In Blackboard, Lewis Buzbee looks back over a lifetime of experiences in schools and classrooms, from kindergarten to college and beyond. He offers fascinating histories of the key ideas informing educational practice over the centuries, which have shaped everything from class size to the layout of desks and chairs.
Buzbee deftly weaves his own biography into this overview, approaching his subject as a student, a father, and a teacher. In doing so, he offers a moving personal testament to how he, an “average student” in danger of flunking out of high school, became the first in his family to graduate from college. He credits his success to the well-funded California public school system and bemoans the terrible price the state is paying as a result of funding being cut from today’s budgets. For Buzbee, the blackboard is a precious window into the wider world—one which we ignore at our peril.
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“Combining a memoir with something
more formal always runs the risk of sounding uneven—alternating between
informal and pedantic—but Buzbee, thankfully, avoids this pitfall. This balance
is reflected in Mike Chamberlain’s performance, an offering of personable tone
and nuanced diction. This last is especially important to listeners who may not
have the same passion for educational history and philosophy that Buzbee brings
to the table. As any experienced educator (like Buzbee) knows, presentation is
just as important as content, and Chamberlain’s narration is consistently
enjoyable, giving voice to the humor and wisdom of the text.”
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