Basic Needs: A Year With Street Kids in a City School

by Julie Landsman

In Basic A Year With Street Kids in a City School, Julie Landsman chronicles one year as a teacher in a program for students in such serious trouble they are asked to leave their middle schools and attend a special program for disruptive students. Landsman allows her readers to get to know the students, their home and street situations, and how their stories develop over the year, and in doing so, shows the complexity of young people, their beauty, and their individuality.

This second edition is as current a story as the about kids in trouble and their resiliency. Landsman has added a foreword, afterword, and an extensive Resource Guide, which includes all the text of activities from Diversity Days, revolving around how to create a community in your classroom and includes ideas for every week of the school year. Landsman also includes a list of books to read over the summer for busy teachers. In total, the second edition of Basic Needs is a worthy follow-up to the highly praised original.

Genres: Nonfiction, Education

Paperback

First published December 1, 2003

Reviews

[Steve Voiles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read and re-read this book about teaching, and the personal connections that can make a huge difference in student's lives. The memoir aspect was particularly interesting to me, since I have been fascinated by crossing the line from "professional distance" to "over-involved." I believe "professional distance" is often used as a cowardly way of avoiding reaching out to students that sorely need an adult connection beyond their parents. It tilts teaching solidly in the direction of information delivery instead of true "education" that is what most of us can recall touching our lives in ways that shaped our values and our very lives