Ms. Hempel Chronicles by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum (Mariner Books, 2009)
It’s impossible to capture on the page the whiplash of emotions you experience while you are teaching. But, each time I reread Ms. Hempel Chronicles, a collection of connected short stories about a middle school teacher, I’m struck by the way Bynum manages to illuminate the daily heartbreaks and small triumphs in schools — for teachers, for students, for parents, and for everyone else involved. Like the middle school talent-show magician in the first story, this book tricks us in the most generous ways, getting us to recognize the humanity of teachers and students and to acknowledge the impossibility of the job we ask our schools to do. I keep going back to these stories because they always make me laugh and cry a little and because I always emerge with something new to ponder and with more humility regarding what I think I understand about schools.
Jeremy Glazer’s recent Kappan articles:
- The schools teachers choose
- The silent strike: Teacher attrition as resistance
- The power of hmm . . . : Bringing life (back) to words in the classroom
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeremy Glazer
JEREMY GLAZER is an assistant professor in the Department of Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Education at the College of Education, Rowan University, Glassboro, N.J.
