Helpful Score: 2
Really hard to get through. Elizabeth's writing style is similar to Bret Ellis Easton in that most of her "paragraphs" are run-on sentences. Or unconnected segments. I couldn't figure out if the tone was supposed to be snarky or dry. After teaching for almost ten years in a school located dead-center in a large urban school district, I really hate these types of books. You know the kind, where WASPy adults decide to "make a difference" and teach in an urban school district where this is usually their first contact with people from other cultures. Just like the "Freedom Writer" lady, just like the "My Posse Don't Do Homework" lady, and many others. They usually stay maybe one year and leave the educational system all together but Elizabeth started in February. February! And she still couldn't get her crap together. What was shocking and unbelievable was the fact that Elizabeth taught 9th grade English but her command of it was pitiful. And she really showed how arrogant and snobby she really was with the students.
She was not well prepared for teaching this inner-city class in NY & she probably didn't have the right attitude either, but you will learn no-holds-barred what the experience of taking over a troubled high school English class was like. Her summary comments at the end of the book though are worth reading through the frustrations all the way to the end.
