Rating: 
Summary: teacher bashing
Review: mr. strickland would have us believe that everyone that stays in teaching is simply to stupid or lazy to find a "real" job. He claims several times in his book that students never fail to do work through laziness or attitude. Every elementary classroom will contain at least one "darling" that thinks that everything the rest of the class is doing is boring or too hard. Their parents request nothing from the child and thats exactly what the child is ready to give back. I read this book hoping to find ways to help with my relationships with parents. Instead I was constantly insulted by the authors lack of experience about what goes on in a classroom. Don't let the award winning teacher bit fool you! Too many awards are given to the teachers that looks good on paper and couldn't teach honor students to appreciate literature.
Rating:
Summary: This guy is full of it
Review: Simply put, this is a vicious diatribe with some assumptions that would make it impossible for any teacher to work with him. Even statement drips with venom yet has little research to back up his sweeping generalizations. I think someone gave his kid a B in elementary school and he's been out for vengeance ever since.
Rating: 
Summary: Some useful tactics but too opinionated
Review: Strickland offers a number of excellent tactics for digging into real problems at school. These tactics would be useful for parents who want to get past the symptoms and address their child's real problems at school. The book depends on old references to research done as long ago as 1959. Also, there is not one positive research study cited by Strickland regarding teaching and learning. Other authors do not seem to have trouble finding this type of research. See Linda Darling-Hammond's RIGHT TO LEARN. Linda Darling-Hammond and Strickland would agree that good teachers make all the difference in the world. Hammond is willing to point to school systems and school districts that know this and make efforts to see that teaching produces student learning. Strickland seems to think this never happens. Finally, Strickland takes an unfair potshot at an outstanding educator. Strickland tells parents to run from any teacher that mentions Madaline Hunter. Strickland apparently believes that everyone that has been exposed to Hunter's elements of instruction have misapplied her work by using the elements as a lock-step, or paint by the numbers instructional method. Hunter's elements could be abused in this way. However, Hunter's intention was to create a logical decision making process available to teachers to decide what a lesson should include as well as what a lesson should exclude. Used correctly Hunter's elements of instruction are fantastic tools for teachers and administrators to use in creating outstanding lessons where students learn and educators can discuss important parts of a lesson. Hunter's elements of instruction are meant to facilitate a teacher's decision making process so she can rationally plan a lesson to produce the desired learning in the students. Strickland is simply unfair in his opinion of Hunter. After all, his book is full of information and ideas that can be misapplied and abused just as easily as Hunter's.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautifully sedicious, heartfelt and true
Review: Strickland profiles poor teaching and the self-limiting character of educational bureaucracies. The book is written expressly for parents; it is not a guidebook for teachers. Strickland takes the cold, hard approach that most systems for teaching children are poor and there is nothing a parent can do to fix the system. He focuses on sensitizing his reader to get the most for their children. Since most readers of the subject are teachers or educators, this message amounts to a public spanking. Reviewers faulting Strickland for negativity give evidence that Strickland has hit his mark. This is not a book for parents who want to be reassured. It does not proffer the Utopian view that most educators are qualified. It does not provide a prescription for fixing the system. Rather, it is a guerrilla guide that is based on a view behind the bureaucratic veil. It reveals poor education to be widespread and endemic. It gives tools essential to enabling parents to remedy individual situations. The importance of Strickland's message is evidenced by the paucity of discussion on the topic of education from a students point of view. If you're a parent or a student, then this book is written for you.
Rating:
Summary: This guy is full of it
Review: The book above is, unfortunately, fraudulent. I am sure that the author means well, but his knowledge of our educational system is extremely limited, despite his claim to be an award-winning teacher with years of experience. There is no such thing as a "good" teacher or a "bad" teacher; all the bogus teaching awards and honors passed out annually are given for reasons that have little to do with teaching or learning. Such prizes are awarded, for the most part, in what is the equivalent of a popularity contest. It is shameful to see teachers hustling for these pitiful little tokens like contestants in a "Miss America" beauty pageant. Teachers may frequently be ignorant of subjects they "teach" in the classroom. Many undergraduate students do not have a sufficient command of the subject area when they graduate and become certified to teach in public schools. Other teachers are simply "evil" persons, like those evil persons in business, law, medicine, and other professions. Little can be done about these psychopaths and sociopaths until and unless they break a law. Ignorant teachers can usually stumble through a syllabus by using "curriculum guides." Even though they do not know the subject, they can follow materials created for them by a publishing industry that enjoys great profits. (Check out the "teacher's edition" of some school textbook.) But ignorance is even worse in the case of teachers whose undergraduate major is "education" and who have majored in no real academic subject. The actual content of "teaching" would probably fail to fill a thimble--education majors learn educational "philosophy and history" and often a subject's "materials and methods." Any academic requirement is often watered-down courses in vague areas of a subject. Academic content cannot be construed as learning how to operate a VCR or an overhead projector. Teachers cannot be located on some imaginary continuum stretching between "good" and "bad"; such an idea is completely in error. All of us who are not brain-dead are teachers and learners; being certified to teach in public schools presumably means that the person has command of a body of knowledge that he or she is willing and eager to share. Real educational reform will not come from identifying and firing all the "bad" teachers, but by insisting that individual students (and their parents, especially when younger) take the responsibility for their education. We can, as citizens of a democracy, demand the following of our public schools: 1. A rigorous national curriculum that excludes pandering to "political correctness." 2. Standardized, nationally-normed exams given yearly at each grade level. 3. Meaningful, continuing teacher development in the area of specialization, not "education." 4. A means to remand students who have problems with "discipline" to their parents for home-schooling or another ecuational arrangement. 5. Removing administrative burdens (to the extent possible) from teachers.
