I was fortunate to read this some months ago when Peter sent me a copy. Like you, I was impressed. And Peter is a great guy. You have done a good job capturing the premise and the shenanigans surrounding the publishing as well.
So I've just immediately subscribed to the reviewer and bought the book... These are vital questions to me: not just "Why Teach?" (I'm a teacher, and I ask myself every fuckin day), but also "Why Write?"; "Why Self-Publish, if no one wants your book?" (I did); "Why KEEP Writing?" .... Your thoughts here are very vital to me, and I thank you for putting me onto the work of those others involved.
Wow! This is such a strong recommendation. I've been interested in this one, though to be honest I'd been holding off, in case I had to read it anyways for the finalist round.
The conventional wisdom is that the biggest "drop off" points for the teaching profession are (I think) years 1 and 3. If you make it past those, you're good for the long haul. That's what we always heard. But there does seem to be another drop off around year 10. That's when I left, not for computer coding, but another work-from-home type job, and I am also much happier and healthier this way. There are occasional times when I miss it, but literary Substack is a good outlet for that (and insurance that I won't ever go back).
I have to think so... but I've also been a little bit skeptical, based on details in this and other reviews. In my experience, no administrator would be upset about what William is doing, so long as he gets results. If you can get a room full of underperforming kids to read full novels and engage with them, you don't get a slap on the wrist -- you become teacher of the year. Admin generally doesn't push this test-prep-forward curriculum because they really love it, they do it because their job is on the line and they know that it'll work in the short run. They also usually understand that full novel studies work in the long run, they're just harder to pull off.
But obviously I haven't read the book, and there are all kinds of ways to make this work in a novel (acknowledge that Mr. Hirsch is a weird outlier, use him as a metaphorical stand in for the system, etc). I'm definitely going to check it out.
It also really depends on the socio-economic status of the school and just how established your administrator is. I certainly had some negative feedback about my special ed student test scores…and got totally pissed off when I found that the state stealth substituted the Smarter Balanced test for the regular version without telling us. Of course the students didn’t do as well.
Ooo! I want to read. As White said in their comments, I left at year 3 age 26. Drove cross country and got a job at a law firm coding. The pay wasn’t great but the friends were. We were all art history or philosophy or lit majors. It was good times.
Year 1 weeds out everyone who couldn't cut it. Year 3 weeds out those who could, but realized they didn't want to. Year 10 is for those who probably realized around year 5 or 6 that they couldn't keep doing it forever, but then it took them a long time to figure out how to get out when "teaching" was all they had on their resume.
Or maybe not. That's a very quick and unexamined theory.
Thanks for this great review and thoughts on the publishing history. As a former HS English teacher and current English professor and small press helper-outer and big press author who may just self-publish next, I'm in.
I've been scouring the internet for books--fiction or nonfiction--on the realities of teaching, and it's been incredibly difficult to find something that isn't either a horror story or overly-sentimental. I'm currently on sort of the opposite trajectory as your friend who gave up teaching for computer science. Absurdly, it's taken me most of my twenties to realize that my brain is not shaped for programming, which is, somehow, what I do.
And congrats to Peter Schull for an uncompromising book! Can't wait to read it.
Naomi Kanakia, if you want to improve your writing, you might consider omitting the words "actually" and "actual". These words are commonly overused now, as a thoughtlessly superfluous crutch. Using these words often dilutes the writing, rather than adding substance or strength to the writing. The best writing doesn't conform to current trends.
Otherwise, this is a very good piece of writing and I wish you well.
Great review and I thoroughly enjoyed Why Teach? when I read it over the summer (frustratingly, those bozos at Amazon won't add my review!)
What you say about the challenges of getting a book like this published are enlightening and worrying, especially as I am starting to query my own teaching-related novel. There is another Substacker, Savannah Horton, who is serialising her teacher-focused book (highly recommended!) and was unable to get it published (though she did find an agent, I believe). I shall keep at it, but with low expectations. A pity that we seem to need to shoehorn our work into convenient, marketable categories, but that's the nature of the market I suppose.
Brilliant take on market dynamics for genuinly weird books. The point about packages making more sense for avant-garde than quietly distinctive realism is counterintuitive but probly right. Books that resist categorization often need that self-pub route to even exist, even when they're this well-executed.
I got to your Substack tonight via reading the New Yorker article about your brilliant novella Money Matters, and I got to that article because I was messing around in their archives after reading their review of Stoner, which I finished reading earlier tonight and which is about... a teacher. So, full circle. I'm glad I wandered into your world.
I was fortunate to read this some months ago when Peter sent me a copy. Like you, I was impressed. And Peter is a great guy. You have done a good job capturing the premise and the shenanigans surrounding the publishing as well.
So I've just immediately subscribed to the reviewer and bought the book... These are vital questions to me: not just "Why Teach?" (I'm a teacher, and I ask myself every fuckin day), but also "Why Write?"; "Why Self-Publish, if no one wants your book?" (I did); "Why KEEP Writing?" .... Your thoughts here are very vital to me, and I thank you for putting me onto the work of those others involved.
