Publisher: 25th May 2021 by Pan Macmillan Australia
Pages: 416 pages
How I Read It: ARC book
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs | Nonfiction (Adult)
My Rating: 4 cups
Synopsis:
One teacher. One school. One year.
Brendan James Murray has been a high school teacher for more than ten years. In that time he has seen hundreds of kids move through the same hallways and classrooms - boisterous, angry, shy, big-hearted, awkward - all of them on the journey to adulthood.
In The School, he paints an astonishingly vivid portrait of a single school year, perfectly capturing the highs and lows of being a teenager, as well as the fire, passion and occasional heartbreak of being their teacher. Hilarious, heartfelt and true, it is a timeless story of a teacher and his classes, a must-read for any parent, and a tribute to the art of teaching.
My Thoughts
‘So much student learning lies somewhere beyond the documented curriculum, floating outside and around it, often uncontained by the walls of the classroom.’
The teacher in me was eager to read this fellow educationalist's view of working in the classroom - and a classroom none other than in my home town! The School chronicles a year in his classroom, in a public school located in a somewhat disadvantaged beachside suburb. This book is very much a dedication to some extraordinary students Brendan has taught over his career.
‘You will find these pages cluttered with souls jostling for your attention. That is the reality of teaching.’
All up it is clearly a well written book with Brendan capturing the many aspects of working at the ‘coal face’ of the classroom. It is a real and accurate portrayal of the many confronting aspects of teaching in today’s world. It is more than just a straight twelve month tale in one classroom - Brendan revisits his own time at school, takes us to a child escaping their village in Africa, to an adolescent cancer ward.
‘It was a juggling act, as teaching always is. Grace needed one-to-one support, but the rest of the students in the class were just as deserving of my time. I would not let any of them become invisible. I would not let them drift into the land of ghosts.’
There is not a shadow of a doubt that Brenda is a caring person and an exceptional teacher. Who else but such a human being as this would walk side by side with the many injustices and inequalities that confront so many in our world. Personally, I find that school is often a student’s ‘safe place’ where they know once they walk through that gate, they are in an environment that cares and provides support. Brendan expertly captures the very much holistic nature of educating today’s young. From a Kenyan refugee, to cancer sufferer, determined sportsman to those suffering from the anxiety of their final year exams - Breandan considerately covers it all.
‘The current problem, then, is not the data fixation itself, but the prioritisation of quantitative over qualitative data.’
I applaud Brendan highlighting certain controversial aspects of today’s education system - students who ‘just’ miss out on funding and denied support; and its evolution into a bungling bureaucratic system obsessed with data and scores that fails to often see the individual sitting in each and every classroom. The teacher has so many boxes to tick, forms to complete and methods to trial that more often than not, many are slipping through the cracks.
‘Our work gave her a protective standard of literacy, but it was not the standard she deserved or what her parents’ tax dollars should have provided. Wherever she is now, I can only apologise on behalf of a system that let her down.’
Congratulations Brendan on giving such a heartfelt voice to the seemingly many faceless, some of whom become lost in our system. To truthfully portray the absorbing nature of our job when one cares about those under our tutelage and only wants what's best for them - to see them stand confidently in today’s world.
‘So what do I fear? I fear the heart going out of the teaching...’
This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.
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