ON THE EDGE
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'I cannot count how many times I have been told to f*** off by a pupil.'
Charlie Carroll is a successful young teacher in a great school. He loves his job but wants to see the tougher side of British education. So he hands in his notice, takes to the road in a beat-up old camper van and spends a year travelling round England's most deprived areas, supply teaching in dozens of the country's roughest comprehensives.
Carroll is battered and bewildered by what he finds; pupils threaten to abuse him, deal drugs, flash knives, surf the internet for porn and fight in class. Often, lessons are more about riot control than learning.
He's almost broken by the experience, but just occasionally - in the most surprising of places - he comes across inspiring kids who are battling against the odds.
This is his frank, funny and frightening story of a journey to the edge of modern education.
Charlie's book is well worth a read if you can stomach the constant misery of his existence as a supply teacher. Like some kind of educational suicide bomber, (he) loads up his van and scours the British Isles in search of adventure, or death... one is never quite certain... Even with my ''inner city'' experience I didn't quite realise just how terrible some of our schools are. It made me feel positively wretched, especially in light of my recent escapades, arguing with half of Britain, trying to persuade them that the system is indeed broken.
''Just read Charlie Carroll's book!'' is what I want to say, but I know they'll just laugh and tell me that his experiences aren't representative of the whole. Too right they aren't. I have never worked in schools like the ones in his book. It is as if Charlie's schools jumped straight out of a horror film, only that the true horror is that they are just down the street from where you live.
Charlie Carroll not only taught in them he found the energy and dedication to write about his experiences. Why? Because he wanted us to know the truth. No doubt, like me, he naively thought that if he could just tell them, and that if he could just let people know what's happening, someone might do something about it.
Little did we realise that great numbers of people would turn a blind eye and deliberately ignore the truth because it is easier to believe the lie. Charlie Carroll still works as a teacher. His real name remains a secret. Lucky him. He's still entitled to his life as it was. He wasn't as foolish as me to get up at the Conservative Party conference and shout the truth out loud. Instead, he has written it in his book, On the Edge. If you want to know just how bad our schools can get, On the Edge is a must-read.
Katharine Birbalsingh, Daily Telegraph
Charlie Carroll is a successful young teacher in a great school. He loves his job but wants to see the tougher side of British education. So he hands in his notice, takes to the road in a beat-up old camper van and spends a year travelling round England's most deprived areas, supply teaching in dozens of the country's roughest comprehensives.
Carroll is battered and bewildered by what he finds; pupils threaten to abuse him, deal drugs, flash knives, surf the internet for porn and fight in class. Often, lessons are more about riot control than learning.
He's almost broken by the experience, but just occasionally - in the most surprising of places - he comes across inspiring kids who are battling against the odds.
This is his frank, funny and frightening story of a journey to the edge of modern education.
Charlie's book is well worth a read if you can stomach the constant misery of his existence as a supply teacher. Like some kind of educational suicide bomber, (he) loads up his van and scours the British Isles in search of adventure, or death... one is never quite certain... Even with my ''inner city'' experience I didn't quite realise just how terrible some of our schools are. It made me feel positively wretched, especially in light of my recent escapades, arguing with half of Britain, trying to persuade them that the system is indeed broken.
''Just read Charlie Carroll's book!'' is what I want to say, but I know they'll just laugh and tell me that his experiences aren't representative of the whole. Too right they aren't. I have never worked in schools like the ones in his book. It is as if Charlie's schools jumped straight out of a horror film, only that the true horror is that they are just down the street from where you live.
Charlie Carroll not only taught in them he found the energy and dedication to write about his experiences. Why? Because he wanted us to know the truth. No doubt, like me, he naively thought that if he could just tell them, and that if he could just let people know what's happening, someone might do something about it.
Little did we realise that great numbers of people would turn a blind eye and deliberately ignore the truth because it is easier to believe the lie. Charlie Carroll still works as a teacher. His real name remains a secret. Lucky him. He's still entitled to his life as it was. He wasn't as foolish as me to get up at the Conservative Party conference and shout the truth out loud. Instead, he has written it in his book, On the Edge. If you want to know just how bad our schools can get, On the Edge is a must-read.
Katharine Birbalsingh, Daily Telegraph
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Charlie Carroll is a nom de plume for an actual secondary school teacher who reached a crossroads in his career as an English teacher. Deputy head of English at a good secondary school in the South West he decided he wanted something a little different, not something as inane as a year out travelling the world, but something with more purpose than that. He chose to resign his job and become a supply teacher for a year. Now anyone with any experience of education in the UK knows that the role of a supply teacher is a thankless task. Even in good schools they are `targeted' by the pupils and very often don't get the support they should from the normal staff. However Charlie didn't choose to be any old supply teacher. Oh no. He decided to spend a whole academic year travelling in his camper van doing supply in not only the most challenging areas in England, but the most challenging schools in the most challenging areas of England. This book is his account of his experience over that year.
