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Authoritarian, old-fashioned, outdated, and inefficient. I find myself wanting to yell, "Shut the hell up, Harry!" and many other epithets.q

There were some good ideas and quotes in here, but frankly I think Harry is a complete jerk and I would never want to work with him. He is quick to degrade other teachers, other people, and other cultures. I find his attitude toward other teachers highly offensive--there are very good reasons to participate in union activities and ask for better wages. Very reactionary. I can see why this book was popular in the late 90s.

Even if his general philosophies of education were good (and they aren't), you'd do better to read a more up-to-date book on them. I only finished it because someone recommended I read it.

That said, there were nuggets of wisdom. The advice on not wasting time taking role "traditionally" seems obvious but many teachers still do that. Some of the book is more or less sound career advice.

But frankly, I think Harry lived in his own little world when he wrote this. He is the best teacher in the world, his students are successful, everything is perfect, and everyone likes him.

Teaching is hard. You cannot reduce it to a bunch of platitudes and, as other reviewers have put so well, "motivational posters."

And yes, if you are clever you can adapt this book to high school, but that's clearly NOT what Harry taught. Why do all the work of reading this and trying to make it work for high school when you could just....read a book about high school instead?

I give this book a four because of how it is written. Chomsky evidently went on a number of radio stations for interviews right in a row, they all asked him a bunch of the same questions, and he gave them all similar answers. That made a lot of sense at the time, I'm sure, but it doesn't make for the best read.

If you have ever wondered how this guy has managed to write so damn many books, this is how: he gets editors to transcribe pretty much everything he says publicly and republishes it. He's still a ridiculously prolific reader and writer, even given that tactic. But that pads out a lot of his books and makes it seem like he writes a bit more than he really does.

Read the beginning and the first 2 answers to each subsequent section carefully, then go ahead and skim a little for the rest of each section.

Worth a read, but not worth a careful read of every single repetitive word. That's more his editor's fault, not his.