Schooled

Oct 06, 2008 Angela rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: new-york, schools

I think it was partly the fear of running into this world that made me change my mind about becoming a teacher...

This is a solid book with a solid story, but absolutely no depth. There's nothing really specific I can pick out about what I disliked (except every interaction Anna had with her parents. I was supposed to believe she was a graduate from Columbia, but when she was with her parents it was like she was thrown back into middle school-complete with a melodramatic running away from home sc...more

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Oct 04, 2008 Shasta rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I read this book in one day, so that'll tell you it was entertaining and for the most part, well written. But I had problems with the content, the pacing of the book, and most of all, the protagonist. 1. the content: I know there are people out there like this. but I still can't believe it which made it impossible for me to suspend my disbelief and just take this book as it was. Is that world for real? Or is the book an over-exaggeration? I suppose the problem could just be that I'm not part of...more

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Sep 06, 2008 Roxanne Hsu Feldman rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: humor, adult

I read this after hearing lots and reading quite a few reviews about the book, so I am not entirely sure about my reactions - how much was my enjoyment and annoyance colored by these preset expectations? And how much of my secret pleasure and overt disgust came from my having known the author and has been working in the school that this fiction is supposed to be based on? So read on, those of you who are curious to know my opinions about the book, with caution and many grains of salt!

First, I wa...more I read this after hearing lots and reading quite a few reviews about the book, so I am not entirely sure about my reactions - how much was my enjoyment and annoyance colored by these preset expectations? And how much of my secret pleasure and overt disgust came from my having known the author and has been working in the school that this fiction is supposed to be based on? So read on, those of you who are curious to know my opinions about the book, with caution and many grains of salt!

First, I was surprised how the book does not really feature many recognizable students and faculty from the school, nor does it develop the school as a setting fully. In fact, most teachers do not even enter the story. In fact, most teachers do not even enter the story. It's as if this fictional K-12 school has but 50 students and they all go to the 7th grade and there are only half a dozen teachers who come into contact with the protagonist and the children. In short, the setting of the school is not quite fleshed out or rich, and the supporting characters are not 3-dimensional, either. A few incidents or coincidences are probably not identifiable by those who are not intimately connected to the school, either. So much, so much of the story is extremely exaggerated: the characters complete caricatures, and the whole world distorted with the kind of hyper-reality one can only find in Gossip Girls and Sex in the City. (Of course also in the highly manipulated Real Housewives "reality" shows...)

This brings me to say to those who seem to think that this is a truthful portrayal of the Manhattan Private Schools/Ivy League Feeders world, "You are absolutely wrong." This is fluffy fiction and no more than that.

I don't think there is even a need to defend my school since there is so little resemblance in SCHOOLED to the actual school -- including the physical descriptions and the ways teaching and learning are accomplished throughout the years. Suffice to say that I have encountered scores of most brilliant human beings: readers, writers, thinkers, activists, artists, mathematicians, scientists, all kinds of people -- both from its faculty pool and the student body, to feel privileged and proud to be part of this incredible institution.

The biggest weakness of the book, to my eyes, is how bland the writing is... with few exceptions where the lines are actually funny or effective, such as, "The world could be coming to an end and my mother would still find a way to offer a cookie with the gas mask." and "It was an all-purpose word, something of a Swiss Army knife capable of replacing all sorts of words, such as do, write, create, and especially finish." The rest of the book is filled with lines with little crafting or "polishing". Just a few examples here:

page 124: Anna wonders "if Shakespeare would be ... delighted that his work was the cause of such delight to a group of... seventh-graders."
page 126: "The last comment was like a wound in my heart."
page 131: "And I was an air traffic controller trying to control fifteen little planes all trying to land at one time."

To compound the problem of such thin prose is the poor editing. Missing punctuation marks, continuity errors, and misused words, such as "My ears were ringing. And when did faux mitzvah enter everyone's vocabulary accept mine?" ACCEPT? And this is supposedly written/narrated by an Ivy-Leaguer who studied English in college and teaches English to 7th graders.

