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It's Your Time You're Wasting: A Teacher's Tales of Classroom Hell
 
 

It's Your Time You're Wasting: A Teacher's Tales of Classroom Hell [Kindle Edition]

Frank Chalk
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (125 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Product Description

Frank Chalk is an ordinary teacher in an ordinary British school... a school where the kids get drunk, beat up the teachers and take drugs - when they can be bothered to turn up.

It's Your Time You're Wasting is the blackly humorous diary of a year in his working life.

Chalk confiscates porn, booze and errant trainers, fends off angry parents and worries about the conscientious pupils whose lives and futures are being systematically wrecked, recording his experiences in a funny and readable book.

He offers top tips for dealing with unruly kids, muses on the shortcomings of the staff (including his own) and even spots the occasional spark of hope amid all the despair.

Prepare to be horrified and amused by the unvarnished truth about the bottom end of our state education system. A must-read for parents, teachers and anyone who cares about our country's future.

From the Author:

I started out as a nice liberal bloke who thought the best of everyone. I changed, over time. This book is dedicated to the good kids - there are plenty of them, but they're being slowly crushed by the bad - and several hundred thousand hard-working teachers, who do their best against the impossible odds created by our mad, politically-correct nightmare of an education system. It's a funny book - I hope - with a serious message; the time for talking is over. We need to sort our schools out now, before it really is too late.

Frank Chalk.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars NON TEACHERS should read this 7 Jun 2011
As a secondary teacher at an all boys school in inner city Liverpool I can say with conviction that I recognised all the scenarios played out in this book.Did I enjoy it?...In many ways yes as it serves as confirmation that the current standards of discipline across schools today is consistently appalling. Along with the pitiful fact that many unfortunate children are growing up with the cast of Jeremy Kyle candidates. However; I found that it made me extremely depressed and focused almost entirely upon negative experiences, giving the impression that teaching today is a totally un-unfilling job and likely to drive you to the funny farm. Though the experiences Mr Chalk describes are the norm of everyday classroom behaviour in many schools, the repetition quickly became boring.
If you have little experience of a day in the life of a secondary school I urge you to read it.....it will make you realise why teachers need those holidays that we get slated for. If you are one of those that faces the Dwaynes and Shazneys of the world I suggest only reading when you have had a good day; otherwise it may tip you over the edge.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
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As a retired teacher who spent many years in both permanent jobs and in supply work - in high schools and middle schools between the mid 1960s and 2000 - I know only too well what Frank Chalk is talking about. The dramatic deterioration in discipline, systematic erosion of teachers' authority and constant meddling by successive governments have reduced the education in some parts of this country to a farce. The benefits culture has spawned an underclass that not only has no interest in education but treats it with derision. The massive injection of capital that has been poured into education over the years rarely filters down to classrooms where it is desperately needed.

This easy to read book highlights the worst in one particular inner-city school. There are many laughs along the way but they are bitter-sweet because, in the final analysis, too many of our children are being badly let down and condemned to a lifetime of unemployability with all the attendant knock-on effects that will inevitably have on society as a whole.

Frank Chalk does offer thoughts on improving the system towards the end of the book. No-one who has not witnessed education at the 'chalk face' in at least the worst - and best - of schools should presume to tell teachers how to do their jobs. In addition this book should be compulsory reading for anyone in government - both national and local. Then, perhaps, the plight of our disaffected children and their demoralised teachers might be taken seriously and steps to 'turn the tide' may be implemented.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has children in the system, too. Make sure you know what your children's schools are like and avoid those like St Judes in Mr Chalk's book.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
My first comment is this, all those who said this chap doesn't like children is sooooo wrong, he really does care but how can you show any thought or care for a child who just doesn't care them selves, I have three young children and my eldest who is ten and going to secondary school next September has made me really think about where do I send him, I have always worried about this but know it has made me realise even more that moving my children to our now local village best school in lincolnshire was the right move so at least I've given them the best chance of passing there eleven plus and up there chances of getting a place at a grammar school, this book is fantastic and this chap is wasted on educating these lowlifes and it's such a shame he can't just pick out the well behaved and good mannered children and take them to another classroom ( or school for that matter) and do the job he is so passionate about, a truly amazing book thank you as I never realised it was that bad, we all think schools are like waterloo road but that is a very tame school indeed and I thought it was a bad school how wrong I was, so to all of you out there and what ever age please do read this as it is brilliant and educational in a sad way
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Quite disturbing
I'd bought this book on a recommendation, and really enjoyed it!
I knew the secondary schools were like this, hearing reports from old pupils, but crikey, the truth was... Read more
Published 6 days ago by Roofiebabes
4.0 out of 5 stars A Fantastic Cathartic Rant!
I found this book very interesting but I wasn't surprised by any of the behaviour of the kids written about, as we see and read about today's youth almost everyday. Read more
Published 16 days ago by A. Thompson
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but scary!
True-life recollections of a teacher in an apparently "normal" school. He tells a good story although his own personal/political views get shouted out rather loudly the... Read more
Published 17 days ago by Dr H E Brambley
5.0 out of 5 stars The truth is out there!
A brilliant and funny book but not for the fainthearted! It really does tell it like it (sadly all too often) is, but in a compelling and humorous way underscored by a deep... Read more
Published 25 days ago by N COURTNEY
3.0 out of 5 stars Reminds me of school
Light reading which takes you back to the good old days.. who'd be a teacher, the majority deserve a medal.
Published 1 month ago by Mrs Janet C Allen
5.0 out of 5 stars Every teacher should read this.
I'm recently retired and glad to leave the classroom behind; teaching is not what it used to be. Had me laughing out loud at the all too familiar tales of the classroom, pupils and... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mrs. Sheila Forrest
5.0 out of 5 stars A Real Eye Opener
After reading this book, I have never been more thankful to have attended a school more akin to St Johns than St Judes. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Ashleigh Gange
3.0 out of 5 stars From one teacher to another
As a teacher I could sympathise with many of Frank Chalk's complaints and his stories were very amusing (and some were familiar). Read more
Published 1 month ago by Carole
1.0 out of 5 stars out of the 1970s
Oh dear spot the reviews that are self promotion; scroll a little further on and you find the real ones. Written by someone that none of us would want any where near our children.
Published 2 months ago by spot the self promotion
4.0 out of 5 stars So true it's scary
This book for me was laugh out loud funny. Not so much for the sarcasm, humour or the downright ridiculous, although they are there in abundance, but because he is describing my... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Jayne Holmes
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Popular Highlights

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&quote;
This is a recurring theme in schools: if you are quiet, well-behaved and fairly bright you will be ignored, whereas if you are a lunatic who shuts up for five minutes you will be handsomely rewarded. &quote;
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For many people, what they currently own is merely the baseline. Every time they acquire something new they simply reset their happiness level to a new baseline. That way lies madness. &quote;
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The lack of ability of those in charge to get a grip on a situation, and to take immediate, decisive action, rather than simply debate everything endlessly is one of the major problems in the State education system. &quote;
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