Product Details

Publishers Weekly

The Northeast Kingdom, in rural Vermont, is not only ``an amenable place to settle,'' but evidently a fine place to be a teacher. Keizer, an Episcopal minister, writes here about his seven-year teaching career at Lake Region Union High School and his students, who present special challenges arising from the isolation of farm communities. In his warm, anecdotal narrative Keizer shows how an artful iconoclasm in the classroom promotes sprightly discussion and, sometimes, a change in outlook among students. One such class involves the study of mythology, made immediate by Keizer's stories of his own bouts with the mythology surrounding the ``facts of life,'' and we see the amusement and understanding of the farm-wise students. There are the usual bureaucratic frustrations, professional defeats and victories, but the good fit of teacher and student as recounted here speaks of a true vocaton. (August)

What's fresh and even exhilarating about Keizer's book is its locale -an uncelebrated, backwater corner of New England-and his commitment to this place, to altering the lives of his students. On subjects ranging from student courtesy to teenage sex, Keizer opens up his classroom and his commitment with wry wit and rare zeal . . . A seasoned, razor-sharp testament to the complexity and fulfillment of a beleaguered yet essential vocation. Garret Keizer can do the truly remarkable, he can make a reader yearn to go back to high school.

Library Journal

In Keizer's compassionate and articulate narrative based on his experience teaching high school English in Vermont, he examines fundamental issues ranging from the philosophy and role of education to student mores and the salaries of teachers. Although the focus is on rural education, the topics discussed are intrinsic to education everywhere. One can only hope that the majority of teachers are as sincere and sensitive as Keizer. Whether pedagogists and lay readers agree or disagree, they will enjoy Keizer's tale and his unpretentious, often humorous writing style. L.R. Little, Penticton P.L., British Columbia