Tales from the Teachers' Lounge: What I Learned in School the Second Time Around--One Man's Irreverent Look at Being a Teacher

I have been considering entering the educational field and bought this book because it appeared to be a humorous but serious look into some of the more personal aspects of teaching. The volume did not disappoint! I don't read this one at work any more due to large outburst of laughing. While the language is intense, the imagery it gives in hilarious. A gold star in my book!

This book was more helpful to me than the last five years of inservice combined. It is so refreshing to know that there are other dedicated teachers who get frustrated with students, administrators, parents, and above all, themselves and are still able to maintain a sense of humor! Buy this book!

I think anyone who has a sense of humor and the capacity for not taking life TOO seriously can relate to this book! The essays in this book are spot-on funny, and yes, irreverent, as the title states. If you want to remember what it was like to slink through the halls of learning in a constant state of fear/embarrassment; want a handle on school from a teacher's perspective; or just want a good belly laugh -this book is for you!

Rob Wilder has a wicked pen. He skewers everyone--students, teachers, friends, family, and above all himself--with a biting sarcasm, but also with grace and humor. Reading him, you have the feeling that if he got ahold of you, he'd show all your foibles, but it wouldn't really sting. He'd have you dead to rights, and all you could do would be laugh. That and moan perhaps, at Wilder's exposure of the educational and social subtleties of the classroom, the underbelly of today's schools. "Never give a Wilder a microphone or a podium," the author says. "Like an infomercial, we'll be on all night." That's fine with me, because I'll be up laughing. Wilder outdoes himself with his versions of student retellings of books often taught in high school: The Great Gatsby, Hamlet, Song of Myself, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, and others. Brilliant. I wish, in the tenth grade, I'd had a teacher half as devoted, humane and funny as Rob Wilder.

Rob Wilder's latest book is an up-close look at the life of a school teacher. Very funny and at times very poignant, Tales . . . tells us much about Wilder's own experiences in the classroom and about that rare mix of humor, drama, knowledge of one's subject matter, and love of kids that makes a great teacher. I recommend it highly!