Teaching the Children We Fear

Book excerpt: "This teacher narrative draws on several years of teaching children and adolescents who are deemed "severely emotionally disordered" by the public school system. More often than not, the students portrayed in this narrative are also labeled in the juvenile justice system where they are considered "juvenile offenders." The stories told are not meant to "demonstrate best practices." Ultimately, the stories are written as a means of inquiry into constraints and possibilities of working meaningfully with students who are often resistant and untrusting. The volume provides a multilayered contextual analysis into the politics of difference and how it is played out in four public schools over eight years. It is also an exploration of a teacher's inner life and the story of her own profound changes as she begins to listen to and learn from her students." "Because the narrative evolves out of life in the classroom, it broaches a broad range of topics from violence to curriculum, from fear to love. This critical teacher story provides both the novice and the experienced teacher with renderings of school life that will provoke deep reflections on fundamental questions of teachering and learning, socialization and control, self and others."--BOOK JACKET.