Saturday, October 5, 2019

Book Review

BOOK REVIEW
THE DAILY LIFE OF A TEACHER ABOUT WHAT TEACHERS ARE SILENT
By PAVEL ASTAPOV - Moscow the Publisher Act 2020.
 
             
{Буни Учителя, О Чем Молчат Педагоги, Павел Астапов, москва  Издательво ACT, 2020-320 Звезда Соцсети.]
 
 
I stumbled across by accident a book by U Tube Blogger and ex-teacher Pavel Astapov, The Daily Life of a Teacher. I found it below a table with a huge placard promoting the imminent Day of the Teacher. The book has been launched on the eve of this day. {On the 5th October}
             
The book claims to reveal what Russian school teachers remain silent about. That is, it represents a real insight into what goes on in school behind closed doors. It is based on the direct everyday experiences of Pavel Astapov, who worked as a teacher of Russian and Literature for eight years. The book is written in an attractive, lively and colloquial style. You instantly feel that the author could be chatting away to you in some school canteen. The book  largely consists of numerous anecdotes, the author's views on the education process, what teachers think of their pupils and parents and vice versa. The book is never dull. Unfortunately, it has yet to be translated into English, but if you know some Russian it is well worth a read.
             
You quickly obtain an impression of the style of the book when you read, 'Let's get acquainted! My name is Pavel. I'm 32 years of age, and I love romantic suppers with candles as well as going for walks at night through the city. and, 'Well, this is information for another site.' So you can expect a lot of humor as well as irony.
 
Astapov is at pains to point out : 'No, don't think this is a book about complaints, this is story about the truth. About MY truth. it is about the education system I landed in and got closely immersed in and experienced terribly ... I greatly understand that my story can be fully different from other stories.'  With statements such as this Astapov comes across as offering a frank and modest account of his experiences.
              
Anyone eager for sensational stories about scandals will be quickly disappointed. Nevertheless, the book  has humor and it is difficult to put down. The reservations I had was the author fails to raise the issue of how vulnerable school teachers are in regard to job security. Practically nothing is said about the cases of school teachers being unfairly fired for simply getting into an argument with their headmistress, or posting their photo on a social network. Nothing is said about the existence of an illegal blacklist used by the local Ministry of Education to ban teachers from employment. The strikes and the emergence of a Teachers Union for teachers are not acknowledged. There again Astapov acknowledges that his book does not pretend to be an inexhaustible claim to the experiences of all school teachers. But his claim that the main aim of school teachers is to impart knowledge to pupils so that they can pass their final exams will also raise eyebrows.
              
Despite  reservations, some stories by Astapov will sound very familiar to school teachers. How some teachers stifle the creativity of pupils by forcing pupils to ritually stick within the parameters of the school program is brought home to readers. "I never forget that when I was in 5th grade, and how I had fully and hopeless fallen in love with the history of Ancient Egypt, put a picture of Mummy Ramses on the board, gave a talk ,and was interrupted half way through my story by the teacher, demanding I only answer according to the school textbook! ' "Answer only what is written in the textbook. You don't need to say any more".  So Pavel was forced to sit down and say what was in the textbook and got the mark  five.
              
What do most Russians think of school teachers? Pavel  suggests readers carry out the following experiment . He states in the chapter headed, 'Why nobody respects teachers?' : Ask passer-byes in the street : What kind of people go to school ? Only, let's do this without a microphone or camera on the streets. Someone, of course, will recall people who loved children and had a sense of vocation. But I very much doubt that this will be the most popular answer. In the mass consciousness of people, those who go to work in school are losers who can't find a more prestigious place. Everybody recalls the cheerful saying about the absence of intelligence and those who enter the pedagogic institute. or those who go to work in schools are oddballs'. I have also heard the joke that people only enter the pedagogic institute because it is the easiest university to enter. Given the low pay, long hours and endless humiliation of teachers, Astapov imagines the average Russian taunting anyone with aspirations to be a teacher. Well, I carried out the experiment suggested by Astapov and received a mixed response. A lot of people I asked on the streets answered they really respected teachers although a significant number confirmed Astapov's claim. The response can be more complex than anything anticipated. 
              
Astapov confirms that many parents place highly unrealistic expectations on school teachers. He is amazed that so many people believe that teachers have a magic wand that can conjure away problems. He writes about how one mother insists that he instruct his son to become an ace student and win a medal despite the pupil's limited academic ability. In one interesting story he meets a mother who complains her child never picks up a book, but is glued to the computer. Astapov asks the mother, "And do you read books at home?" The mother answers, "I'm too tired to read books and all the books on the shelves were those left by my parents. I watch television."  Astapov retorts that her child is also tired and that if she doesn't read books, it won't exactly inspire their children. The main people to bring up children must be the parents. Yet parents are attempting to thrust this task on to overworked teachers. But teachers can't replace parents or at least completely as the main person who brings them up.
              
Pavel  Astapov feels strangely obliged to remind some pupils that school teachers are human and also have families and children to look after. Some have hobbies! Pavel tells the amusing story of how a girl spotting him entering a cinema and being shocked. She can't believe a teacher would enter a cinema or a bar. Why are teachers not at home marking homework? He states, "It surprises me that so many people presume that teachers only live between their school desks and the staff room checking school work". He warns that teachers are being judged for just about everything, how they look, speak , and what clothes they wear. Teachers operate under many restrictions. Their lives are in a sense very censored.
              
The chapters where Astapov sarcastically mocks the claims of 'the average school salary' and the huge amount of needless paperwork teachers are expected to perform are handled superbly. Astapov can be sharply succinct and acutely perceptive. 
              
It is clearly evident that Pavel Astapov is not only a brilliant teacher, but an accomplished storyteller who can keep the attention of his audience. He is currently working as a professional U Tube blogger. The questions I'd like to ask is, 'Would Pavel Astapov ever return to teach in school? ' Would he really want to? '

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