Substitute, by Nicholson Baker (Blue Rider). In 2014, the author spent four weeks as a substitute teacher in his Maine school district—in an effort, at a time of fraught debates about education policy, to “know what life in classrooms was really like.” In his finely detailed chronicle, each day becomes a chapter. Baker is genial and patient, doling out compliments to his endearing, snarky, overmedicated, and underengaged charges, who range in age from kindergarten to high school. Over time, he grows irritated with teachers’ methods of crowd control and with the “diabolical worksheets” of a one-size-fits-all educational philosophy. His ideas are provocative—he proposes slashing the school day to two hours—and his general view is unenchanted: “School isn’t actually about efficient teaching, it’s about free all-day babysitting while parents work.”
Genghis Khan…
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The New Yorker (Digital) - 1 Issue, November 7, 2016