elementary school teacher
April 28, 2024, 5:00
The Magical Place We Call School: Creating Safe Spaces for Learning and Happiness in a Troubled World
Glenn Plaskin and Dr. Kathleen Corley
publisher
front line books
Hello, partner! Before we go into detail about this, how about a slice of Mom Meemaw's apple pie while I'm talking to you? A magical place we call school?
Too many? If you're the type of person who likes to cover your ears when groups of American tourists (collective noun: Trump) rave about heading to Lie-sess-terh-shy-ehr Square on the London Underground, this book is hard to avoid. I could only glimpse the digital copy, but even cropping it revealed a strangely patriotic smear of red, white, and blue.
If you can get past this – I made it to Chapter 2 – what you have here is a heartfelt and passionate love letter to teaching and education. Despite the Trumpification of society, where we can only have one point of view and anyone who dares sit in the other camp is the enemy, this book shows that there is a middle ground. Some pedagogical drums sound louder than others, where both firm boundaries and an understanding of the individual child are important.
Dr. Kathleen Corley has worked in the American education system for more than 40 years. This system honestly makes our education system look vanilla. It is clear throughout the book that she is dedicated to her students and career.
This is clearly a dangerous path for some. Along the same path, witness a burned and broken staff sitting in a dust bowl. Commitment to one's career, if not managed carefully, comes at enormous costs – often untold costs – on one's mental health, marriage, social life, and children's lives.
If someone survives that journey with enough optimism to call school a ‘magical place’, we should listen (sic.). There is a wisdom that comes from longevity, which we can now name Corley's Law. The longer you spend teaching, the more accurate you will be at being able to say exactly what works in your classroom.
So while the book is primarily comprised of anecdotes, these are teachable moments more than anything else. The book works relatively well because they exemplify the wisdom Corley wants to impart.
In the past, much teacher training took place in hotel conference rooms. It would be really exciting to be able to wear your own clothes and enjoy a free lunch buffet on a weekday. Zoom was the way to go after filling out the evaluation form. Although many of these expert-led courses are excellent, the best part was the opportunity to chat with peers and gain ideas, advice and expertise from older, more frequent listeners. wiser than you
So with this book. Don't expect it to revolutionize your career. But enjoy the opportunity to sit by the fire and chew the fat with an experienced principal. It feels reassuring and comforting, like a conversation I had with great teachers at an old training camp.
I would also recommend this book to ambitious aspiring heads. I don't really like Excel and meetings, so I don't want to be a principal. But I think the advice Corley gives is the kind of advice I would really like if that were my career path.
Here's what I've been emphasizing and thinking about for longer than TikTok: “Solve your problems before they take care of you.” I continue to be puzzled as I see time and time again leaders suffer because they have kicked the problem or (more commonly) completely buried their heads in the sand. As our cousins on the pond say, problems always come back to haunt them.
Like a bucking wild horse, headship is an unforgiving and difficult beast. Sometimes you just need to hear campfire stories from someone who's been to their fair share of rodeos. With 40 years of rustling children and an undying love for them, Corley has plenty of that.
If you can get past the poop.