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A review by eleanorfranzen
Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me by Kate Clanchy
Edited 5/8/21 to add:
I'm aware that there's now a conversation about the racism and ableism of Clanchy's descriptions of some of her students. Alarmed, I went back and reread some of the offending passages, which were appended to discussions on Twitter. Yeah--there are problems here. I didn't see them the first time I read this book, and that's on me, but I can see them now. I don't want to delete my original review, because that reflects my original assessment of the book and I no longer have my own copy to go back and reread the whole thing, but I've cleared my rating (I haven't given it fewer stars, it's just now an unrated book in my records.) Be aware that red flags have been raised about the text, and if you choose to read it, you can make up your own mind.
Original mini-review:
A memoir of teaching at Oxford Spires Academy, where Clanchy runs a phenomenally successful Poetry Group (they’ve won numerous Foyle’s Young Poet awards). She also writes about her time at schools in post-industrial Essex and Scotland, and multicultural London. Clanchy demonstrates how infuriating and patronizing are government decisions re. teaching, a profession of which most of our legislators know nothing, and she’s magnificent on how creative response to literature can ignite a student’s mind–but is tragically ignored now in most schools because it cannot be quantified in a WALT (We Are Learning To…)
I'm aware that there's now a conversation about the racism and ableism of Clanchy's descriptions of some of her students. Alarmed, I went back and reread some of the offending passages, which were appended to discussions on Twitter. Yeah--there are problems here. I didn't see them the first time I read this book, and that's on me, but I can see them now. I don't want to delete my original review, because that reflects my original assessment of the book and I no longer have my own copy to go back and reread the whole thing, but I've cleared my rating (I haven't given it fewer stars, it's just now an unrated book in my records.) Be aware that red flags have been raised about the text, and if you choose to read it, you can make up your own mind.
Original mini-review:
A memoir of teaching at Oxford Spires Academy, where Clanchy runs a phenomenally successful Poetry Group (they’ve won numerous Foyle’s Young Poet awards). She also writes about her time at schools in post-industrial Essex and Scotland, and multicultural London. Clanchy demonstrates how infuriating and patronizing are government decisions re. teaching, a profession of which most of our legislators know nothing, and she’s magnificent on how creative response to literature can ignite a student’s mind–but is tragically ignored now in most schools because it cannot be quantified in a WALT (We Are Learning To…)