Class War: A Teacher's Diary

Description

'Twenty five years a teacher. If I'd committed a double murder I'd have done less time.' A scrabrously funny look inside the classroom from a teacher who has had enough of a system that is on its knees and with morale at rock-bottom. Intoning his mantra of 'July, July, July!' the anonymous author - still a serving secondary school teacher - ranges over his teaching career from his student practice to the present day: from colleagues praying for a minor heart attacks so they can get six months paid leave and a foot in the door of early retirement, to the increasing alienation of young people and the alarming rise in mental health issues and self-harming. Reasoning that it's either laugh or cry, this teacher does both. Heartfelt and seriously funny, Class War is a diary account written as therapy, and an inside look like no other at the pressure-cooker that is a secondary school. Hilarious, heart-breaking and impassioned, this is a book about the value and importance of good teachers and good schools in a world where lack of resources and ever increasing demands place intolerable strains on them, Class War is a heartfelt portrait of the profession of teaching and a state education system where no one should be left behind but too many are.

The Author has spent twenty-five years teaching English and History: English, because that is his discipline; History, because he once covered for a colleague who never came back. Unlucky in love, he now lives in Belfast with his mother and her two dogs, Sweetie and Cuddles.

"Funny, infuriating, joyous and heartbreaking - the day-to-day life of a school teacher brilliantly captured by someone who cares."- Roddy Doyle "In among the snarls and bites and cutting humour there is clear compassion for his pupils, and a deft polemic against an education system unfit for its purpose." - Julia Bueno, TLS