How to Survive in Your Native Land

This book really says it like it is. Even though written decades ago, the basic tenets it lays out regarding schools and life within them still ring true.James Herndon is a top notch writer and a notable explorer in the field of education. He is one of my heroes.

Great storytelling is great teaching, and James Herndon is both great teacher and grand storyteller. Though educational theory may have shifted, Herndon's stories about his students are indelible--brimming with humor, love and respect.

The beauty of Herndon's work is that he is both a wonderful writer (he is featured as one of the better writers of nonfiction in William Zinsser's classic _On Writing Well_) and an astute observer of his own and his children's actions. How to Survive presents him at his finest, discussing not how to teach (he almost never does this) but what teaching and learning are like. He does this with humor, honesty, and an edge. No teacher, reading this book, can come away without a more thoughtful consideration of his or her own teaching. It is stunning and does not deserve to have been forgotten in the way that it has.

Kite vignette was great; my fave part though was transcript of his lecture, "Public School... Or What?" A grrrrrrrreat book overall. Buy 5 copies and give them away. I wish it wasn't so hard to find though... Marco Capelli Frucht

Herndon at his best. In this charming -- if sometimes bawdy -- little book, Herdon brings his students alive. It's the details that are telling -- and school becomes more than school. It's a microcosm. Kids admonish each other to quit pestering the lizards as dozens of hands keep reaching into their home... A monster kite threatens the lunchtime gaggle of 7th grade girls... A dog is obsessed with an old tennis ball... Laugh, cry, think. Read this book.