community in which every student is invested in his education. This is yet another book in which the kids JUST CAN'T WAIT for school to start, and they get there early and stay late and work beyond their grade level and blahblahblah.

That is not a brand of student I am familiar with. Where are MY industrious little bunnies who want to read Shakespeare or write ten page essays or diagram sentences JUST BECAUSE?? I could be the best teacher in the world, too, if I didn't have to spend half my class time waking kids up or telling them to pick up their social lives after class or repeating the page number of the book 547 times.

I guess what I'm saying is ... this is a book for pre-teachers and college professors who've never been in a real classroom. Teachers in the trenches will read this and question its practical application.