Rotten Apples: We'Ve Made Wormsmeat of Education

Rating:
Summary: An Apple for the Teacher
Review: A big shiny crisp apple, minus the worm, for Ms. Powell for having the courage to reveal the reason for America's teacher shortage. Written with honesty, wit, and poignancy, Ms. Powells' story is told in the "We have to laugh to keep from crying" tone well-known to teachers. Using varieties of apples and apple recipes as metaphors for the categories of students, parents, co-workers, and administrators that all educators will recognize, Ms. Powell relates her story in episodic style, interweaving the optimism and idealism of a teacher with the reality of teaching. I can attest to the fact that her experiences with cowardly, inept, unethical, cruel administrators is not unique. While Americans pay lip-service to the importance of education, a thread on anti-intellectualism runs through the fabric of America culture, manifested in placing the blame for all of society's ills on teachers. Demoralized sheep in teachers' clothing willingly act as doormats in exchange for job security until they can finally retire, while unethical educrats go to any length to protect their lucrative positions and self-perceived importance. Superintendents as CEOs, principals as middle managers, and teachers as blue-collar workers [produce] assembly-line students as products, destroying all humanity and joy in the educational process, thereby guaranteeing an endless supply of minimum wage workers and cannon fodder... Her stories and her message are lucid, and all too true. We must hope that this book will serve to inspire other educators to reveal the truth about education; we must heed the advice of this "brilliant eccentric," and demand school reform before education, and democracy, is destroyed in America. As Thomas Jefferson said, "A nation that expects to be ignorant and free...expects what never was and never will be." I recommend this book to all educators,including administrators.

Rating:
Summary: Nail on the Head
Review: As a former student of Ms. Powell I know the truth and this is far from it. In the book I am Shorty. I was quote "Stabbed" by Chubby. The pencil just grazed the top of my scab which was about an inch in diameter. I didnt roll down a hill into a bar bq pit or what ever she said. I was at a football game and we were playing a pickup game near a lit grill and as i was going out for a pass I ran in to it and suffered a burn on my wrist about the size of a quarter. When Chubby accidently hit me with a pencil on my scab he didnt have to yank it out and i wasnt gushing blood. This lady is telling an edited story because the reason she was released was because she was literally crazy. She cursed in the class room walked through the halls acting like frankenstein. It confuses me how the whole school district thought she was crazy but she thought the district was crazy. You dont have to believe any of this but I have my right to press and I am telling the Truth... Oh and my friend Chubby's Father does not have power like napoleon and the big mouth brunette or whatever she is called is the best and nicest teacher I Know.

Rating:
Summary: You've got to be kidding!
Review: Patsy Powell moves us with her very personal account of a bitter conflict with the educational establishment in Central Louisiana. Her devastating testimony condemns the entire "good ole boy" system which perpetuates the status quo in a very conservative area. No one is spared. Principals, fellow teachers, students, parents, school board members and even her not so loyal attorney share her critical appraisal. Being from the area, it was easy to change the names and know exactly about whom Mrs. Powell was writing. It remains to be seen whether out of state readers will share in the same pleasure. Mrs. Powell paints a somber tableau, not only of those around her, but sometimes of herself as well. As the story progresses, the angry elements fall away and the inspirational core shines through. A courageous account by anyone's standards. Keep writing, Patsy!

Rating:
Summary: Nail on the Head
Review: Rotten Apples - what an understatement! I was a child of the public school system in central Louisiana, were I received a minimal education.

Ms. Powell's book broke my heart and brought back unpleasant memories. Reading it was an emotional roller coaster for me - elated for her in one paragraph and saddened in the next. I felt her pain and frustration. She hit the proverbial "nail on the head". GOB is alive and well on the state, parish and local levels, to a degree that an outsider could only imagine. "...cronyism, nepotism, rascalism...".

Two of my siblings are educators; both have left the public school system - citing many of the same problems that Ms. Powell writes about. I've worked in state and local government most for my career. I have seen it and experienced it first hand.

I thought the book was well written, retrospectively weaving a tale chapter by chapter.
I especially liked the way she used different apple themes to describe each chapter, which offered some comic relief.

Woe to the NON-GOB.

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious!
Review: What a fun read! I know the story is about the real life experiences of teachers, and I identify, but this book is really funny! If you want to laugh, read it! I think only teachers can appreciate how true it is! I was there, too! I remember much of what happened, and it is accurate. I love the way the author used the different APPLE chapters and wove the story through them. It is positive and a real page-turner. I dare you to try to put it down! Most tell me they are reading it in one sitting! You will see why! Congratulations to Mrs. Powell!