Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, Funny and Helpful!
Review: I just recently finished reading Among SchoolChildren for an education class that I am taking in college & I found the book VERY easy to read, humerous, inspiring & very useful! I loved the way that Mrs. Zajac treated her students individually and never riticuled them. She was a teacher that I would consider very dedicated and devoted to teaching. I think that it is a great book to read for anyone who is considering becoming a teacher because the book shows what it is really like being a teacher. There are so many people who think that teaching is easy so I also recommend this book to anyone who is not an education major because it makes you appreciate what teachers actually do!
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Summary: A review of Among Schoolchildren
Review: I am an Early Childhood education major at Georgia College & State Univeristy, and for one of my classes we had to choose a book to read and I chose Among Schoolchildren. I thought that this was a great book; it was very easy to read and it kept my interest from beginning to end. The author, Tracy Kidder, spent nine months observing Mrs. Zajac's fifth grade class in Holyoke, Massachusetts. As a reader you are able to get a good idea of what it is like in a fifth grade class, and by the end of the book, you feel as if you really know Mrs. Zajac and her students. Tracy Kidder does a great job of sharing the failures and successes of the class throughout the year. From classwork to homework to the science fair in the spring, you are able to be there for it all...to see and feel just what went on in Mrs. Zajac's classroom. I really enjoyed this book and I strongly recommend it to elementary and middle school teachers, to parents of elementary and middle school students, and to anyone who simply wants a fun and informative book to read.
Rating:
Summary: The best book I've read on education.
Review: In all the talk about education issues these days, it's easy to forget that what's really important is the relationship, the energy, between students and teacher. When the teacher closes his door and is face-to-face with thirty kids--THAT'S where it's at. It's not test scores or textbooks or innovative curriculum--it's what happens between PEOPLE in a classroom. This book shows that dynamic relationship between eager, active kids and a caring, active teacher. It's not all pleasant, and successes are sometimes small, but a pervasive caring underlies it all. As a teacher, this book reminded me that sometimes the best thing I can do for my kids is to leave all that paperwork, go for a walk, go to bed early so I can be there for them the next day.
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Summary: The Realities of Teaching
Review: I chose Among Schoolchildren as a supplemental text for an Introduction to Education class. I had read the book some time ago, and remembered it as being a realistic portrayal of life in classrooms. I thought my students might enjoy this glimpse into the life of a teacher, warts and all. I re-read the book and still enjoyed it very much, and found many of the relationships with students, Chris's worries about her students, and the variety of problems that teachers deal with to be on target. However, many of the elements of the elementary school curriculum have changed even in the relatively short time since the book was published. It is not the overall picture of life in elementary schools that it might have been when it was first published. Nevertheless, it is a fascinating and fun read. I enjoy reading about how other people handle difficult situations. There is always something new to learn.
Rating:
Summary: A review of Among Schoolchildren
Review: I am an Early Childhood education major at Georgia College & State Univeristy, and for one of my classes we had to choose a book to read and I chose Among Schoolchildren. I thought that this was a great book; it was very easy to read and it kept my interest from beginning to end. The author, Tracy Kidder, spent nine months observing Mrs. Zajac's fifth grade class in Holyoke, Massachusetts. As a reader you are able to get a good idea of what it is like in a fifth grade class, and by the end of the book, you feel as if you really know Mrs. Zajac and her students. Tracy Kidder does a great job of sharing the failures and successes of the class throughout the year. From classwork to homework to the science fair in the spring, you are able to be there for it all...to see and feel just what went on in Mrs. Zajac's classroom. I really enjoyed this book and I strongly recommend it to elementary and middle school teachers, to parents of elementary and middle school students, and to anyone who simply wants a fun and informative book to read.
Rating:
Summary: Experience is key
Review: When I did my student-teaching, I spent the entire year in the same 3rd grade class. The final 3 months was when I student-taught. In reading Tracy Kidder's Among Schoolchildren, I was consistently reminded of the ups and downs that progesses throughout a school year. Kidder was able to capture Chris Zajac's experiences and weaved it into a compelling story that kept me hooked. Her students reminded me of my own experiences teaching and the difficulties & triumphs you can have. At the end, Zajac was tired but happy. Thus she gave creedance to the phrase, "happy-tired". Teaching is not a type of job that once you go home, you don't think about it. This is a profession where your life is affected by those you interact with 9 months out of a year. Then you wonder, just as Chris Zajac did, "Did I make a difference?", "Is he or she going to make it?", "What else could I have done?". One thing I have to say is this is not a book of solutions in dealing with troublesome students. It's more about life as a teacher in a poverty-stricken community that could very well be your own.
