Caught in the Middle: Nonstandard Kids and a Killing Curriculum
“To me, Susan is the quintessential teacher . . . Thanks Susan - on days when the going is toughest, you and your students will always be there with me to help me remain sane. And hopeful.”–Deborah Meier“In the tradition of Jim Herndon's The Way It Spozed To Be, but in her own passionate voice, Susan Ohanian tells stories of the real. Others might write abstractly of standards and accountability, Ohanian presents us with Sylvia and Shari, Jackson and Jolene and the other seventh graders she teaches who, in their own quirky ways, teach Ohanian what it means to be a teacher. Ultimately, this is her story.”–Gerald W. Bracey, Independent Educational Researcher and Writer“This is a book full of unapologetic piss and bile and outrage. In this take-no-prisoner book, nobody gets off easy - not the schools, teachers, the glib educational "experts", nor the standardistos. Susan Ohanion has written a dark, disturbing rebuttal to quick-fix solutions for our schools. Yet this is also written a book of tremendous caring. Again and again I was struck by Ohanion's unwillingness to give up on the "rotten readers" in an urban school that the system has forsaken. A half dozen times while reading these portraits of middle school kids, and the author's compassion for them, I found myself wiping tears from my eyes. Read this book.”–Ralph Fletcher, author of What A Writer Needs