Wow! This is such a strong recommendation. I've been interested in this one, though to be honest I'd been holding off, in case I had to read it anyways for the finalist round.
The conventional wisdom is that the biggest "drop off" points for the teaching profession are (I think) years 1 and 3. If you make it past those, you're good for the long haul. That's what we always heard. But there does seem to be another drop off around year 10. That's when I left, not for computer coding, but another work-from-home type job, and I am also much happier and healthier this way. There are occasional times when I miss it, but literary Substack is a good outlet for that (and insurance that I won't ever go back).
You should read it! Surely you would love this book
I have to think so... but I've also been a little bit skeptical, based on details in this and other reviews. In my experience, no administrator would be upset about what William is doing, so long as he gets results. If you can get a room full of underperforming kids to read full novels and engage with them, you don't get a slap on the wrist -- you become teacher of the year. Admin generally doesn't push this test-prep-forward curriculum because they really love it, they do it because their job is on the line and they know that it'll work in the short run. They also usually understand that full novel studies work in the long run, they're just harder to pull off.
But obviously I haven't read the book, and there are all kinds of ways to make this work in a novel (acknowledge that Mr. Hirsch is a weird outlier, use him as a metaphorical stand in for the system, etc). I'm definitely going to check it out.
I think bad bosses always exist :)
Fair!
It also really depends on the socio-economic status of the school and just how established your administrator is. I certainly had some negative feedback about my special ed student test scores…and got totally pissed off when I found that the state stealth substituted the Smarter Balanced test for the regular version without telling us. Of course the students didn’t do as well.
Another 10 year veteran here, in special education. I left for writing because spouse retired—came to teaching after a bunch of other stuff.
Ooo! I want to read. As White said in their comments, I left at year 3 age 26. Drove cross country and got a job at a law firm coding. The pay wasn’t great but the friends were. We were all art history or philosophy or lit majors. It was good times.
Year 1 weeds out everyone who couldn't cut it. Year 3 weeds out those who could, but realized they didn't want to. Year 10 is for those who probably realized around year 5 or 6 that they couldn't keep doing it forever, but then it took them a long time to figure out how to get out when "teaching" was all they had on their resume.
Or maybe not. That's a very quick and unexamined theory.
Nah, it matches my experience.
I like quick and unexamined theories. (Says the multireligious Chaplain)
okay so clearly we are all buying the book (I read your review, then Isaac Kolding’s, THEN ran off to purchase it…)
this sounds a bit like john williams' stoner, a book in a similar format about a college professor in the WWI era. it's amazing.
Thanks for this great review and thoughts on the publishing history. As a former HS English teacher and current English professor and small press helper-outer and big press author who may just self-publish next, I'm in.
Just picked it up. This sounds great
What a great review -- buying this immediately!
I've been scouring the internet for books--fiction or nonfiction--on the realities of teaching, and it's been incredibly difficult to find something that isn't either a horror story or overly-sentimental. I'm currently on sort of the opposite trajectory as your friend who gave up teaching for computer science. Absurdly, it's taken me most of my twenties to realize that my brain is not shaped for programming, which is, somehow, what I do.
And congrats to Peter Schull for an uncompromising book! Can't wait to read it.
What an endorsement! I will get this book.
Naomi Kanakia, if you want to improve your writing, you might consider omitting the words "actually" and "actual". These words are commonly overused now, as a thoughtlessly superfluous crutch. Using these words often dilutes the writing, rather than adding substance or strength to the writing. The best writing doesn't conform to current trends.
Otherwise, this is a very good piece of writing and I wish you well.
Actually, I rather like Naomi's use of those words! ;-)
Great review and I thoroughly enjoyed Why Teach? when I read it over the summer (frustratingly, those bozos at Amazon won't add my review!)
What you say about the challenges of getting a book like this published are enlightening and worrying, especially as I am starting to query my own teaching-related novel. There is another Substacker, Savannah Horton, who is serialising her teacher-focused book (highly recommended!) and was unable to get it published (though she did find an agent, I believe). I shall keep at it, but with low expectations. A pity that we seem to need to shoehorn our work into convenient, marketable categories, but that's the nature of the market I suppose.
Brilliant take on market dynamics for genuinly weird books. The point about packages making more sense for avant-garde than quietly distinctive realism is counterintuitive but probly right. Books that resist categorization often need that self-pub route to even exist, even when they're this well-executed.
I got to your Substack tonight via reading the New Yorker article about your brilliant novella Money Matters, and I got to that article because I was messing around in their archives after reading their review of Stoner, which I finished reading earlier tonight and which is about... a teacher. So, full circle. I'm glad I wandered into your world.
I enjoyed this review. Thank you for the recommendation. I ordered a copy form bookshop.org.
Really enjoyed this review. Checking out the book now. Thanks for posting!