3 comments about Chasing Hellhounds: A Teacher Learns from His Students.

1. very well written. Favorite passages include the following.
   
   It is the unchanging school ballet - order and authority aligned against limit testing and restlessness. 18
   
   (on his in-class "library") Every year, a certain percentage of the collection walks out from under my porous record-keeping system, but I console myself with visions of these books on bedside tables or sharing valuable shelf space with Al Green and Boys II Men. 20
   
   For three years, I watched some wonderful word magicians ignite children's interest in language, instill in them the realization that words can be pleasurable, not the leaded mallets with which they had been bludgeoned into muteness in the previous classrooms. 42
   
   There was a second group of parents and kids who desperately needed the school and were determined to make it work. These were the misfits, kids unsuited for what passed for the normal teenage world. For them, the goal was not so much achievement as sheer survival, negotiating the treacherous straits of early adolescence en route to a less judgmental, more tolerant adulthood. 67
   
   The work of teachers arouses as little curiosity from the general public as that of garbagemen and mechanics. Perhaps the fact that all of us have spent at least twelve years in the thrall of one teacher or another is sufficient to convince us that we already know all we ever care to know about teaching. 81
   
   (the classic school desks) Is there an official name for those cursed objects with the fixed arm on which to rest your test paper or your binder? Strapped into this contraption, every man is alone, pitting his triumphs against those of his adversaries, never to reach out and join forces with them. 83
   
   Where does the teacher's desk go, and what does that tell us about the guy who operates in this space? Does he hold court from behind or does he just use it as a place to unload his papers? 83
   
   the whole thing on selecting books for the class year, pages 84-92
   
   As my lists of possibilities proliferates, I get excited over the prospect of introducing some of the books I love to an audience innocent of them. 84
   
   I'm partial to books that open out onto other vistas - literary, political, psychological. 85
   
   In general, I don't believe in textbooks for English students at any level. There are real books students can and should be reading regardless of age or ability. Textbooks will never produce literate adult readers. 85
   
   ...when it's clear that even at the early grade levels, the way to promote reading is by exposing kids to the plethora of good books capable of exciting them about reading. 86
   
   Students need to inhale great quantities of literature in their school years in order to get a reasonable sampling of the universe of inspired and inspiring writing they can choose from as independent adult readers. 86
   
   Providing a good education means attuning students to the fact that there are a richness and diversity of cultures, experiences, and styles that await... 88
   
   ... white students need to know of Ralph Ellison and Toni Morrison as much as black students should experience Dickens and Edith Wharton... we have an obligation to stretch and extend students beyond the level on which they come to us. 89
   
   (on a downside of "young adult fiction") Once students are fed on the bouncing first-person colloquial... whose voices mesh seamlessly with those of their readers, they have little tolerance for an unfamiliar voice, an embellished vocabulary, an alien style. Students are all too often irritated by language different in any way from what washes around them every day. 89
   
   Although fantasy literature at its best can be imaginative and entertaining, it is short of characterization and detail and long on action. 89
   
   The net effect of the proliferation of juvenile and young adult fiction is to reduce students' tolerance for reading cloaked in unfamiliar styles, spun out in denser detail, or following unfamiliar characters. Children are the world's true conservatives. The want exactly what they've already had. Dickens and Shakespeare are weird. the Sound and the Fury and Death of a Salesman, although they're more contemporary, are also weird because of their nonlinear structure. ...but students are generally programmed to expect lockstep chronological writing. 90
   
   Good teaching is an odd mix of artistry, vulnerability, and technical prowess. We reach down into our own interests and experience to sketch our plans... 95
   
   (on helping one student edit her work) ...I tried to explain that all this melodrama wasn't necessary to make a good story. Smaller, more subtle things could happen. Characters could change in more interesting ways... 97
   
   I was awestruck. Kristen had made a literary discovery on her own that was beyond the reach of a lot of adult writers: the significance of voice and point of view in fiction and the ways in which the final product is shaped by the choice of who tells the story. 98-9
   
   (on standardized achievement tests) ... but one with potentially disastrous implications for education. First it defines the goals of teaching and education in an unacceptable narrow way (the content of the test is what should be taught). 100
   
