WILL IT GROW IN A CLASSROOM?

by Ronald & Beatrice Gross ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 29, 1974

Brief statements and confessions from working teachers intended for their peers -- but parents and youth workers might find some illumination of the central and scattered dilemmas facing the profession today as well as some individual solutions. The collection, in a sense, is not really representative of the country as a whole -- the bulk of the articles are based on experiences in urban, often inner-city schools, with the attendant problems of poverty and racial tension. The small-town teache?, comfortably settling down to yet one more term of The Tale of Two Cities, does not have the same specific reference of say, Steve Daniels, who, as he explains in a fmc report on his work with slow readers, uses Malcolm X Speaks and Escape from Nowhere. However,' the general thrust here is probably the same as it has been with all good teachers from Socrates on -- wake 'em up, shake 'em up, and stay awake yourself. Specifically the techniques here relate to ""open"" teaching, involving a fluid physical situation, free dialogue, but also constructive control and forward movement in mastery of materials. Many of the contributors are well known -- Jay Neugeboren, Kennth Koch, Dan Cheifetz, John Holt -- but one does not have to be a virtuoso to appreciate the drift. Some few come down to brass tacks, like Farnum Gray who pinpoints the categories of problem kids, Lee Swenson who writes about creative questioning and Charles Suhor who has some tips on handling the administration. But mainly it's incidental inspiration for Sunday night perusal.

Pub Date: April 29, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Delacorte

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1974

Categories: NONFICTION