Oookay. I wanted to like this because it's about a teacher, but I couldn't. Apparently it's a true story about a year in the life of a fifth grade teacher, Christine Zajac, but it's written by Tracy Kidder in a third-person limited voice. This immediately made me want to know what Kidder's methodology was, but he doesn't enlighten us anywhere in the book. He's (somewhat bizarrely, I think) totally absent from the book. This was probably intended to avoid readers' distraction at wondering how his presence impacted the events in the book. But it just left me questioning how Kidder got his information. Did he take poetic license when describing Zajac's thoughts, or did he interview her constantly? Did he sit in on classes (doubtless altering the landscape of the classroom, since kids have a hard time not reacting to extra adults in the room), or did he watch videotapes of Zajac's instruction? Did he interview kids? I wish he'd at least included this information in an appendix. Without it, the story felt like it should have been a novel, not a work of nonfiction.

But on to the story itself. It follows Zajac from the first day of school with her new class all the way to the last day in June. We meet Clarence, a problem child who eventually gets sent away to a special school for kids with behavioral problems (and whose memory haunts Zajac, who wanted to do more with him). We learn about the challenges in Zajac's school, where many students speak English as a second language, perform well below grade level, or live in dangerous areas, and where some teachers have just given up. And we see her do amazing things-- like simultaneously teach a lesson with her mouth, watch for comprehension with her eyes, correct a paper with her right hand, and stop a behavior problem by snapping the fingers on her left hand. Passages like that made me feel like I was "in" on Zajac's world.

And Zajac is a good teacher-- she pushes her students hard, thinks about whether they're actually learning and makes changes to ensure it, earns their respect by being tough, and forms relationships with them because she cares about who they are as people, not just receptacles for knowledge. And she can be pretty funny. But she also has some really irritating habits. She refers to herself in the third person: "One thing Mrs. Zajac expects from each of you is that you do your best." Sometimes she also refers to students by their names while talking to them, like: "Clarence is very smart," when talking to Clarence. She's also bear-hugging students a lot, which seems like playing with fire, but maybe it's more acceptable for teachers of younger students like hers than it is for middle- and high-school teachers.

Overall, this was an okay account of what it's like to be a teacher-- what thoughts preoccupy you in the middle of the night ("Did Jimmy write his essay?"), what feels like victory ("He got a 79!"), what it's like to have two personas every day (Mrs. Zajac at school and Chris at home). But it didn't inspire me, didn't make me want to run out and teach some kids, didn't enlighten me. I think it would be more impactful for someone who doesn't teach. For me, it felt kind of bland: Zajac is a teacher. She goes to school every day and teaches. She thinks about kids. She's been doing it a long time. Next year, she'll do it again.

I probably won't read it again.