   The important thing is that the kids got to see me in a role and context different from the one in which they encounter me every day. I think it's enormously important for everyone to be able to see the people in their lives acting in many different roles. One of the prime virtues of small-town life ...106
   
   Let's not forget that it's a two-way street, too. ... so often we see our kids only in their role as student and forget what a small part of their lives that is and how many other dimensions to their behavior we're not seeing. 107
   
   Fortunately, teaching is more similar to baseball than it is to the Olympics. When you have a bad day in baseball, you're right back in the ballpark the next day with a chance to make adjustments. An Olympic flop may be forever. 121
   
   Why do we read except to live symbolically all the lives we will never live, to feel compassion for characters who, although they are not us, share with us a common humanity? The empathy reflected in these student journals and in the class discussions that sprang from them confirms the need to put aside our timidity and risk introducing unheard voices to our classes. 134
   
   (upon being challenged by a parent that all the books were dark and gloomy) After playing back the reading lists... With very few exceptions, the books both young adult and adult, that appeared on my reading lists have been a dark lot - tales of mental illness, suicide, racial hatred, religious prejudice, sexual abuse, divorce, and death. But in spite of the depressing subject matter, the books are often uplifting testimonials to the power of the human spirit to survive adversity and even be ennobled by it. An encounter with social and religious prejudices leaves a character not crushed but strong, and clearer about who he or she is; a family wrestling with the suicide of a child is drawn closer by the bond of their common tragedy; a sexually abused child blossoms into a renowned writer. 141
   
   We have to keep in mind Tolstoy's famous dictum that happy families are all alike; the stuff of serious literature has always been tragic... Most vital fiction draws on the underside of human relationships and human emotions. The lives of the students who inhabit our classrooms are suffused with the same dark material that is the stuff of literature. 141
   
   (when a call home to a student's grandmother had a deeper effect than expected) During a year of journal writing and truncated conversations, the story of Arthur's amazement that I had cared enough to call home, that I was upset by his departure, emerged. This simple gesture was enough to draw him back to school. 205
   
   (in discussion with a student who liked popular novels, such as those by Grisham) It's taken some effort of both our parts for Monica to arrive at this formulation of the difference between escape reading and literature.... you'll see how hard it is to communicate what sets enduring art apart from airport books. 216



2. Teaching is one of the most difficult jobs. When you read Marvin Hoffman's beautifully written book, however, you realize that it is a noble profession and one where a dedicated, insightful teacher truly has a profound impact of the lives of young people. This book is inpirational. The depth of Mr. Hoffman's humanity comes through the vignettes. I work in a school and whenever I need a reminder of why I entered education, I pick up "Chasing Hellhounds..." It is outstanding!



3. Teaching is one of the most difficult jobs. When you read Marvin Hoffman's beautifully written book, however, you realize that it is a noble profession and one where a dedicated, insightful teacher truly has a profound impact of the lives of young people. This book is inpirational. The depth of Mr. Hoffman's humanity comes through the vignettes. I work in a school and whenever I need a reminder of why I entered education, I pick up "Chasing Hellhounds..." It is outstanding!

No comments about Promise of a Dream: Remembering the Sixties.

1 comments about The Search for Thomas F. Ward, Teacher of Frederick Delius.

1. Since his achievements as a music publisher are familiar, may I recall that Don Gillespie's biography is a masterpiece of historical recreation--personal and yet factual, detailed and yet thorough--about an obscure but influential music figure in American music a century ago. For those who don't already know, Ward taught Delius, assigned to manage a plantation in northern Florida, more than he learned at the Leipzig music academy a few years later. One charm of Gillespie's book is incorporating his research efforts into the narrative. Indeed, were I a professor of graduate musicology, this is the sort of book I would give to my best students as an example of how to do uniquely valuable scholarship with otherwise forgotten eminences. The awards this book did not receive upon publication are hereby discredited

3 comments about Down the Mississippi With Stinky: 2 Women, a Canoe, and a Kitten (Wisconsin).