The one saving grace is that the readers do not admire Anna (oh, maybe a little bit toward the end of the story when she suddenly has a courageous enlightment moment), and that adds some flavor to the tale of a small fry lost in the world of greasy glitz.(less)

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Sep 05, 2008 Sandra rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: parents,teachers,tutors,students,everyone

Just in time for the new school year, a novel that will interest teachers, parents, tutors, and anyone interested in who is really doing the homework sent home by teachers today. It's an eye opener. Darkly humourous, SCHOOLED was written by a former English teacher in Manhattan.
The story follows Anna Taggert's first year of teaching private middle school children and the shock of discovery about rich kids and the tutors who write their homework assignments for them. An enthusiastic new Ivy Leag...more Just in time for the new school year, a novel that will interest teachers, parents, tutors, and anyone interested in who is really doing the homework sent home by teachers today. It's an eye opener. Darkly humourous, SCHOOLED was written by a former English teacher in Manhattan.
The story follows Anna Taggert's first year of teaching private middle school children and the shock of discovery about rich kids and the tutors who write their homework assignments for them. An enthusiastic new Ivy League graduate, Anna doesn't just want to teach, she wants to inspire her students. The paycheck isn't great but she's doing what she loves.Until she inadvertantly discovers that high-priced tutors are writing the homework assignments of some of her own students. But she's really shocked when she is encouraged by other teachers and the parents not to ask questions. Even school administration tells her to let the kids slide because, well, their parents make big donations to the school. The parents she's in contact with defend the practice because their poor dears are under such pressure to excel, or have emotional problems and need extra consideration because they absolutely must get into the best universities in the future.
The shock begins to wear off when she's offered a job tutoring in the evenings for $200 an hour. The kids in her class love her when she lets them slide and begins dressing to their own extravagantly rich standards. The parents love her when she doesn't give them homework or tests, especially tests. The pressure is just too much for the little darlings you understand. Anna falls into temptation and doing things the easy way until her conscience catches up with her. She comes to realize how far she's comprised her own principles and something has to change. Lakhani calls this story fiction based on her own experiences as a teacher and those of her colleagues. It's witty, rings true, and is often downright funny. Four stars out of five. I recommend it.
****
Thanks to the generosity of Hyperion Books you may WIN one of TWO Avanced Reading Copies of SCHOOLED by Anisha Lakhani
Open worldwide until midnight Monday, September 8
To enter go here:
http://freshinkbooks.blogspot.com/(less)

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Aug 20, 2008 Sarah rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, booksread2008

While the actual 'story' of this book is packed with cliche, repetition, and redundance, Lakhani has chosen some very serious, honest, and accurate subject matter. A few years back I read a similar novel (I think it was called 'The Ivy Chronicles') which was also a fictionalized version of a very real and disturbing Manhattan phenomenon -- parents who pay obscene amounts amounts of money so that their children can get into the *right* kindergarten. As a teacher in Manhattan myself, I am aware th...more

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Jul 26, 2008 Geoff rated it 3 of 5 stars

Schooled is another mis-adventure with the uber-rich in the upper east side of New York. Reading a lot like The Nanny Diaries: A Novel meets The Devil Wears Prada, Schooled follows the first year of a new private school teacher as she becomes indoctrinated into the world of the obscenely rich and influential. Anisha Lakhani writing is extremely readable and her main character, Anna Taggert, is very likable. Even when Anna missteps you root for her.

Unfortunately Anna's character arch is extremely...more

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Jun 07, 2008 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of The Nanny Diaries, smart chic lit, those in search of a good beach read

Shelves: beach-light-reading

Schooled is like The Nanny Diaries, except that it's about a tutor for Manhattan's uber-wealthy instead of a nanny for Manhattan's uber-wealthy, and that's a compliment. Schooled has the same light, breezy style, as though the story is being related to you by your best girlfriend. One of my favorite things about the book is that Anna never has a love interest- all the drama, all the tough decisions, all the highs and lows come from Anna's relationships with her family, her best friend, her fello...more

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Sep 16, 2008 Krysia added it Recommends it for: those with time for fluff

Recommended to Krysia by: some review somewhere

Shelves: fiction, abandon-ship

I decided not to finish this book since I have read similar books before and I have a ton of books with which I would rather spend my time. After reading the first few chapters, I found that I have very little sympathy for the main character and rich helicopter parents and their offspring. As a former educator, I wonder about the ethics of the author and others like her who apparently "tutor" students for ridiculous amounts of money which they spend on Manolos and designer handbags. Whatever hap...more

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Jan 02, 2009 Renee rated it 4 of 5 stars

Written in the fashion of The Nanny Diaries, Schooled is a fun to read and engrossing book written by a teacher/tutor who taught at one of Manhattan's elite private schools (30k tuition for grade school). The most fascinating and disturbing part of the book is how the majority of the parents of these students pay "tutors" an average of $250 an hour to help their children with their homework and projects. In NYC "help" translates into "do". Many parents paid the author to read the books that were...more

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Dec 17, 2008 Stuart Nachbar rated it 4 of 5 stars

I come from a suburban public school education from a community that sprouted from horse farms and apple orchards into a seven to seven thousand person residential development mostly for transplanted New Yorkers. Private school was never a thought to my parents since I attended fairly new public schools.

