Tales from the School Yard

Educators, like everyone else these days, have a plethora of professional advice at their fingertips: journals, newsletters, periodicals and websites. If that is not enough, there are some 35,000 bloggers ~~ so it is reported ~~ writing about teaching and learning. Yikes!

So once in awhile it is refreshing just to pick up a novel and see the whole thing from a different perspective. Easier said than done, actually, as there just isn’t that much fiction out there on the topic (although any experienced teacher will tell you that there is enough material on any given day to write the classroom equivalent of "War and Peace").

Thus, it was with some sense of satisfaction that I’ve managed recently to find and finish three novels with a backdrop on education (helped by Amazon.com's feature Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought...which lists similiar titles to the one you are reading).

Here's a few comments for what it is worth:

One of the grand old men of American letters, Louis Auchincloss has just written another story set in a New England prep school (long after his 1964 classic “The Rector of Justin”) entitled “The Headmaster’s Dilemma”. Back in 1964, precisely as a matter of fact, I would have been reading in ninth grade English the other prep school classic of the time, John Knowles’ “A Separate Peace”.

“The Headmaster’s Dilemma” – is an easy, short read but leaves something unfilled – perhaps unrealistic, too – as the Headmaster survives a nasty political battle and the Board chair gets his unlikely comeupance. How often does this happen in real life?

Somewhat less enjoyable was “Prep” by Curtis Sittenfeld ~ a coming of age story set (where else?) in New England. The protagonist is an angst-ridden, insecure girl from Indiana trying to make it with the monied East Coast preppy crowd. Excellent insights into the life of a teenage girl but less satisfactory if you are looking for a riveting account of the private school scene. This story is long on self-reflection and short on plot - but certainly the author's prerogative, of course.

Joanne Harris offers us a rare educational who-dun-it ... is there such a genre? Set at the fictitious St. Oswald's Grammar School in England, “Gentlemen and Players” is a story narrated through the eyes of several key people including the venerable Roy Straitley who has been on the staff for over thirty years. This English "master" has seen it all ~~ less discipline with the boys, rejection of the classics, distain for technology etc. I enjoyed this character ~~ indeed, a good sketch of the "old guard" you find on every faculty ~~ as much as I liked the surprise outcome of the story.

Any other titles floating around in the blogosphere?