1. I personally know Dorie Brunner and she is a fascinating woman. However, the book shown here is not the recent one. She changed publishers and the second print is fantastic. Be sure to track it down!! She is so much happier with the second print.



2. What an interesting book, I loved it!!
   Dorie and Lou's canoe trip from Lake Bemidji in Minnesota to the city of New Orleans is an exciting river adventure. They experienced a number of hair-raising situations that made the book anything but boring. While dealing with the unforgiving weather and the unpredictable river, they meet some friendly people who helped them out along the way. And confronted some who didn't, like a skunk, a thief and other campsite intruders.
   It's an excellent read for those who love camping, canoeing, river stories and even cats. Dorie gives a good description of their journey and preparations. Even though it took place back in the summer of 1960 it's still very informative and interesting. Especially for those who have a fancy for doing something like this.

   A pet, such as a cat, can teach its human companions so many things about life. Not to mention how the silly antics of a cat can get its owners into trouble. Just as Dorie and Lou found out when they adopted a lonely kitten early in their trip.
   Stinky the kitten is a wonderful ingredient to their story, and it's likely that you wont find anything similar to this book anywhere else.




3. In 1960, Dorie Brunner and Lou Germann, two Wisconsin school teachers, decided to paddle the Mississippi from the headwaters at Lake Itasca, MN to New Orleans. Shortly into their adventure, they rescued a small kitten from the muck on the shore, and "Stinky" ended up traveling 2000+ miles downriver with them, becoming the focal point of much of their travels.
   
   What makes this book so charming is also what weakens it a bit...unlike most contemporary travel/adventure writers, Dorie and Lou obviously undertook this trip for the sheer adventure of it, not to race home and write a best seller. This is their authentic story, told by 74-year-old Dorie some 40 years later, drawing on memory...in fact, it doesn't appear that they even kept a journal. There is very little description of the places they visited, (though there are several photos) more about the daily hazards they faced, and Dorie apologizes for having long ago lost the names of people such as the tugboat captain who gave them a free ride for three days.

   But the heart of the book is Stinky's story. If you're one who believes that cats wander into our lives when we need them most, you'll find this to be a very charming read.

No comments about Elizabeth Palmer Peabody: A Reformer on Her Own Terms.

No comments about . . .Ending With A Flourish.

5 comments about The Girls in the Back of the Class.

1. I've worked in high schools for the past several years, and now am trying to get a job as a teacher. This book will be on my shelf to assist me with dealing with my class. Her methods are great! Too many teachers are so uptight that they are the cause of their own classroom problems. This author shows that great results can be had with compassion, a sprinkle of humor and a true love of her students.



2. What a wonderful book, for teachers, students, parents, anyone who might need to be reminded of how much we have to give, if we just "will". The author shows her love for her students in every passage, and it was well written, witty, and a wonderful read.
   
   Highly recommended as an entertaining, and insightful, book on teaching children who need love desperately.



3. I had the wonderful chance of reading this book. This book made me laugh and cry and jump in suspense. Ms. Johnson is a wonderful teacher who deserves awards beyong awards. The book taught me to see other parts of education. I really enjoyed reading this book and recommend it to anyone who is going into the education field



4. This should be required reading for every education major. I teach in an urban school; Ms. Johnson had something some of my young colleagues who quit teaching after a year do not have--resolve, persistance, and determination. There are no "bad" kids, there are kids who do "bad" things or come from "bad" environments, but as Ms. Johnson writes, it is possible to save the kids by giving a lot of ourselves.



5. I'm also an English teacher who have been teaching teen-agers for 10 years. Teaching teenagers is hard work, very stressful, depressed by themselves and the surrounding of them. I don't have such energy of love to my students as Louanne Johnson. But I can feel her pain in heart because I myself love my students. They are devils and angels at the same time. If they were devils, I could ignore them. If they were angels, I could just smile, do nothing, and just ignore them. But they are irresistable.

   I agree with Hal, her master teacher. He said to her, "Teenagers are supposed to be ungrateful little brutes. They're supposed to trample your tender feelings, break your heart. It's their job." He is always right. I wish he would be with me!!!

