Journalist Alexandra Robbins offers an essential update on the challenges and rewards of teaching.
On this week’s episode, Alexandra Robbins joins us to discuss The Teachers: A Year Inside America’s Most Vulnerable, Important Profession (Dutton, March 14), an intimate chronicle of one year in the lives of three K-12 educators from around the country that interweaves the stories of scores more. Robbins is a journalist, lecturer, and the author of five New York Times bestsellers, including The Nurses and The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth. In The Teachers, sheexposes the augmenting tribulations of a swiftly changing profession—due to budget cuts, the Covid-19 pandemic, and shifting societal mores, among other causes. Kirkus callsitan “important and eye-opening book that all parents, teachers, and educational administrators should read.”
Here’s a bit more from Kirkus’ starred review of The Teachers: “According to the research that Robbins presents in this book, teachers are often subjected to toxic working conditions while they struggle to educate our nation’s children and are not offered the same respect as people in other professions.…In addition to violence in schools, they now must contend with the growing movements to ban books and censor classroom material. Despite…increased demands and responsibilities…they continue to remain underpaid. Refreshingly, the author also spotlights teachers who have chosen to remain in the profession despite the myriad challenges, sharing inspiring stories from the teachers she interviewed as well as tips and suggestions regarding how to better interact with students, parents, and colleagues. Some of the stories contain harsh language and very personal details about the lives of the teachers, but these narratives help illustrate her point that teachers deserve far more respect—and compensation—than they currently receive.”
Robbins introduces listeners to the three K-12 teachers whose stories anchor the book: Penny, Miguel, and Rebecca. She and host Megan Labrise touch on the hundreds of supplemental interviews Robbins conducted for the book; Robbins’ path to becoming a substitute teacher and what the experience taught her; the best parts of teaching, from aha moments to visits from former students; how the term teacher shortage is a misleading one; how expectations of teachers have changed in the 21st century; “teacher burnout” versus “teacher demoralization”; actionable solutions for relieving the burdens on teachers; and much more.
Then editors Mahnaz Dar, Eric Liebetrau, and Laurie Muchnick share their top picks in books for the week.
Editors’ picks:
Jovita Wore Pants: The Story of a Mexican Freedom Fighter by Aida Salazar, illus. by Molly Mendoza (Scholastic)
War Diary by Yevgenia Belorusets, trans. by Greg Nissan (New Directions)
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Also mentioned on this episode:
Cloaked in Courage: Uncovering Deborah Sampson, Patriot Soldier by Beth Anderson, illus. by Anne Lambelet (Calkins Creek/Astra Books for Young Readers)
Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier by Alfred F. Young (Knopf)
Lucky Breaks by Yevgenia Belorusets, trans. by Eugene Ostashevsky (New Directions)
Dietland by Sarai Walker (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Thanks to our sponsors:
To the Front: Grandfathers’ Stories in the Cause of Freedom by Michael M. Van Ness
Family Curse Field Notebooks (1880-2020) by Tenacity Plys
From Scratch: Adventures in Harvesting, Hunting, Fishing, and Foraging on a Fragile Planet by David Moscow & Jon Moscow
A Thing or Two About the Game by Richard Paik
Reef Road by Deborah Goodrich Royce
Fully Booked is produced by Cabel Adkins Audio and Megan Labrise.
