Class Dismissed
26th March 2023
“Teachers are this country’s silent, constant superheroes,” writes Alexandra Robbins in her new book, The Teachers: A Year Inside America’s Most Vulnerable, Important Profession. The book, which is filled with this kind of pablum, reminded me of nothing so much as a scene in the movie School of Rock where Jack Black, who is impersonating a substitute teacher, is asked about his educational philosophy by his colleagues. He proceeds to recite Whitney Houston lyrics: “I believe the children are the future … you can teach them well but you have got to let them lead the way.” The other faculty members nod along earnestly. Education is very important and teachers are the noblest among us. Well, probably some of them. And probably some doctors and lawyers and construction workers and pastors and the people who fix cars too. Maybe they will be the subject of future paeans.
Robbins, whose previous book Nurses was subtitled “A Year of Secrets, Drama, and Miracles With the Heroes of the Hospital,” has found a formula she likes. But the general public may find her latest love letter a little hard to take. After a few years in which teachers refused to show up for work and students fell hopelessly behind and were subject to the most outrageous forms of political indoctrination, one wonders how many Americans are buying the “teachers are heroes” bit anymore.