5 comments about When the Butterfly Stings.

1. This book is adequate--it is by no means "a masterpiece" as claimed by some of the reviewers (I question the impartiality of a few of the reviewers and wonder if they know Richard Kramer personally). The important subject matter of "When the Butterfly Stings" is diminished by over-exaggeration and tedious repetition. The first part is the fault of the author and the second part is due to poor editing. In addition to the many typos and spelling errors, this book is overly long at almost 500 pages, the bulk of which consists of the author raging against the institutions, cultural norms, and personality attributes he encounters while working as an Assistant English Teacher in Japan. I'm not saying Kramer was not justified in his outrage over what happened during his tenure in the JET program (he was), but the vital messages of the book were drowned out by his many tirades and tantrums, which were described ad nauseam.
   
   However, this book does have many merits. I enjoyed learning about the JET program from an insider's perspective. Kramer does a good job of describing his experiences with certain situations (ie., his awful apartment, restaurants, work drinking parties, the tea ceremony) and I also liked most of his character descriptions. Still, the negatives were enough that I can only give this book three stars.



2. This book is in my view a must read for anyone interested in Japan, living and teaching in Japan, modern Japanese society and the remnants of its past which still permeate through to modern society. As a Japanese married to a foreigner living and working in Osaka, I am amazed at how well this book captures some of the more intricate facets of Japanese society. I do agree with the prior reviewer that Kramer can be a bit indulgent in his writing, but one must look at the events described as more than a mere struggle of East vs. West. What Kramer describes is no less than the brutal murder of one of his students by another student while those around him did little to aid. He presents the opposing viewpoints to his own thoughts and theories in the form of discussions with friends and colleagues. He disagrees, strongly at times with the conclusions that they reach, but he does present their viewpoints, fairly and one hopes accurately. One must also remember that in the end he did bow (no pun intended) to the will of majority and the result was that his student was murdered! To call this book "culturally embarassing" is to do it a grave injustice. To call Kramer culturally ignorant and unappreciative of the opportunties afforded him is completely baseless. In the two years of time the book spans the author passionately devoted himself to learning Japanese and traditional arts such as shamisen and tea ceremony. In end the end the discussions and arguments he had with admnistration officials were in Japanese.
   
   The controvery created by this book is in my view one that is currently central to a struggle raging in Western philosophy and thought. Where is the acceptable line between being able to criticize and make better and being culturally insensitive and imperialistic? It is and always will be a fact and circumstance specific analysis, but Kramer in this book is in my view very safely on the correct side of the line in his analysis and conclusions. Personally, I wished he had been more aggressive in his approach as the end result may have been very different - as unfair as it may be to speculate on that score.
   
   Finally, I have noticed over the years that foreigners interested in Japan are largely of two types. There is the "Japanophile" - who loves all things Japanese, is extremely defensive of anyone who levels the slightest criticism against Japan, is extremely proud of being able to speak more than a few words of Japanese and fashions himself/herself a "hen na gaijin" or Japan expert. On the other hand there are those who despite outward appearances to the contrary, deep down despise Japan as backwards, and no attempts to understand it or embrace it. They use it for what they can e.g. money, physical pleasures, etc. Neither is a healthy view. To throw away what you have, the cultural perspective you are coming from in the mad and arrogant hope that you will find the meaning of another is pure folly. Kramer, in my view has the rare talent to take his knowledge and experience and apply it with understanding and decency in the attempt to understand and improve. Unfortunatley, both categories 1 and 2 gaijin in Japan may not like this book as each will compare it to his/her own experiences with distaste, but it remains an honest testament and a must read for anyone interested in modern and ancient Japan.



3. Arrogant, self-righteous, hot-headed and argumentative, are but a few of the traits exhibited by the author in his compare-and-contrast account of his experiences as a 2 year JET program participant. Kramer's accomplishment, though admirable, is colored by his culturally-uneducated interpretations of the differences between the American and Japanese society, educational systems, culture, and behavior.
   
