She successfully evokes the full sensorium of school life, writes the Guardian of Kate Clanchys almost missionary-esque zeal to embolden state school children toward greatness. The book is also a polemic toward the narrow-minded, objective-driven goals of current teaching, and the hurdles engaged children face in a system rigged for the average.
Winner of the Orwell Prize for Political Writing 2020
Kate Clanchy wants to change the world and thinks school is an excellent place to do it. She invites you to meet some of the kids she has taught in her thirty-year career.
Join her as she explains everything about sex to a classroom of thirteen-year-olds. As she works in the school `Inclusion Unit', trying to improve the fortunes of kids excluded from regular lessons because of their terrifying power to end learning in an instant. Or as she nurtures her multicultural poetry group, full of migrants and refugees, watches them find their voice and produce work of heartbreaking brilliance.
While Clanchy doesn't deny stinging humiliations or hide painful accidents, she celebrates this most creative, passionate and practically useful of jobs. Teaching today is all too often demeaned, diminished and drastically under-resourced. Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me will show you why it shouldn't be.
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 9781509840311
Number of pages: 288
Weight: 208 g
Dimensions: 197 x 130 x 17 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'The best book on teachers and children and writing that I've ever read. No-one has said better so much of what so badly needs saying. I want to see this book become a bestseller, I want to see it in every staffroom, I want to see it read by every student teacher. This is a wonderful achievement.' - Philip Pullman
'One of the most inspiring books about teaching you'll ever read... superbly well written... brilliantly funny... read this book, then lots of poetry and the world will be a better place. ' - Bryan Appleyard, The Sunday Times
'Inspiring, moving and funny... Each story stands up the belief in the power of education to change lives... A book that will appeal not just to other teachers and parents, but to anyone who cares about education. Her classroom anecdotes are inspiring, mortifying, energising and moving. I'd give her an A*'. - Alex O'Connell, The Times
' Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me is beautifully written and full of heart. Kate Clanchy has written a love letter to teachers everywhere, to remind us all that as children we begin with tolerance and love.' - Christie Watson, author of The Language of Kindness
'These sometimes painful, often funny reports provide a valuable insight into the young lives flailing, striving and blossoming in the nation's classrooms.' - Stephen Kelman, author of Pigeon English
'Funny, cynical, inspiring... [Clanchy has] a wicked way of describing failure in the education system' - Andrew Billen, The Times
'A teacher's honest, personal account of state education puts individual children at its centre... Her insights therefore avoid the vague generalisations we might find in a government report and come with the practical wisdom of a teacher on the ground... We need people like Clanchy' - The Guardian
She successfully evokes the full sensorium of school life, writes the Guardian of Kate Clanchys almost missionary-esque zeal to embolden state school children toward greatness. The book is also a polemic toward the narrow-minded, objective-driven goals of current teaching, and the hurdles engaged children face in a system rigged for the average.
Winner of the Orwell Prize for Political Writing 2020
Kate Clanchy wants to change the world and thinks school is an excellent place to do it. She invites you to meet some of the kids she has taught in her thirty-year career.
Join her as she explains everything about sex to a classroom of thirteen-year-olds. As she works in the school `Inclusion Unit', trying to improve the fortunes of kids excluded from regular lessons because of their terrifying power to end learning in an instant. Or as she nurtures her multicultural poetry group, full of migrants and refugees, watches them find their voice and produce work of heartbreaking brilliance.
While Clanchy doesn't deny stinging humiliations or hide painful accidents, she celebrates this most creative, passionate and practically useful of jobs. Teaching today is all too often demeaned, diminished and drastically under-resourced. Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me will show you why it shouldn't be.
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 9781509840311
Number of pages: 288
Weight: 208 g
Dimensions: 197 x 130 x 17 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'The best book on teachers and children and writing that I've ever read. No-one has said better so much of what so badly needs saying. I want to see this book become a bestseller, I want to see it in every staffroom, I want to see it read by every student teacher. This is a wonderful achievement.' - Philip Pullman
'One of the most inspiring books about teaching you'll ever read... superbly well written... brilliantly funny... read this book, then lots of poetry and the world will be a better place. ' - Bryan Appleyard, The Sunday Times
'Inspiring, moving and funny... Each story stands up the belief in the power of education to change lives... A book that will appeal not just to other teachers and parents, but to anyone who cares about education. Her classroom anecdotes are inspiring, mortifying, energising and moving. I'd give her an A*'. - Alex O'Connell, The Times
' Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me is beautifully written and full of heart. Kate Clanchy has written a love letter to teachers everywhere, to remind us all that as children we begin with tolerance and love.' - Christie Watson, author of The Language of Kindness
'These sometimes painful, often funny reports provide a valuable insight into the young lives flailing, striving and blossoming in the nation's classrooms.' - Stephen Kelman, author of Pigeon English
'Funny, cynical, inspiring... [Clanchy has] a wicked way of describing failure in the education system' - Andrew Billen, The Times
'A teacher's honest, personal account of state education puts individual children at its centre... Her insights therefore avoid the vague generalisations we might find in a government report and come with the practical wisdom of a teacher on the ground... We need people like Clanchy' - The Guardian