Rating:
Summary: Good and Bad Teachers
Review: The book above is, unfortunately, fraudulent. I am sure that the author means well, but his knowledge of our educational system is extremely limited, despite his claim to be an award-winning teacher with years of experience. There is no such thing as a "good" teacher or a "bad" teacher; all the bogus teaching awards and honors passed out annually are given for reasons that have little to do with teaching or learning. Such prizes are awarded, for the most part, in what is the equivalent of a popularity contest. It is shameful to see teachers hustling for these pitiful little tokens like contestants in a "Miss America" beauty pageant. Teachers may frequently be ignorant of subjects they "teach" in the classroom. Many undergraduate students do not have a sufficient command of the subject area when they graduate and become certified to teach in public schools. Other teachers are simply "evil" persons, like those evil persons in business, law, medicine, and other professions. Little can be done about these psychopaths and sociopaths until and unless they break a law. Ignorant teachers can usually stumble through a syllabus by using "curriculum guides." Even though they do not know the subject, they can follow materials created for them by a publishing industry that enjoys great profits. (Check out the "teacher's edition" of some school textbook.) But ignorance is even worse in the case of teachers whose undergraduate major is "education" and who have majored in no real academic subject. The actual content of "teaching" would probably fail to fill a thimble--education majors learn educational "philosophy and history" and often a subject's "materials and methods." Any academic requirement is often watered-down courses in vague areas of a subject. Academic content cannot be construed as learning how to operate a VCR or an overhead projector. Teachers cannot be located on some imaginary continuum stretching between "good" and "bad"; such an idea is completely in error. All of us who are not brain-dead are teachers and learners; being certified to teach in public schools presumably means that the person has command of a body of knowledge that he or she is willing and eager to share. Real educational reform will not come from identifying and firing all the "bad" teachers, but by insisting that individual students (and their parents, especially when younger) take the responsibility for their education. We can, as citizens of a democracy, demand the following of our public schools: 1. A rigorous national curriculum that excludes pandering to "political correctness." 2. Standardized, nationally-normed exams given yearly at each grade level. 3. Meaningful, continuing teacher development in the area of specialization, not "education." 4. A means to remand students who have problems with "discipline" to their parents for home-schooling or another ecuational arrangement. 5. Removing administrative burdens (to the extent possible) from teachers.
Rating:
Summary: Very worthwhile
Review: There are lots of good teachers out there, but there are also teachers who fail to teach the subject or terrorize and mistreat the children in their care. And frankly, the children are often blamed for their normal reactions to an abnormal situation.
For example, I had a teacher in sixth grade who encouraged the other children to tease me and told me (amongst other things), "When you die, no one will go to your funeral." She's still working at the school to the best of my knowledge.
If you've got a good teacher or a satisfactory teacher for your kid, be greatful. But the day your child has a teacher who can't write, speak English, or treat children with basic respect, you'll be glad this book is around.
Rating:
Summary: Bad Teachers
Review: Unfortunately there is a real need for this book. It is a shame that this kind of information is so limited. No one wants to touch this very important topic, although most of us know this exists-including the good teachers. I have been amazed and extremely disappointed with professional educators we have come across since our children started school. I wish someone would write a book about what to do when your child is unlucky enough to get the "Mean Teacher".
Rating: 
Summary: Finally, good advice for parents, to deal with bad teachers.
Review: What happens when your child has a bad teacher? The school won't admit that the teacher is bad. They defend their teachers with codes of silence, stalling, stonewalling, and labor unions and contracts. They pretend to care about the children, but the education of your individual child has a very low priority for them. The school will deny that there is a problem, or shift the blame to the victim: "There's something wrong with your child, or the way you brought up your child..." Until this book, parents have never had good information about how to protect their child from incompetent teachers and insensitive school systems. This book tells why there are so many bad teachers, and tells parents how to:
Identify good and bad teachers.
Make sure the problem is the teacher, not the child.
Get the most out of teacher conferences.
Understand the school's motives and counter their defenses.
Get your child transferred, or get the help he needs. The author can be reached at BadTeachrs@aol.com. Share your horror stories about bad teachers!
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