Teacher Misery by Jane Morris
4 out of 5 stars.

Goodreads Description: Teacher Misery perfectly encapsulates the comical misery that has become the teaching profession. Morris’ strange, funny, and sometimes unbelievable teaching experiences are told through a collection of short stories, essays and artifacts including real emails from parents, students and administrators. From the parents who blame their son’s act of arson on the teacher for causing him low self-esteem, to the student who offers to teach the teacher how to sell drugs so she can pay her bills, to the administrator whose best advice is to “treat kids like sacks of shit,” one story is more shocking than the next. An important read for teachers and non-teachers alike– Teacher Misery paints an amusing and thoroughly entertaining picture of what has become of our education system, without detracting from the overall point that what teachers have to put up with today is complete, utter, unacceptable insanity.

Teacher Misery is about a teacher that recounts her first five years as a teacher. She includes stories, actual conversations (and emails) with students, parents, administration, and even some actual homework assignment responses from the students.

“Teacher Misery paints an amusing and thoroughly entertaining picture of what has become of our education system, without detracting from the overall point that what teachers have to put up with today is complete, utter, unacceptable insanity.”

This pretty much sums up exactly what this book is about. It’s pure insanity. There is no other way to put it. I have always had lots of respect for teachers and feel that they are underpaid and not at all appreciated enough, but after reading Teacher Misery I have even more respect for them. It’s crazy what kids can get away with and what kids ( and parents and administration) actually think are okay.

I’ve always figured that teachers go through a lot of crap, because honestly, a lot of kids these days just plain suck and some parents are not any better. I never imagined how bad it really is before reading this book. The worst part of it all is that the teachers don’t really have a big say or influence in a lot of things that go on at the school or in their own classroom. You think they would have back up with the administration, but a lot of the time they don’t even have that.

Teachers  are getting bullied. No other way to put it. Bullied by the students, bullied by the parents of the students, and even bullied by administration sometimes. They are not only being bullied verbally, but physically as well by students. Bullying is wrong on all fronts whether it’s kids bullying kids, adults bullying kids, adults bullying adults, and in this case students and parents bullying teachers.

You may laugh at some of the things in this book (I’m not going to lie I did laugh at some things), but when you really get down to it and open your eyes and actually take away the humor side of it; it’s actually quite sad. It’s sad that teachers have to put up with so much crap and sad that students don’t care enough to learn. Some of the things these students wrote as their actual assignment responses was appalling! It makes me scared for the future of this country, because these are the kids that will one day be running things. I think more kids (and parents) should care more about education and their teachers.

The school experience can be pleasant and rewarding too, but there are some cases where it is not. Don’t let it discourage you from being a teacher if that’s your dream job. I don’t know this for fact since I am not a teacher, but I think you really have to have tough skin and an open mind. You also have to really love teaching to do this job. I think if you didn’t, then you would probably snap. I know I would! You will have those students that will be amazing and make every bad day worth it in the end.

We don’t always get to see the bad and I love that in this book you get to see the other side of things too. This book is both funny and sad all at the same time. Funny in the way that the author worded things, but sad in the way that this is really happening at schools all over the world. This isn’t something new, but we don’t get to see what is truly going on. This book is just a small glimpse of what is happening behind the doors and walls of every school. I highly recommend that everyone read it whether you are a teacher, a student, a parent, or even if you are not any of those things. Read this book. Teachers deserve so much more credit and respect than they are given.

Have you read Teacher Misery? If so, what did you think? If not, do you think you will?

I hope you have a great Monday!