Among my classmates who stayed in town from kindergarten through the 12th grade were some of the smartest people I know to this day. Our valedictorian went to Harvard, and we sent graduates to M...more I come from a suburban public school education from a community that sprouted from horse farms and apple orchards into a seven to seven thousand person residential development mostly for transplanted New Yorkers. Private school was never a thought to my parents since I attended fairly new public schools.

Among my classmates who stayed in town from kindergarten through the 12th grade were some of the smartest people I know to this day. Our valedictorian went to Harvard, and we sent graduates to MIT, Penn and Cornell, as well a whopping four to Duke. Members of my class, myself included, made up more than one percent of the freshman class at Rutgers. A class such as mine would have been the envy of any school public or private. Yet today, I read so much praising private school education over the public schools.

After reading Anisha Lakhani’s novel Schooled, I wondered why.

Lakhani’s novel is based on her early experiences as a private school teacher and tutor, then later as the head of an English department. Her story takes place in a New York K-12 private school that is divided over the ideas of offering a “progressive” education and satisfying the whims of its most important financial contributors. The result is a mess: the school’s marketing focuses on boasts about college placements and teachers are chastised for assigning too much homework, and taking approaches to making that homework too creative—because parents complain when homework isn’t homework as they knew it.

Schooled takes place during the first year in the working life of Anna Taggart, a seventh grade English teacher. The best parts of the story are Taggart’s efforts to manage a classroom of spoiled kids, without drawing the attention of their parents and the principal. The more bothersome are her dallies into the world of high-priced tutor for hire, guided under the influence of Randi Abrahams, a teacher who has successfully used tutoring to improve her standard of living (and shopping) while becoming “cool” with her regular seventh grade class.

Yet Schooled also showed that the wealthy were willing to pay anything for tutoring to help their children get through private school, even to, with their consent, write papers for them. I know this is fiction, but it was frightening to see parents part with considerable sums of money for that kind of help—because they could.

More frightening, these parents went over their teacher’s heads to complain about the assignments their children received to say they were inappropriate, overly demanding, or the best comment: in conflict with their son or daughter’s Bar or Bat Mitzvah reception schedule. Schooled likens the Bar or Bat Mitzvah reception to the debutante’s coming out party. I am Jewish, and my mother taught Hebrew school for over a decade, but I never thought about the ascension in my religious education as a social happening for the “cool kids” in school. But in this novel, a non-Jewish Korean student sends announcements for a faux Bat Mitzvah party.

Although the conversations about shopping for designer fashions and expensive lunches away from school by Anna and Randi bordered on “chick-lit,” I enjoyed reading Schooled. The story made me curious about an educational world that was previously unfamiliar to me, and it left me glad that I have never been a part of it.
(less)

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Dec 08, 2011 Becca rated it 3 of 5 stars

Like a lightweight Nanny Diaries, Schooled is a playful picture of the Upper East Side private school world. According to the notes, the author has experience teaching at Dalton, one of NYC's top private prep schools. This makes her a relatively reliable font of material.

However, I frequently found myself doubting that the students and the world in which she inhabits actually exists. Surely not EVERY student in seventh grade is irascible, surely not every parent expects their tutors to complete...more

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Jun 25, 2010 marg rated it 3 of 5 stars

