Dalton Jackson

Schooled is an autobiographical account of one man's experiences as a straight-out-of-college biology teacher for two years in a school in the South (United States). Dalton Jackson (pseudonym) chronicles his experiences via 25 vignettes, each one detailing a single incident in his classroom or at his school, in what seems to be a roughly chronological order. Over time, he goes from a brand-new teacher, excited to reach students and "change the world," to an embattled, weary and at times cynical educator who has come to the realization that the system is broken. Along the way, he is able to help some students, witness the decline and fall of others, and learn what school administrators really care about--and it isn't the students' education.

This was a gripping book. I read it in an evening, and I literally could not put it down until I was done. Each story has some element that resonates with the reader, such that for much of the book I was experiencing physical reactions. It's simply amazing the sheer amount of crap (it's really the most apt term that comes to mind) he has to deal with just trying to teach kids basic science. I was also impressed with his maturity. When I was 22, there would have been no way I could have responded to all of these situations as well as he did.

My only drawback from the book is that Jackson might be drawing too broad of conclusions based on just his experiences. Indeed, he explicitly claims in the preface that "what I experienced is peculiar to me and can't necessarily be extrapolated to reflect the state of education across the entire country." Yet his remarks in the book's last chapter do exactly that, starting with the first sentence: "We have a serious [education] problem in the United States."

All in all, though, I definitely recommend this book. Four stars!… (mehr)