trapped in the system

Reading with Patrick: A Teacher, a Student, and a Life-Changing Friendship by Michelle Kuo
Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: memoir
Review: Michelle Kuo joined Teach for America after graduating college, and was sent to a last-chance school for "problem" students in the Arkansas Delta.  She is able to feel that she is doing something positive for her students, sometimes through merely showing that she cares about their academic success.  After she leaves Teach for America to go to law school, she learns that one student, for whom she had very high hopes, has been arrested for murder.  She returns to the Delta to find that Patrick has lost almost all of the reading and writing skills he had learned in her class.  Feeling that her calling is to help him while he's in jail, she puts her life on hold and returns to the Delta to help him.  They embark on a course of reading and writing together while they await his trial.

Kuo pulls no punches in talking about the conditions of Patrick's incarceration and the attitude of the justice system.  Mostly she reports on the institutionalized racism that trap her students in a never-ending cycle of poverty, crime, drugs, and hopelessness.  At the same time that Kuo tries to help Patrick, she must deal with the expectations of her own family, and make hard decisions about her own future.  Through it all she is able to take a clear-eyed look at her own situation and those of her students.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

teach passionately

American Teacher: Heroes in the Classroom by Katrina Fried
Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: non-fiction
Review: Anyone who's been lucky enough to have a really good teacher knows how inspiring they can be and what a gift it is to be in their classroom.  So I expected a book that collects the stories of 50 "extraordinary" teachers to be similarly inspiring.  Unfortunately, this book didn't exactly inspire me.  Each teacher gets 3 or 4 pages in which to tell their story, and they are all informative in their own way, but it's clear that simple words on a page aren't the best medium for most of these teachers.  This should come as no surprise, as it's their dynamic natures and imaginative thinking that have earned them their "extraordinary" label.  Most of the teachers couldn't be clearer in their belief that you must teach to the student, and not to the test, and meeting the needs of each student in their classroom requires more energy and enthusiasm than can be demonstrated between the pages of a book.  But there is one thing that they all communicated clearly: the best teachers are the ones who have a passion for the profession, and every person included in this book has that passion in spades.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book free from the publisher in exchange for this review.

downright uplifting

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Genre: non-fiction

Review: Greg Mortenson has unquestionably achieved something great in his quest to build schools for children in poor and remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. And this book is unquestionably a great way to learn about Mortenson and his efforts. David Oliver Relin is to be credited with making not just Greg and his work accessible to readers, but also the myriad people and some of the complex politics of central Asia. Relin meshes anecdotes about mountain climbing, fundraising, and actually building schools into a seamless story. This story, dealing as it does with poverty, war, and serious lack of opportunity, could have been very depressing, but Mortenson's goal, coupled with Relin's writing, make it actually a very hopeful one that is enjoyable to read.