For the past sixty years, the public education system in the United States has continued to evolve and adapt. While the definition of a teacher has remained relatively unchanged, the definition of a student has dramatically shifted over the years, and author Gerard W. Teachman views this change as the primary reason for the decrease in student achievement.
Tales out of School: As Told by a Dedicated Teacher is a profoundly insightful narrative looking at what it means to be a teacher in America. Using his forty-seven years of teaching experience as the backdrop for his memoir, Teachman shares his thoughts on the changes he believes are necessary for truly effective educational reform.
Teachman has an impressive and astoundingly varied history as an educator. In his memoir, he welcomes us into his absorbing past, from the years he worked as a high school instructor in both innercity Detroit and its affluent suburbs to the time he spent learning about the Waldorf School system in Switzerland.
Tales out of School: As Told by a Dedicated Teacher is a must-read for teachers, educators, and parents who find themselves searching for an inspirational voice among a chorus of academic opinions.
About the Author: Gerard W. Teachman received a PhD in philosophy of education from Wayne State University. He also studied the Waldorf School movement in Switzerland and took courses in philosophy at the University of Basel.
During his forty-seven-year career as an educator, he worked in public schools in innercity Detroit and in its affluent suburbs, teaching German, English, social studies, and psychology. He was also an education consultant for the Michigan Department of Education. For forty-two years, Teachman taught undergraduate and graduate courses on the philosophy of education at Wayne State University.
Teachman and his wife, Mary Jean, have three sons and a daughter. He retired from teaching in public schools in 1995 and from Wayne State University in 2009.
