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| Educating Esme; A Book ReportWritten by: Rikordway OVERVIEW
The book, Educating Esme, was written by Esme Raji Codell. It is a journal written throughout her first year as a teacher. During her first year, Esme discusses many different problems and situations that she encounters. She shares experiences that range from abusive parents to a seemingly discriminative principal. Though the book is filled with light hearted events and hilarious happenings, Esme still manages to get across the seriousness of the job at hand and the responsibilities of teaching the fragile youth of this country.
SETTING
The story takes place in an inner-city Chicago elementary school. Esme must struggle to deal with the problems that are presented by the school’s location. Among these problems are gangs, theft and tight budgets.
THEME
The theme for this book seemed to be that a little perseverance can go a long way in achieving your goals. There were many times when Esme could have just quit or given up on her students when things went a little wrong. Instead, Esme found other ways of dealing with the problems she was faced with. No matter who stood in her way, Esme stayed the course and was extremely diligent in her own ideas of how to teach her kids.
PERSONAL OPINION
My personal thoughts on the book range from good to bad. There are many things that Esme did that I would like to use for myself. I loved the way that Esme got the children excited and interested in learning by getting them involved. She did not simply stand and read from the lesson book. She would dress up and bring the lessons to life. She also got the children into reading with the time machine. She showed them that they could journey to far off planets and tropical places by simply sitting back with a good book and letting their imaginations go. Also, Esme had a practice of letting her students drop off their problems before they came into the room. Even if this is purely symbolic, I think it represents a lot more in making the students comfortable in their environment. One last thing I liked, though there are many, is the idea of having the “problem child” teach the class when he kept disturbing it. Esme played the bad child role and the student then learned how hard it is when the tables were turned.
Lastly, though I thought that Educating Esme was a terrific book that can help many potential teachers, I strongly disagreed with one aspect of Esme’s personality. I think that it is great that Esme was so confident. However, I think that it was misdirected in use against the principal. I do not think suggestions like having the students stop calling her Madame Esme were out of line. If Esme were fired over this, she could not have reached her goals with the children and I think that it was a silly cause to take such a great risk on. There were other ways of accomplishing her desires for the children to feel comfortable with her and challenging the principal, I felt, was a disrespectful and misguided way to handle things. However she felt about the principal, he was still the authority figure and even if she felt he was not due the respect, his position was.
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