P.S. Your Not Listening

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Synopsis
No school would take these children. Some were violent. Others were withdrawn. All were deeply disturbed. When Eleanor Craig took on the assignment to teach a class of special children who had been declared "unteachable" by others, she knew it wouldn't be easy. How do you teach long division to a child who believes that the banana in his lunchbox is alive and trying to escape? How do you maintain control when one of your students has locked you in the custodian's closet? How do you convince a child that people are not for hurting when he is constantly battered and rejected at home? During the year in which she taught a "transitional class" of acutely disturbed children, Eleanor Craig grappled with such problems each bewildering and exhausting day. P.S. Your Not Listening is the deeply-felt and often touching account of Mrs. Craig's attempts to reach her five exceptional pupils. Having no guidelines but her own empathy and resourcefulness, Mrs. Craig tries to reach the center of the children's chaotic world and to gain their trust. Gradually, she begins to establish human contact. Gradually, the children become more responsive. But the setbacks are many and the progress painfully slow. Eddie can only speak through aggression. Kevin's shoes tap out his anger. Violent fights flare up between Eddie and Douglas: Julie hides under her desk while Jonathan calls into his inkwell for help and Kevin urges Douglas to kill Eddie. Yet in the lulls between such destructive outbursts, Mrs. Craig perceives a real, if hesitant, sense of community emerging in the classroom. There are moments of celebration, as on the day that Jonathan, who believed he was a ghost and not a real boy, exclaims, "Doesn't it feel funny to wake up in the morning and say 'Who am I?' Doesn't it feel funny to wake up in the morning and be a human being?" P.S. Your Not Listening is ultimately not so much a book about education as a book about love.
Copyright:
1972

Book Details

Book Quality:
Excellent
Book Size:
214 Pages
ISBN-13:
9780877770343
Publisher:
Richard W. Baron
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
Eleanor Craig
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
Nonfiction, Disability-Related, Biographies and Memoirs
Submitted By:
Jamie Yates
Proofread By:
solstice singer
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

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