Sunday, August 27, 2017

Seeing Things in a Different Light

I promised you a book review today. I like to keep my promises, when possible. The thing is, I really don't want to write about this book. But a promise is a promise.

I was introduced to "Teacher Misery" on Instagram. I randomly came across it one day, and it gave me a chuckle. Inappropriate? Sometimes. But it gave me a chuckle. You see, there's some humor that only a teacher in this day and age would get. "Teacher Misery" has a tendency to post things that I'm sure some teachers would like to say, but never would...for fear of losing their jobs. I'm not quite sure how she gets away with it, but...more power to her. Everyone these days seems to have the right to free speech...except teachers.

(Yes, this IS a book review. I'm getting there.)

After finding "Teacher Misery" on Instagram, I then discovered she wrote a book. I was intrigued. I figured it would be a collection of teacher stories to give me a bit of a dark laugh at the end of my long school days. I was wrong. Boy,...was I wrong.

Teacher Misery: Helicopter Parents, Special Snowflakes & Other Bullshit by Jane Morris (not her real name, of course) is a collection of teacher stories that would scare anyone off from teaching. The stories did not make me happy, they made me sad. They shocked me and made me shake my head. Do I believe them? Yes, I have no doubt every word is true, other than names that have been changed to protect the guilty...and the innocent. 

I bought the book expecting to laugh at the ridiculousness of our public education system in these United States of America. What I found myself doing instead? I found myself thanking my lucky stars that I've never had those types of experiences in my ten years of teaching. And I can honestly say that as lousy as some of my own public education was growing up, it was never that bad. Ever.

On a good note, the first week of school just ended on Friday, and it was a really great week for me. I can't help but thank Jane Morris for making it even more special to me than usual. In light of the things she has come up against, it made me look at my own school in a different light -  the kind of light that illuminates everything wonderful about where I work. I've always loved my job, always loved my students, but there are days that the red tape and bureaucracy of it all almost smothers me...

After reading this book? I will still stand up for what I think is right for my students, hold those difficult parent meetings, and I will still roll my eyes at how the public school system expects us to do all that they expect us to do in the limited time we have to do it,...but I will also give thanks, every day, that I work in a school where respect is required from everyone and students are loved and cared for, as they should be, and where most people try to give their best to make the world a better place.

God bless all teachers, wherever you are!


2 comments:

  1. Hi! Since you loved my first book I thought you might be interested in my new book Crap My Students Make. This is a hilarious collection of authentic student work. From elementary kids' hysterically inappropriate misspellings and drawings to high school kids and their inappropriate essays such as "How to Twerk," this substantive masterpiece covers it all!

    Crap My Students Make is a curated collection that combines hundreds of outrageous, never-before-seen student artifacts as well as favorites from my popular Teacher Misery instagram account.

    Check it out on Amazon!

    Thank you!

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