Audiobook22 hours
Substitute: Going to School With a Thousand Kids
Written by Nicholson Baker
Narrated by Tom Zingarelli
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
2.5/5
()
About this audiobook
In 2014, after a brief orientation course and a few fingerprinting sessions, Nicholson Baker became an on-call substitute teacher in a Maine public school district. He awoke to the dispatcher's five-forty a.m. phone call and headed to one of several nearby schools; when he got there, he did his best to follow lesson plans and help his students get something done. What emerges from Baker's experience is a complex, often touching deconstruction of public schooling in America: children swamped with overdue assignments, overwhelmed by the marvels and distractions of social media and educational technology, and staff who weary themselves trying to teach in step with an often outmoded or overly ambitious standard curriculum. In Baker's hands, the inner life of the classroom is examined anew as the author and his pupils struggle to find ways to get through the day. Baker is one of the most inventive and remarkable writers of our time, and Substitute, filled with humor, honesty, and empathy, may be his most impressive work of nonfiction yet.
Author
Nicholson Baker
Nicholson Baker is the author of nine novels and four works of nonfiction, including Double Fold, which won a National Book Critics Circle Award, and House of Holes, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, and The New York Review of Books. He lives in Maine with his family.
More audiobooks from Nicholson Baker
Traveling Sprinkler Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anthologist: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Substitute
Related audiobooks
Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County: A Family, a Virginia Town, a Civil Rights Battle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLetters to a Young Teacher Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Brothers Vonnegut: Science and Fiction of the House of Magic Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hearts of Men: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ilustrado: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That's Transforming Education Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Better Living Through Criticism: How to Think about Art, Pleasure, Beauty, and Truth Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dear Los Angeles: The City in Diaries and Letters, 1542 to 2018 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House of Mirth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Can't Remember What I Forgot: The Good News from the Frontlines of Memory Research Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Wild Apples Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Life of Adventure and Delight Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children's Literature as an Adult Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From Ranching To Writing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Like a Fading Shadow: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Man Gone Down Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The End of Solitude: Selected Essays on Culture and Society Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Waiter in Paris: Adventures in the Dark Heart of the City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lonesome Lies Before Us: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beneath the Bonfire: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cursing Mommy's Book of Days: A Novel Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5News of the Air Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last Good Paradise Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Drawing Blood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Anthropology For You
Rethinking Narcissism: The Bad-and Surprising Good-About Feeling Special Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Power of Myth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why We Love: The New Science Behind Our Closest Relationships Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the World's Largest Experiment Reveals About Human Desire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ugly History of Beautiful Things: Essays on Desire and Consumption Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Age of Deer: Trouble and Kinship with our Wild Neighbors Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Pleasures and Sorrows of Work Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Songlines Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Community: Seven Principles for Belonging Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Who Is Wellness For?: An Examination of Wellness Culture and Who It Leaves Behind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari - Book Summary: A Brief History of Humankind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Intelligence in Nature: An Inquiry into Knowledge Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Neuroplasticity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Substitute
Rating: 2.684210631578947 out of 5 stars
2.5/5
19 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5As a certified teacher I have been substitute teaching for a few years trying to find a full-time position, so I am quite familiar with the joys and sorrows associated with this position. However, I decided to read this book with the hope that perhaps the author would provide me with some tips or insights into the wild world of substitute teaching. Sadly, that was not what this book was about. Instead it was a mind-numbing look at 28 days of substitute teaching done by the author who is not a teacher, but a writer looking for his next book. What surprised me most was that the school district allowed him to tape his classes, (the transcription of the dialogues between him, other staff and students is too precise for any other method to be used). It is obvious that the author does not have a high opinion of our system of education, instead preferring to chat with students about a variety of topics, many of which are not in his lesson plans. He also did not appear to have strong classroom management skills and often became frustrated by the noise levels in many of his classes. This is a very long book filled with minute-by-minute accounts of his days as a substitute teacher with no real sharing of insights. I kept hoping it would get better, but it never did.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5“I again wondered if I’d managed to teach anything useful that day,” says it all. Nicholson Baker describes his entrance into substitute teaching and his first twenty-eight days on the job. To qualify he had to complete four nights of an adult education class, complete an application, provide letters of recommendation, transcripts, get fingerprinted and pass a criminal background check. Other than knowing where the schools are located, the two more important items covered were emergency lockdown procedures and iPads usage. Unfortunately, conditions did not improve as he bounced from one class to another. He followed limited lessons plans, took attendance, and herded students from one area to another. The book makes a strong case the when the regular teacher is absent, the quality of instruction provided takes a nosedive into an illiteracy cesspool with the miniscule possibility of self-restraint and control as students take advantage and the substitute loses patience. The other lessons is the over reliance on technology rather and deductive reasoning to complete schoolwork.