I approached this book with some caution. My initial impressions from reading the reviews already written, the summary on the back of the book and my own preconceptions was that this was going to be a book that was really negative about the whole English state education system. It was going to be an X-rated tour of the depths of England's education system. It was a tour of this sort of educational establishment, but it was so much more than this and my caution and preconceptions were wrong.
This is a stark book outlining Charlies experiences at the edge of comprehensive education in England. He outlines some horrendous behaviour and appalling stories. What comes out of the book though is the fact that yes, this does go on, but not in every school and the behaviour is down to a combination of parenting, centrally dictated targets and statutes and often poor leadership within the school. The heroes are the teachers who work in these places day in day out and occasionally some of the pupils who play a starring role in the book.
This is not a book aimed at taking a cheap hit at our education system, more a statement of fact of what actually does go on within some of our schools in some of our most deprived areas. For those who criticise teachers, read this and get an understanding of what teaching is like at times. For those teachers who work in good schools but don't think you do, read this and realise how lucky you are. For parents, read this and think about your children and the effect good and bad parenting has. For those who are just inquisitive, read this book because it is very well written and will inform you and improve you and make you realise that education really is the silver bullet - if only everyone realised this!
I approached this book with some caution. My initial impressions from reading the reviews already written, the summary on the back of the book and my own preconceptions was that this was going to be a book that was really negative about the whole English state education system. It was going to be an X-rated tour of the depths of England's education system. It was a tour of this sort of educational establishment, but it was so much more than this and my caution and preconceptions were wrong.
This is a stark book outlining Charlies experiences at the edge of comprehensive education in England. He outlines some horrendous behaviour and appalling stories. What comes out of the book though is the fact that yes, this does go on, but not in every school and the behaviour is down to a combination of parenting, centrally dictated targets and statutes and often poor leadership within the school. The heroes are the teachers who work in these places day in day out and occasionally some of the pupils who play a starring role in the book.
This is not a book aimed at taking a cheap hit at our education system, more a statement of fact of what actually does go on within some of our schools in some of our most deprived areas. For those who criticise teachers, read this and get an understanding of what teaching is like at times. For those teachers who work in good schools but don't think you do, read this and realise how lucky you are. For parents, read this and think about your children and the effect good and bad parenting has. For those who are just inquisitive, read this book because it is very well written and will inform you and improve you and make you realise that education really is the silver bullet - if only everyone realised this!
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Nice one, Mr Carroll. Your book really sums up what it is currently like in the teaching profession, and is an absolute page-turner.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As many people have already mentioned, this book is a beautifully written insight into the state of schools in Britain today. Well balanced and full of good humour, Carroll never falls to cliche when describing what he sees and is also fully open about the occasions that surprise him positively as well as the negative. I would urge anybody to read this book, but especially hope that it finds its way into the hands of people in the department of education - soon.
I couldn't put it down and the description of the UK and observations of Charlie's travels in his vintage bus would merit a book all of their own.
I look forward with eager anticipation to the next journey and the next book...
I couldn't put it down and the description of the UK and observations of Charlie's travels in his vintage bus would merit a book all of their own.
I look forward with eager anticipation to the next journey and the next book...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A amusing read
I liked the premise of this book, and really enjoyed hearing the tales of certain circumstances the author encountered in UK schools..particularly the stories about bad behaviour. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Helen M. Crook
Highly recommended !
Beautifully written and thoroughly enjoyable! An excellent insight into the modern education system and a must read for teachers, parents and politicians!!!!!!.
Published 4 months ago by The Book Collector
One Review, a Laptop, Britain's Toughest Critic...
On the edge fuses what it's like at the coal face of teaching in today's society with an in depth analysis of how we might go about improving the experiences of teachers and pupils... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mr. O. J. Wyatt
MP s please read!
This writer has got the flaws and upsides of the teaching profession down to a "T". I have been a teacher for thirty something years so consider myself something of an expert on... Read more
Published 8 months ago by annie
Other similar books out there
The book begins with " I can't tell you how many times I have been told to f**k off"
So that gives a clue to the type of schools Charlie Carroll if referring to in this... Read more
So that gives a clue to the type of schools Charlie Carroll if referring to in this... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Sanz
A truly humorous insight into UK education
An eyeopener, and a great read to boot. Touching and funny. A must read for every education pundit and dinner party education expert.
Published 11 months ago by Mark
Very good but Frank Chalk still takes it
The concept for this book is excellent... Take a year off and work supply to teach around the country to see what its really like. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Mr. C. Wood
The heart of English darkness
"Charlie Carroll" takes a couple of terms off to be a supply teacher in some sink schools. Maybe because he has some "issues around" things like girls, science, alcohol and his own... Read more
Published 12 months ago by James-philip Harries
A captivating read
I bought this book because I am trying to find out as much information about the many facets of teaching as I can. Read more
Published 13 months ago by DizzyWitch
A great book
I bought this book after I saw a colleague of mine reading it in the staff-room. She told me it was good. I read it. And it was brilliant.
Teachers: read this book. Read more
Teachers: read this book. Read more
Published 15 months ago by English Teacher
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