For honesty's sake, this is really worth two stars considering a severe lack of subtlety in the writing as well as unwelcome hyperbole. But the premise was so close to my heart, and Lakhani really nailed it, that I would even give this four stars if my integrity weren't at stake.
As someone who teaches English, and has taught in snooty private schools, and has often seen the ugly side of pleasing parents and their children and their principals which generally means pretending to teach but not wor...more For honesty's sake, this is really worth two stars considering a severe lack of subtlety in the writing as well as unwelcome hyperbole. But the premise was so close to my heart, and Lakhani really nailed it, that I would even give this four stars if my integrity weren't at stake.
As someone who teaches English, and has taught in snooty private schools, and has often seen the ugly side of pleasing parents and their children and their principals which generally means pretending to teach but not working them too hard and all the while knowing that someone else is producing their work so as to guarantee A's, I found this book to be almost laugh out loud relatable.
Lakhani, no surprise, did time herself in a snooty Manhattan school, and produces a lot of firsthand knowledge of the awkwardness of that first year of teaching and the smarmy politics you become privy to. She takes it up a notch, though, in a way that REALLY speaks to the heart of a teacher, by producing a protagonist who realizes that while teaching pays squat, tutoring (or rather intense editing/ghostwriting) is what really pays the big bucks. And so she pursues a double life, essentially back stabbing herself as she does other teachers' assignments to assure a lifestyle grander than that of what a teacher can usually count on.
I loved the honesty of this work - the parents' entitled and condescending phone messages could be quoted verbatim from my own experience, as well as the boys' club attitude on the part of the school to keep the wealthy parents from harm. I enjoyed the temptation to slack off as a teacher all the while suffering from realizing that no one is truly gaining. I related to the threatening feeling the new, popular teacher brings to the school, and how the kids respond to actually learning. All in all this really captured the many mixed emotions of teaching and how hard work really does pay, if not in actual dollars or in popularity. So while it is a light and rather poorly written read (and she's an English teacher who became chair! Sheesh), I can't recommend it enough for anyone in the business.(less)

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Sep 12, 2009 Sarah rated it 2 of 5 stars

A little back to school present for myself, this book was exactly what I expected. The Nanny Diaries for private school teachers. It was an appealing page-turner, but - just like Nanny Diaries - one aspect of the book drove me bonkers: the main character, who we are supposed to pity for having to work hard for low wages (seriously?!), complains about her UES walk-up, doesn't appear to have any knowledge of Brooklyn or Queens, and comes from a WEALTHY BMW driving family in NJ. Our working class h...more

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Jun 19, 2009 Molly rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

My first impression of this book was that it was extremely depressing! I was appalled by the concept of tutoring in Manhattan schools and what spoiled, lazy brats the children were! It is sickening how these children can do virtually nothing in school and still make it into and through Ivy League schools. These wealthy parents are paying $30,000 tuition for a school where the teachers teach absolutely nothing. The sad thing is that there is nothing we can do to stop people from taking such horri...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Stephanie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Overall, Schooled was an enjoyable book. The plotline was entertaining and had me wanting more. But, the ending was a little too abrupt. And I increasing became more and more irritated with the message I was receiving from the book and the stereotypes the book plays into. For instance, Anna's students don't like her until she starts dressing and looking like the Upper East Side moms, which seems to play into the whole people-from-money-think-they-are-better-than-others-and-stick-to-their-own-kin...more

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Jun 06, 2011 Katie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011books, education

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Oh man...I could relate to this book!

Anna goes into teaching because she is passionate about her students. But when she is finally standing on the other side of the classroom, she discovers the politics behind a school and the ranges parents will go to ensure their child is the "most brillant" straight-A student.

What I love is that Anna stumbled across the first-year learning experience. Anna fell for the trap that in order to be a good teacher she had to perform to make her students and her pa...more Oh man...I could relate to this book!

Anna goes into teaching because she is passionate about her students. But when she is finally standing on the other side of the classroom, she discovers the politics behind a school and the ranges parents will go to ensure their child is the "most brillant" straight-A student.

What I love is that Anna stumbled across the first-year learning experience. Anna fell for the trap that in order to be a good teacher she had to perform to make her students and her parents like her. Teachers are not there to be liked. They are there to teach and teach well. This is very commonly mixed-up in today's society. You don't have to like your teacher in order to learn. Sadly, Anna didn't really learn that until the end of her first school year. This is something that all teachers have to learn from experience. You must hit the year hard-nosed and then ease in. Anna just couldn't flip her classroom in two weeks at the end realistically.

So Anna discovers that her salary isn't enough, she does what most teachers do: find a part-time job. She stumbled across Manhattan-lucrative tutoring jobs. I say this because the hourly $200+ rate is not normal.

Anna's fatal flaw is that once she popped she couldn't stop! This implies that as soon as she felt the money start to come in, she wanted more tutoring hours, and more sadly, more expensive materialistic items to keep up with her students and their moms. Psshhhh...

What this really revealed was our sad state of education especially compared to other countries. Our students are behind the times and parents see value in other items. I did like Damien's theory though that adults are expected to work 9-5 with no take-home work while students are expected to do hours of homework after school and their extra-curricular actitives. Why the double standard?

