Teaching the Taboo
A Book That Will Push Any Educator, February 5, 2011
By Tessa Strauss –
This review is from: Teaching the Taboo: Courage and Imagination in the Classroom
I have to admit, I might be a little biased towards this book. Rick Ayers was my own high school teacher and I saw him create change in our large urban public school, along with inspiring students, teachers, and community members alike, and mentoring them through the process of creating change themselves. Rick’s personal standpoint on education and politics has always inspired and motivated me; in fact, it was in part because of his ability and persistence in pushing students to question the norm that motivated me to become a teacher too.
As a first year teacher in an urban public school, I am faced every day (every moment even) with ethical, political, social, and personal dilemmas that could paralyze me if I had nowhere else to turn. I know why so many teachers leave the education system after only a year or two in the classroom. This is hard work! There are pressures from every angle to be the best teacher, to have your students succeed academically, to pull students up from the bottom single-handedly, to do the impossible and be a superhero. Teachers play a lot of roles in their classrooms; I am prepared daily to be a friend, surrogate mother, listener, conflict manager, food