Might recommend to high school students, but below that level, probably not. Definitely worth a read, especially if a student is thinking about becoming a teacher.

Historical Fiction
Memoir
Chapter Book

This is an autobiographical memoir about a journalist who decides to become an inner-city teacher at the worst school in the state. Ms. Asquith must overcome disorganized administration, double class size, ELLs and students of varying English proficiencies and Puerto Rican heritage.

This book chronicles the year a young woman spent as an inner-city Philadelphia sixth-grade teacher. She came to this position during a recruiting campaign, which the city began when they realized that it was the middle of the summer and they still had more than 10% vacancies with their qualified candidates already exhausted. Scraping the bottom of the barrel, the school district accepted individuals with no experience or background in education, just trying to get bodies in the classrooms. Asquith is a journalist who would like to change students’ lives, but is concerned with the fact that as the year begins she has no training, staff development, or idea what is going on.

Quote: “What happened to the teacher who taught here last year?” “He left. He refused to ask for help. He thought he was Jaime Escalante or something.”

This is an excellent work, although I don’t know if it would have the same appeal for a non-teacher. Asquith’s year has its ups and downs, successes and failures, which makes “The Emergency Teacher” a well-balanced work. It is neither a rainbows and sunshine story, nor a doom and gloom story, but one that seems typical of a new teacher. It also makes some important political points about the use of teachers without the appropriate certification- Asquith makes the point that while these individuals are important to school systems that are in need of help, it is also important for the school and the school system to support these individuals with some training, development, et cetera, instead of just throwing the people into the fire and walking away. ( )