- Paperback
- Publisher: Avon Books (Mm) (Dec 1976)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0380008599
- ISBN-13: 978-0380008599
- Product Dimensions: 17.5 x 10.7 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,419,964 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Part of the "NFT/BFI Film Classics" series, this is the story of life in a New York slum school, where young hoodlums develop their crude ways, and their teachers fight a vain and losing battle to bring a semblance of decency and honesty into their lives.
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First Sentence
The building presented a not unpleasant architectural scheme, the banks of wide windows reflecting golden sunlight, the browned weathered brick facade, the ivy clinging to the brick and framing the windows. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
The building presented a not unpleasant architectural scheme, the banks of wide windows reflecting golden sunlight, the browned weathered brick facade, the ivy clinging to the brick and framing the windows. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Inner-city New York demands the toughest from newly-qualified teachers. The 1950/60s trade-school system was set-up to cater for the less academically able but has become synonymous with "no hopers". Into this scenario a new group of teachers arrive. The book traces their struggles to deliver the curriculum to their demanding students. The teachers have to face apathy and resignation from older members of staff and decide on whether to compromise or continue to follow their ideals at great personal cost. Danger waits from their more violent students outside the class as well as in, especially if one becomes "a hero" (saving a female member of staff from rape). The plot is easily followed and the prose style undemanding. It is the echoes of struggles faced by any teacher today which make this book a "must", particularly for those facing the challenge of the inner cities today. Above all, the conclusion is firmly based in reality which leaves the reader reviewing the plot in a philosophical rather than sceptical light.
Format:Paperback
If you liked Dangerous Minds, the film with Michelle Pfeiffer and Coolio doing his gangstas paradise bit, then you'll love this. A similar setting (new teacher in rough school has to try and control unruly classes) it is a thrilling story with a bitter twist at the end. The main story running through this book is Rick Dadier's battle with one particularly clever and cunning pupil, Gregory Miller. His IQ is high but he chooses to be the class ringleader, and this causes a lot of tension in the classroom. A top read.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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9 reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
A Most Impactful Piece of Literature
4 Dec 1999
Format:Hardcover
The first time I read the book, I had checked it out at my university's library. There were several different editions on display. I selected the one which had notes scribbled in the margins by a previous reader. Curious to find out what others thought of my favourite author, I read all the scribbles before I started the book. Whoever had it before me hated it! I cannot concieve why, since this is an excellent look into the struggles of a new teacher in a harsh environment. Hey, let's not forget that Mr. Hunter has an Oscar for the film based on the book! The major difference towards the end between the movie and the book sways me in favour of the book -- a must-read, to quote an old cliche.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Read One, Read the Other, for an Educational Update!
17 Sep 2002
Format:Hardcover
Published in 1954, Evan Hunter's novel is set in an urban vocational school of all boys. Today, almost fifty years later, it remains not just an excellent read, but also a worthwhile one-especially when it is read in conjunction with SPINE, a more contemporary novel of teachers struggling with students and the school system of an isolated rural town. In the latter work-a creation of this reviewer-the power and authority of the teacher in the classroom has been virtually eliminated (though seldom admitted), and no administrator would ever utter the words that Hunter's principal stresses to his faculty: "The teacher is boss, remember that!" Nor would those same administrators of today play the hardball of the JUNGLE's head man and insist on payment by parents for the destruction of school property by their sons and daughters. And how many modern-day parents are there who don't view the entire school as something they cannot entirely trust? Who may even regard it less a friend to their progeny and more an enemy? These and other contrasts are often starkly apparent if one reads both novels. Just as are other items that are the same today as they were midway through the previous century. In fact, one of these may even help to determine when teachers began to lose the authority of their position. Again, consider Hunter's school principal. When a student levels a charge at his English teacher, the story's protagonist, principal Small accuses his employee Rick Dadier of being a racial bigot, and he does so without first listening to the other side of the incident. Read one, read the other. Gain a little more insight about the world of education.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Memoirs for a Trades School Teacher
25 Sep 2007
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This was the first major novel of "Evan Hunter", a WW II Navy veteran who attended college and then taught at a vocational high school. This book is dedicated to his wife Anita. It is a work of fiction, any resemblance to actual persons is purely coincidental. But it is obviously based on his personal experience. There is a lot of detail in this 309 page book that suggests reporting rather than fiction. If you saw the film you will find the novel more detailed about his teaching experiences, and without the Hollywood dramatic changes. Are this scenes still true today?
The snowfall on October 19 suggests Albany or Syracuse rather than New York city (Chapter 6). Rick learned the usefulness of dramatics in teaching and holding attention in class. Rick says there are no courses on "Teaching the Trades School Student". The trade school was invented to give "practical education for those who want it, or don't fit into an academic environment. [They don't acknowledge that it is class-based. Before the 1930s most grammar school graduates went directly to work at 14. They learned on the job.] Rick's experiences in the Navy told of a similar situation regarding a squealer.
Chapter 10 describes the various methods used to keep discipline in school. One incident has Dadier accused of bias by a secret informer (one of his students). Part III describes the work done for the Christmas Assembly show. Dadier was put in charge, he found the volunteers needed. Later he made a breakthrough to his class (Chapter 12). It was the story about "The Fifty-First Dragon". Was the story about the maternity hospital an allegory about his teaching career? There is a final dramatic chapter where Dadier earns the respect of his class.
Are trades school students still considered inferior? They are more likely to become independent businessmen than an academic graduate. Note that Dadier family is a "nuclear family" living in a new development with little contact with relatives. Hunter knew how to spice up this novel for the reading audience of the 1950s. [There was an earlier film by Abbott & Costello whose story was similar to "The Fifty-First Dragon".]
The snowfall on October 19 suggests Albany or Syracuse rather than New York city (Chapter 6). Rick learned the usefulness of dramatics in teaching and holding attention in class. Rick says there are no courses on "Teaching the Trades School Student". The trade school was invented to give "practical education for those who want it, or don't fit into an academic environment. [They don't acknowledge that it is class-based. Before the 1930s most grammar school graduates went directly to work at 14. They learned on the job.] Rick's experiences in the Navy told of a similar situation regarding a squealer.
Chapter 10 describes the various methods used to keep discipline in school. One incident has Dadier accused of bias by a secret informer (one of his students). Part III describes the work done for the Christmas Assembly show. Dadier was put in charge, he found the volunteers needed. Later he made a breakthrough to his class (Chapter 12). It was the story about "The Fifty-First Dragon". Was the story about the maternity hospital an allegory about his teaching career? There is a final dramatic chapter where Dadier earns the respect of his class.
Are trades school students still considered inferior? They are more likely to become independent businessmen than an academic graduate. Note that Dadier family is a "nuclear family" living in a new development with little contact with relatives. Hunter knew how to spice up this novel for the reading audience of the 1950s. [There was an earlier film by Abbott & Costello whose story was similar to "The Fifty-First Dragon".]
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