I would love love love to read a sequel to this book and discover what Anna takes what she has learned from her first year into her next year.

There were comments that Anna didn't focus on the faculty or the school and that the K-12 school consisted of her 50 students only. This is what happens in a teacher's world. His/her world is his/her classroom. Faculties have cliques, too. Teachers end up making their world consist of the few teachers that surround their room and worry themselves sick about their students. And as a first year teacher, you do what you have to do to survive. This means that you don't have time to make new friends or venture around; you survive.

Lovely lovely novel that really portrays the struggle of a new teacher learning that you can't teach to please your students; you teach for the job of actually seeing them struggle, comprehend and learn. Also this is a sad portrayal about the joy of making more than enough money to get by but falling pray to a materialistic society. Much joy to finally discovering what teacher you really want to be and how you can reach beyond all of the obstacles and complaints to really get there.

Thank you Anisha!(less)

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Jul 31, 2010 SW rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 01, 2010 J. added it

This book gave me a lot to think about and also inspired me, as I am a teacher myself. I think Anna makes a lot of first-year teacher mistakes which are relatable but also over the top (I've cried after lessons and once I had a teacher cry in a class when I was a student--but Anna's running out of class when her students say her lesson is boring is a little much). But I guess that's the point of fiction, to amplify in order to make a point. I think this book is more important that the other "ins...more

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Nov 19, 2009 Carmen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: own-it, won-it

First off, what really got me interested in this book was its title and cover. I was really curious as to how a shopping bag with the word "Schooled" on it could possibly be a book about teaching. But after reading the summary, I was hooked for sure. I am an undergrad student, currently in the Faculty of Education, and to read a book about an interesting private school education, it was truly inspiring and invoked a lot of questions I have for myself now.
I have to say though, that I generally do...more First off, what really got me interested in this book was its title and cover. I was really curious as to how a shopping bag with the word "Schooled" on it could possibly be a book about teaching. But after reading the summary, I was hooked for sure. I am an undergrad student, currently in the Faculty of Education, and to read a book about an interesting private school education, it was truly inspiring and invoked a lot of questions I have for myself now.
I have to say though, that I generally don't like to read bad reviews about a book before I even get a chance to read it, because then you never know if that review is stuck at the back of your mind, and influencing your own thoughts. Or in my case, it just pointed out things to me as I was reading it, and still, I like to generally come to conclusions on my own. (Unless there's so many bad reviews about a certain book out there, then obviously I don't bother even reading it.) In this case, I had read a review about how "Schooled" was just a name-dropper and had no substance. Well, I beg to differ. Sure there was a lot of name dropping, but surely, that was the author's intention. It is the seduction of all those brand names that Anna is hooked on, and even as a reader myself, I could feel that want and need of a better living condition and style. As for the substance, well I guess it depends on your point of view. Personally, I gained perspective on teaching. I don't think I'm naive enough like Anna to walk into my first classroom and think that I will inspire and change my students' lives. I think something like that takes time and patience, and you can't go in with unrealistic feelings. As for Anna, readers can see her character, her flaws and her assets. She wants the better things in life, but we also see that her desire to teach wins out in the end. With her students, though they seem shallow throughout, the fears and insecurities are shown when near the end, her student shows that he is dependent on the lifestyle in which he is brought up in.
I don't think that I can say whether this book has really changed my own perspective of teaching as my own profession. I personally just feel that I wouldn't really want to teach at a private school one day, but that feeling has always been kind of there. Anyways, whether you are interested in teaching or not, I think it's an insightful book about our jobs that we choose and need to make a living. It's a "go-get-em'" book for those who want to fulfill a dream that may not give them that great of an income. It's a book about how we might fall off our path, but as long as we make our way back to it, then things can turn around.(less)

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Feb 26, 2010 Sharyl rated it 2 of 5 stars

"Schooled" is about a young woman, fresh out of college, who takes a teaching job at an exclusive Manhattan private school and gets lured into the underground world of "tutoring." Not tutoring ala Sylvan Learning Center...tutoring by essentially doing homework/writing papers for kids whose staggeringly wealthy parents have hired her for this service. She ends up being able to charge an exorbitantly high hourly rate (i.e. upwards of $200/hour) and goes from sleeping on an air mattress on the floo...more

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Jul 19, 2009 Alice rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: chicklit

