Overly detailed at times, but an impassioned insider narrative about American education.
A teacher offers personal commentary in his exploration of various types of U.S. schools.
This is an unusual book: It presents a lengthy record of a teacher’s own experiences with the American education system as a basis for an examination of public, private, charter, and cooperative schools. The author appears to have a unique background for an educator, as indicated in the “scholastic resume” he includes at the beginning: He attended both public and private schools, some parochial and some charter, and held a variety of positions, primarily as a substitute teacher, at public, private, parochial, charter, and cooperative schools. He also continues to work as a tutor, which adds another dimension to the story. In an opening “letter,” Felton (Tommy Wrought, 2015) suggests he wrote this volume to assist parents in evaluating and selecting appropriate schools for their children, yet as the book unfolds, it seems that teachers and administrators might actually be a more suitable audience. The sheer amount of specifics associated with the description of each school and every classroom experience, including discussions of teaching methodologies and materials, may only excite a professional educator. Still, the author’s firsthand observations of various types of schools are not without broader appeal. Also enticing, if a bit too flowery at times, is Felton’s expansive, engaging writing style and a strong storytelling element that makes the book read like a memoir. This autobiographical approach considerably enhances the content, but at times it can be unnecessarily detailed, particularly when the copious, lengthy footnotes overwhelm the text itself. The volume opens with a lovely, heartfelt tribute to an instructor “without whom there would no ‘Mr. Felton,’ ” evidence that the author was inspired to teach at a young age. The book then breaks into chapters, several of which address particular types of schools: parochial, public, private, charter, single sex, cooperative, and immersion (multilingual/multicultural). In each of these chapters, the author uses his own direct experiences with the type of school to comment on it, adding a very personal touch to the content. For example, Felton shares the surprising fact that he has been both a student and teacher at Hebrew, Roman Catholic, and Quaker parochial schools but has “never belonged” to any of these religions. The final two chapters concentrate more specifically on the author’s experiences as a tutor, substitute teacher, and, ultimately, a “lead” teacher. He observes that all of these roles allowed him to view and understand the educational process from significantly different perspectives. Felton’s glowing appraisal of his most recent school position is intriguing as a contrast to some of his less desirable employment situations; however, delving into the fine points of the curriculum may simply be too much for average readers to bear. Despite these occasional informational transgressions, the book exudes an enthusiasm and respect for education as a calling that are hard to ignore.
Overly detailed at times, but an impassioned insider narrative about American education.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2018
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 378
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”
The powerful story of a father’s past and a son’s future.
Atlantic senior writer Coates (The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood, 2008) offers this eloquent memoir as a letter to his teenage son, bearing witness to his own experiences and conveying passionate hopes for his son’s life. “I am wounded,” he writes. “I am marked by old codes, which shielded me in one world and then chained me in the next.” Coates grew up in the tough neighborhood of West Baltimore, beaten into obedience by his father. “I was a capable boy, intelligent and well-liked,” he remembers, “but powerfully afraid.” His life changed dramatically at Howard University, where his father taught and from which several siblings graduated. Howard, he writes, “had always been one of the most critical gathering posts for black people.” He calls it The Mecca, and its faculty and his fellow students expanded his horizons, helping him to understand “that the black world was its own thing, more than a photo-negative of the people who believe they are white.” Coates refers repeatedly to whites’ insistence on their exclusive racial identity; he realizes now “that nothing so essentialist as race” divides people, but rather “the actual injury done by people intent on naming us, intent on believing that what they have named matters more than anything we could ever actually do.” After he married, the author’s world widened again in New York, and later in Paris, where he finally felt extricated from white America’s exploitative, consumerist dreams. He came to understand that “race” does not fully explain “the breach between the world and me,” yet race exerts a crucial force, and young blacks like his son are vulnerable and endangered by “majoritarian bandits.” Coates desperately wants his son to be able to live “apart from fear—even apart from me.”
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”Pub Date: July 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8129-9354-7
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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