   When facing challenges, Kramer's solutions often point out shortcomings, or apparent inferiority of not only the education system, and its bureaucracy, but social behavior of the Japanese themselves. While discounting interpretations, and advice of his fellow JETs with rural, and international education backgrounds, Kramer offers his perspectives through the biased lens of the apparent cosmopolitan, and inter-cultural upbringing afforded him by his New York City education.
   
   I strongly disagree with the conclusions of other reviewers that this book should be considered excellent literature, and that it is in any way objective. Kramer, though promising, will need to remove himself from his books, in order to gain them the credibility they need, and, yes, deserve, for a wider, let alone an international audience.
   
   As a JET cultural ambassador about to set off on his own adventure, I am embarrassed to be representing America in the footsteps of the attitudes expressed in this book. This book clearly illiterates the litany of reasons why Americans are seen as culturally-shallow, arrogant and imperialistic within the international community.
   
   Kramer's lack of objectivity in his experiences leave his writings vacant of the richness of cultural dynamics built over millennia of tradition in Japan, yielding a uniquely Japanese way of approaching conflict, and problems inherent in all aspects of a society. Kramer's book brutally robs Japan of its unique culture, in an Americanized attempt to analyze, and attribute the causes of the many preventable bullying incidents present in all schools, which resulted in the tragic murder of one of his students.
   
   If you are expecting great literature, or a deeper anthropological understanding of Japan's educational system, and its people, this book is not for you. If you are a JET seeking a glimpse of the kind of adventures awaiting you, this book indeed details a vivid account of the day-to-day life of a JET in Minamimatsuyama, Saitama prefecture. Kramer's unfortunately negative experiences, and biased opinions seem to overwhelm the numerous positive stories in his book. Do not let Kramer's overall negativity discourage you.
   
   If you read past Kramer's arrogance, his book is full of fascinating, and beautifully visualized anecdotes, which bring you vividly in contact with several individuals, which afforded the author a priceless glance at the magical world of language, tea ceremony, and musical tradition. It is in these authentic experiences and conversations with Japan's per-war generation that Kramer's masterfully remembered conversations, and vivid literary style really shine through.
   
   It is in moments where Kramer loses his basis for comparison does this book become a fascinating account of west meets east.
   
   Enjoy.



4. The description of this book does not do it justice. I read this on the advice of a friend not knowing what to expect (I am joining the JET program this year and I am a career 10+ teacher). What Kramer describes is a clear, objective picture of what to expect in terms of both living and teaching English in a junior high school in Japan. It is also hillariously amusing, with a great mix of anecdotes coupled with historic fact.

   And that is only half of the book. The second half deals with the problem of bullying. As the reader is informed and spellbound by on the very first page, one of Kramer's students murdered another in the classroom. He describes the reactions of the BD. Bd. of ED., other teachers, parents, and most of all himself through the events leading up to the tragedy and its aftermath. What I found most interesting was both how it reminded me of events of my own career in the US and also how with all things there often is no right answer. It is the process, the struggle that gives merit to the experience. This book guides, its teaches, it shows a picture of what to expect as a teacher not only in Japan but anywhere because at the end of the day, people are people.




5. Richard Kramer has written one of the most moving and beautiful narrations about the cultural dichotomy between post-WW II Japan and a post-Cold War American trying to bring comfort and love to a hard and unforgiving culture.

   I have read few books in my life that have moved me as much as "When the Butterfly Sings". Kramer has truly written a masterpiece - and I look forward to the broad distribution of this piece on a national/international level.

   Kramer is most definitely a superstar in the making. It is exciting to see a work of art like "When the Butterfly Sings" in anticipation of what is to come from this future literary genius.

No comments about Maria Montessori (Continuum Library of Educational Thought, Volume 7).

1 comments about Arthur Cayley: Mathematician Laureate of the Victorian Age.

1. You'll enjoy this book more if you're not mathematically knowledgeable because that's the audience it's written for. More than half the text deals with Cayley's mathematics but when the author feels it necessary to explain that a determinant is "a technical name given to a formula used to extract a single number from a spatial array", you can't expect deeper math topics to be treated with more than a superficial gloss. As a mathematician, I was disappointed in this book.