rose_peterson's review against another edition
3.0
Something about reading Gregory Michie feels like coming home to me. After just finishing How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi, I can't help but compare the two: while Kendi challenges, Michie confirms, and certainly we need both. I first read Holler if You Hear Me in college and heard him speak a few miles away. At the time, I didn't think much of it, but in retrospect, I can trace my own career path to some of the things he said in that very lecture.
I cannot emphasize how much I appreciate Michie's writing because he is a real teacher who teaches at a real, struggling public school because we do not have nearly enough of these voices in the social justice education world. Well-intentioned teachers in the suburbs who plan and flawlessly execute lessons proliferate, but it's rare to find teachers who are working with the populations affected by the policies about which "social justice educators" teach.
I did want more vulnerability and more reflection, though. I felt like this was still a highly edited version of Gregory; I wanted the more personal Greg, the Greg who made clear his thought process as he wrestled with the decision to come back to the classroom, the Greg who discussed how being a professor changed his view on middle school teaching, the Greg who admits more than the obligatory botched lesson. Sometimes this felt formulaic where I wanted honesty.
At the end of the day, reading Michie's writing makes me want to be a better teacher, and that's valuable.
I cannot emphasize how much I appreciate Michie's writing because he is a real teacher who teaches at a real, struggling public school because we do not have nearly enough of these voices in the social justice education world. Well-intentioned teachers in the suburbs who plan and flawlessly execute lessons proliferate, but it's rare to find teachers who are working with the populations affected by the policies about which "social justice educators" teach.
I did want more vulnerability and more reflection, though. I felt like this was still a highly edited version of Gregory; I wanted the more personal Greg, the Greg who made clear his thought process as he wrestled with the decision to come back to the classroom, the Greg who discussed how being a professor changed his view on middle school teaching, the Greg who admits more than the obligatory botched lesson. Sometimes this felt formulaic where I wanted honesty.
At the end of the day, reading Michie's writing makes me want to be a better teacher, and that's valuable.
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