Rating: 
Summary: Accurate but poorly written
Review: Kidder leaves out important parts of Ms. Zajak's story. Why, for example, would a teacher let a child like Robert stab himself, hit himself, and commit other self-destructive acts, without sending that child for an evaluation? Too much of this book is praised without looking seriously at Kidder's failure to cover the entire story. Ms. Zajak spends too much time with the Clarence issue and not enough time with her other students.
As a teacher in a small, inner-city, 99% Hispanic school in Chicago, I agree that the issues addressed in this book are real. The students in today's classroom have the same problems as Ms. Zajak's students had in the 80's. This book offers few productive solutions. This book was assigned reading for both my undergraduate and graduate education classes. Most of the students in my graduate classes; many of whom are adults with children of their own, rather than young, recent graduates; felt this book was poorly written, mildly depressing, and written in such a way as too make Ms. Zajak look like a woman on the verge of "teacher burn-out". What parent would want their child to be taught by a woman who has never left her home town for more than one month? Is that an example for her students?
Most of my graduate class agreed that this book is too freely praised, and that another perspective on teaching should be offered in contrast to Kidder's.
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Summary: YES, this is what teaching is really like
Review: As a former schoolteacher and the wife of a teacher, I can tell you that Tracy Kidder's "Among Schoolchildren" accurately and soberly depicts what teaching is really like, day to day, year in and year out. Mrs. Zajac, the grade school teacher on whom Kidder focuses his detailed narrative, is what every teacher should be: tough in a loving way, disciplined, self-aware, willing to admit to her own faults (and when she's boring herself and knows she needs to shake up the lesson next time to avoid boring the students), brimming over with ideas. She's a wonder, and the kind of teacher every child should have at least once in their grade school career. Kidder leaves no stone unturned. We see here not only the joys and sorrows of teaching, but the accumulation of detail that leaves us feeling we understand, from the inside out, what teachers go through in order to get through to their students. We see how "problem students" and "good students" present different challenges, how teachers and administrators deal with each other (and deal with the parents, the superintendent, and the school board), and even such mundane concerns as how to keep the class in Kleenex (they go through about twenty boxes a year). Though the book is over a decade old, it's prescient about some things. The majority of students in Mrs. Zajac's class are Hispanic--a growing truth throughout the United States--so along with the everyday frustrations of every teacher, we see that Mrs. Zajac has an additional workload imposed merely by the presence of a language barrier: "Horace, are you all done?" "No." "Then why are you talking to Jorge?" She turned back around and said to Felipe and Jimmy, "What's the matter with you two? The minute I turn my head, you have to talk? What number do you carry, Jimmy?" "The four." "Very good. Got it now? OK, Jimmy, you can go back to your desk." "Ocho," said a voice behind [Mrs. Zajac], unmistakably Manny's hoarse whiskey voice. Manny was trying to whisper to one of his buddies, but he just couldn't do it quietly. [She] turned. "Why don't you try Chinese, Manny? You can say it in Swahili, Manny. I still know you're giving him the answer." [She] liked them to help each other, but today she wanted to find out just how each one was faring in multiplication, so she kept saying, "Your own work." "Diablo!" "You keep it up, Manny, and I'll show you what a diablo I can be." Anyone who's curious about the life of a teacher--or who is thinking of becoming a teacher--would do themselves a huge favor to sit down and read "Among Schoolchildren."
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Summary: Emotionally Charged!!!!
Review: I had to read this book for my Education Class and it was probably one of the best books I have read in a long time! Among Schoolchildren takes a birds eye look into Mrs. Zajac's fifth grade classroom. The reader will share in her joys and disapointments in having the challenging job as teacher. Trust Me...You will laugh and cry and love every minute of this book! If you are a teacher or are planning to become one...Read This Book!!!!!!!!! It's superbly written with grace to excentuate the joy and challenge of being a teacher in today's classrooms! =)
Rating:
Summary: Quick reading ethnography
Review: I enjoyed reading this book and found it to be beautifully narrated by Kidder. Although written in 1989 I would imagine a lot of the issues addressed in the book are current concerns for teachers today. Things like ESL students and discipline issues are certainly relevant in today's classroom. I would recommend this book for those wanting a detailed look at the daily goings-on in a 5th grade classroom. It was also a good look at one particular teaching style even though some readers may feel that Mrs. Zajac's teaching style was lacking. Perhaps those readers could use it as a "what not to do" guide. Regardless of your opinion of Mrs. Zajac and her students, the book was a quick and easy read.
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