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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Racial slurs
This is a non-fiction account of a special needs teacher in the 1970s and the four students she teaches. It’s a good book, dealing both with Mrs. Craig’s effect on her students and her job’s effect on her home life. It’s not a pretty book. The children have home lives that aren’t great, they do act out physically and verbally against each other and a couple of times agains her. While she has the assistance of an caring principal, a psychiatric social worker, and a psychiatrist, it is the pilot year of the special education class in the area and there are hiccups. All four children (3 boys and a girl) make progress over the course of the book, but it’s a lot of one step forward and 2 or 3 back.
There is an incident with a guppy early on that is briefly described. There is an incident with a guinea pig toward the end that is briefly mentioned. One child has an abusive mother. She pops up more than the other parents, but she’s still a minor character. One of the boys is a POC, and another child does use the “n-word” when acting out against him. Just clarifying the warnings I thought needed mentioning.
An honest insight into the lives of 5 very disturbed children and a very determined teacher. At times very hard reading, but I'm glad I stuck it out. I would have loved to know what happened to those five - especially Eddie & Kevin.
As it is now 40 years after this book was written it is interesting to read. Having spent 25 years teaching, I'm well aware of the changes in teaching methods. Methods that Eleanor Craig tried worked as evidence that 4 of the 5 original children were advanced to regular classrooms. However, today many of the methods used in her classroom would get a teacher in trouble.