I’m off to crochet very shortly, but I have some more books for you. The first I finished on the way to work, the other two I read at work, and I’m quite sure I’ll be perusing some pages later tonight.
41. Skullcaps and Switchblades by David B. Lazerson
It appears this book has been reprinted relatively recently (although my copy says 1999) but it was originally published in 1987 and recounts the author’s experiences as a teacher in what would now (in the UK, anyway) be called the special educational needs (SEN) department of a Buffalo, New York, USA public school during the second half of the 1970s. He seems to have been very effective, although I can’t imagine some of his methods being allowed in schools here and now. Many of his methods and results are still inspirational however.
The period and expected audience does come through in the constant reminders of race issues and how people are just people with different (but generally not badly different) cultural overlays. Again this probably wouldn’t be discussed in the same language now, twenty years later.
42. Leading Lives: Emmeline Pankhurst by David Downing
I hadn’t known so much about the Pankhursts as people, rather than as Suffragette icons before this book, which is short and concise (as aimed at school pupils) but including plenty of interesting detail. I hadn’t even realised Emmeline and her husband Richard had five children, not just Christabel and Sylvia. Her two sons died relatively young, and the third daughter, Adela, doesn’t seem to have been as politically active.
It is mostly about the politics, of course, but I can appreciate the focus on history through personal stories. Most of the time, anyhow!
43. Get Writing!: Write that Poem by Shaun McCarthy
And this one is an introduction for children to the forms of poetry and various approaches to writing one’s own.
