Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be inside today’s public schools as a teacher? Do you think your perspective as a parent allows for an understanding of the inner workings of a school, especially the demands put upon teachers from all directions? The author of No Teachers Left Behind, writing under the alias HBF Teacher (that’s for ‘Hopeful but Frustrated’), takes this matter into his or her own hands by presenting readers with an inside view of an American public middle school, complete with a large cast of teachers, administrators and students who, for better or for worse, are often portrayed in ways that have sadly become the more common stereotypes.
For the sake of full disclosure, my own personal perspective on the current state of our public school system is not always very positive. I speak as a parent of an elementary school student (in a local public school), as well as the wife of a former public high school teacher. We live in an urban setting, with overcrowded schools and an ever-persistent eye on the almighty test scores (which is of course, a direct watch on school funding, sadly). So, like all readers, I went into this book with my own personal baggage, and I wondered where it would take me.
Told mostly through a series of email correspondences, intermixed with brief interactions among the key players of the school setting as well as short poetry pieces, No Teachers Left Behind doesn’t paint a rosy picture. From the ridiculously double-standarded principal, whose emails left a literal bad taste in my mouth, to the combative work environment that pits support staff and teachers against each other, this setting is troublesome to say the least. The expectations for teachers to manage their students with little administrative support for discipline referrals (even in-school suspensions count against the attendance record, which of course is taken into account when determining a school’s Adequate Yearly Progress), got to be so overwhelming that I found myself asking my husband if the events could be realistic at all. Sadly, his responses were affirmative time and time again, either from direct experiences or from stories he’s heard in the field.
Is there a degree of exaggeration or absurdity in this book? Absolutely, I won’t deny that, but I don’t think the entire book should be lumped into that category. There are fault lines in our entire public education system, and they are deeply embedded. The cracks are visible at the surface, though, if we take the time to examine the actual school environments. HBF Teacher offers up a fictional account of the experiences of today’s teachers, with the reader left wondering exactly how much is actually fictional.
Dawn is slowly coming out from under a huge pile of books, and is trying to simultaneously maintain an online presence at my thoughts exactly.
I recently read No Teachers Left Behind, and as the best friend of a middle school teacher, I found this book to be right on point in some areas. As Dawn mentioned in her review, you can only wonder how much of HBF Teacher’s writing is real while praying that most of it is untrue.
This sounds fascinating. As the wife of a public high school math teacher and a former teacher myself I just wish we could throw the tests out the window!!! The kids don’t care about the results and it just reflects poorly on the teachers. There’s so much more depth to what goes on in schools than the government will ever be able to regulate. I applaud the idea of trying to make all schools equal, but until we can pay good teachers enough to stay in the system, lower the class sizes, and really care about the kids, I’m afraid this broken system is all we’ve got.
I enjoyed hearing your thoughts on this book. I was wondering what your take on it would be. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for this review. I did not know this book existed. These things definitely happen. I have been a teacher for over 3 years now and I have had a wonderful principal and I have had a principal who could care less. The school system is full of hypocrisy, greed, and the school board (which runs things down here in NC) is full of people who have no children in the public school system so they are far removed from the problems. Parents are the worst, no offense. But pre-k and kindergarten teachers, like myself, often say teaching wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the parents. (We typically interact with parents on a daily basis at this age.) This book may be exaggerations, but it may not be. When I was in a practicum while still in college, I worked in a school where the principal was stealing money from the school. Yes. It happens very often, and unfortunately, a disproportionate amount happens in disadvantaged schools. I may have to read this book just to see what this teacher experienced. Again, thanks for the review.