Teaching Lessons from the Bronx
August 19, 2013
Part memoir and part sociology study on the lives of teenagers, Garon reflects on her first four years teaching at a public high school in the Bronx. The title is taken from a student's suggestion for a research topic. Amidst her Garon finds herself sobering up a smart but troubled student when he comes to class drunk, helping a young girl in an abusive co-dependent relationship, and grappling with the "polite way to ask someone if they are in a gang." She profiles the troublemakers like the arrogant Kayron who alternates between tormenting and admiring Garon, along with the hard-luck cases like Felicia, a tremendously smart and wildly charismatic student who is self-mutilating. Then there are the more uplifting stories like Callum, the bright but apathetic student Garon forms a strong bond with, staying in touch through his college years and helping him find work as a journalist. As Garon writes in her introduction, this book is not about the "myth of the âhero teacher'" changing the lives of inner city kids, though she does do that, nor is it "a scathing indictment" of the education system. It is that refreshing lack of agenda and Garon's self-awareness that makes this book charming and raw in its honesty.
July 15, 2013
Behind the scenes in the life of a teacher in the Bronx. With honesty and refreshing straightforwardness, Garon delivers true stories of her time spent in high school classrooms in the Bronx through accounts of her students and personal emails. She places readers on the front lines with her pupils as they navigate rough moments and face difficult decisions in their lives. Some students considered joining gangs, some girls were pressured into sex and then needed to deal with unplanned pregnancies, some struggled to deal with the death of a loved one--through it all, Garon was there to offer advice, support and friendship on whatever terms were accepted by each individual student. She battled the need to teach English with insufficient books while trying to maintain discipline in the crowded classrooms; meanwhile, mice and cockroaches ran all over the school. Fights broke out constantly between gang members and because of rivalries over girls, gun scares were a common issue, and some kids didn't have the required shoes, so they didn't bother to show up for gym. Along the way, Garon discovered that if you learn to relate to kids on their level, gain an understanding of their backgrounds and tie that to a classroom lesson, then kids are going to learn. Due to poverty and a lack of sufficient, helpful parenting, "students come to school emotionally and physically unprepared to learn...to expect that the students who endure these crises can regularly come to school, quietly sit down at their desks, and turn in their homework without incident...is absurd; the only thing more shocking is that sometimes they actually do manage this herculean task." A gritty and candid expose of inner-city teaching.
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