I save my one-star reviews for virulently offensive crap, and this doesn't fall into that category. Instead, it's an entirely predictable and mostly just boring book that capitalizes on the success of the Nanny Diaries/Gossip Girl/NYC Prep. The main character is an idealistic young teacher who goes to work at a fancy Upper East Side prep school (a la Dalton or Constance Billiard), but doesn't make very much money so she has to wear Ann Taylor (gasp!) and live in a small, walk-up apartment. As a...more

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Jan 24, 2010 Gail rated it 1 of 5 stars

As a former instructor at a private elementary school, this book held a promise of intrigue. I was greatly disappointed. Not so much that the story itself was poor -) bright eyed newbie joins the staff at an Upper East Side private school, in NYC, and very quickly comes to realize that reality is very much different than her glossy visions of how her first year of teaching would go. ) Rather, the story itself is so similar to others that are already out there.
Confessions of a Shopaholic, The Nan...more

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Jul 27, 2008 Shannon rated it 5 of 5 stars

I couldn't put this book down! I was totally sucked in and could not believe what the characters went through just to get a buck. It is true that there is a price for everything, even if you don't believe you would ever stoop that low!
I recommend this book to anyone, especially teachers, who I think would really relate to this book.

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Aug 24, 2011 Allison rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Teachers

This story is written from the point of view of a 7th grade private school English teacher in Manhattan. Anna leaves the cushy life her parents provided her to become a (gasp!) teacher, and her parents are more than a little disappointed considering she went to Columbia University and could have any job she liked. Anna begins to flounder during her first few months in the private school scene, as she gets paid very little and the attention that should be paid to students is entirely dependent up...more

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Jan 05, 2010 Heather T. rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 50-books-2009

This was a readable enough book.....all about a starry-eyed, enthusiastic, wet-behind-the-ears 24 year old teacher at a private Manhattan middle school who winds up in the lucrative tutoring business. The plot, as you might imagine, is overly simplistic. Also, it's filled with what I can only describe as Designer Label Porn a la "The Devil Wears Prada." It's fun, this Designer Label Porn, but it's just a cover for mediocre writing. It reminds me of a grown up version of those "Girl Talk" books t...more

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Mar 22, 2009 Holly rated it 3 of 5 stars

It's difficult to comment on a book that is at once both a romp and an expose of sorts. It's the story of a first year teacher at one of Manhattan's elite private schools. We see her struggle with her emotions and money - I'll say no more on that account for fear of spoiling what becomes quickly obvious in the book. The reader meets the students (self-involved, pampered, packed social schedules, and yet with real teenage fears), the parents (who will pay any amount of money to secure status and...more

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Aug 05, 2012 Jennifer Fisher rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book was actually an ok read. It took me a while to read it, as I bought it earlier this year and then got a Kindle and kind of forgot all my traditional books. Once I dove into it, I wasn't entirely disappointed, but still had a few issues with It.

It's about Anna Taggert and her struggles with teaching her first year. She realizes coming from a wealthy family that a teaching salary will not supplement the lifestyle she's used to. She gets sucked into the world of $250/hr tutoring sessions...more

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Apr 18, 2010 Carrie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, 2010

I really enjoyed this book as a teacher myself and as a lover of interesting fiction. I'm not sure if those who aren't teachers would enjoy it as much (the person who recommended it to me is also a teacher), but I can say it helped when the author referred to the many different periods in a teacher's first year of teaching. I loved the journey she went on, even though parts of it seemed to happen so fast. As she went from giving up her teaching philosophy to becoming a sketchy tutor, I wanted to...more

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Mar 18, 2012 Sarah Brannon rated it 3 of 5 stars

Kind of depressing when you consider that the entire premise of the book centers around spoiled, clueless, wealthy kids, but a fascinating look into the world of wealthy upper east side private school families nonetheless. I never considered the fact that a healthy percent of ivy leaguers bought their way into those exclusive schools after mediocre-at-best private high school experiences; however, after discussing this book with friends who did attend the likes of Dartmouth, Harvard, Yale, and C...more

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Jan 08, 2011 Danna rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book was fun and entertaining, definitely a good book for lying on the beach. Lakhani tells the story of Manhattan's privileged youth, and while some of it seems outlandish, it is obvious much of it is based on her personal experience. The main character is hired to teach at one of Manhattan's most exclusive private schools, and is horrified to learn that money is the ruler. She is destined to give good grades to the children whose parents make the largest "gifts" to the schools. The teach...more

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