As a teacher for 18 years, this one really hit home. It never ceases to amaze me how a once - revered and respected profession has become one that is subject to mistreatment, abuse, mismanagement, and shame. Real changes need to be made and this book helps to shed light on the glaring issues that are ever apparent in the day to day lives of teachers. Truly hit home.

Alexandra Robbins is one of my favorite narrative journalists, and I can't recommend her work highly enough! This was a very eye-opening look at what life is actually like for teachers. It really gave me a newfound respect for all that they do, and I think this should be mandatory reading for everyone.

There were parts of this book that I really liked; has there ever been such a Valentine to school librarians in a book? The audiobook was a bit grating to listen to, as Robbins did the voices of several teachers that felt like appropriation at times. She has stated that she plans to "campaign" for better working conditions for teachers, and that teachers deserve better in ways of support, pay, public perception, and more. However, some of the main obstacles facing the teachers in this book? Other teachers and administrators! Some of the teachers behaved horribly and unprofessionally.
Robbins did add quite a bit of credibility to the book by being a long term sub for several months; this did make the book stand apart from other authors who are truly outsiders. However, I could not believe the plug for Teachers Pay Teachers, off the Get Your Teach On website, no less. I would love to be able to ask her questions about how the three main teachers were selected, how much time she actually spent with them, and how much of the dialog was recreated.

I’ve read several of Alexandra Robbins books and each one is so beautifully done. She spends a lot of time researching and it shows. I liked that this book followed 3 teachers of the school year, it’s heartbreaking to see how these teachers are forced to work long hours for little pay and terrible benefits. But their love of children and hope for the future keep them going.

Thank you to @duttonbooks for this ebook.

I'm a 6th grade special education teacher about to start my 15th year of teaching. I ended up giving up on this book because it was just so heavy.

Being a teacher is a tricky thing. You must advocate for yourself and your students constantly, but also find joy in what you're doing. The tough parts of being a teacher can't get you down. You knew what you were getting yourself into.

I felt that this book was too negative. It didn't expose anything that didn't feel super familiar and yet the weight of it didn't feel balanced. Yes, everything happened in this book was horrid, but you have to be able to settle into that discomfort, advocate, and move on doing your best for yourself and kids every day. I think that because it was written by someone who wasn't a teacher, the emphasis or weight just felt off and unbalanced. I'm not really sure how else to describe it and I think because the author wasn't a teacher, it would be difficult to explain even to her. If you went through life as a teacher thinking the way this book portrays, you wouldn't have a healthy personal life, you'd be miserable, and you'd burn out super quickly. Mindset is everything. Caring a normal amount, advocating, and letting the rest go to find joy.

This book would be great for anyone to read, teacher or not. It is a good insight into what it is like to be a teacher. I am interested in reading the author's other book about nurses to see what that is like. As a teacher, it was both good and bad to know that I am not alone in the struggles I am facing. I hope that there can be changes that are made, especially if more non-teachers find out about the difficulties teachers face.

Thank you to Netgalley and Dutton Books for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was a tough read for me. I'm a teacher with twelve years of experience in public education. I've witnessed a lot of the same events that have been described in this book and I appreciate this being put out there. It's an accurate representation of what is currently happening.

This book was so well done. Not only did it highlight the lives of three teachers, their triumphs and struggles but it also included statics and jaw dropping quotes. If I didn't work in education myself I would never believe it's true. This read never felt "dry" as sometimes nonfiction can because of the seemless way the stories were blended with facts.

I personally feel that everyone should read this book. Public education is in crisis and things will only change with an educated and vocal public. This book did a wonderful job of highlighting the current issues in education and showing small ways to help. I'll leave you with some food for thought. If the dedicated, professionals are leaving teaching in droves, who will be left to teach your child, grandchild, niece or nephew? This situation is dire and the consequences will be felt for years to come. Now is time for change.

This was a really hard read for a couple of reasons. First, a lot of the struggles faced by teachers felt miserably familiar, which made it incredibly discouraging. The historical notes about how long this has been going on makes it seem like it's never going to get better. It seems as though the public is just going to keep taking advantage of teachers, who will keep martyring themselves, and the cycle of misery and blame will just continue.

Second, I really, REALLY despised the way the author re-drew the "characters" into stereotypical roles. The teachers in Robbins' narrative are either martyrs or monsters, and this creative choice reinforces and entrenches the EXACT problems that she's supposedly trying to point out and resolve. This was what earned the book a low rating. It's just so gut-wrenchingly disappointing.

I can't help wondering how much editorial pressure there is to exaggerate those sorts of characteristics. The story is an easier "sell" when the "heroes" and "villains" are clearly defined, instead of being more authentically layered and complicated.

What pulls this up from a one-star rating are two factors. First, the smooth clarity of the writing makes it a comfortable read. Second, it's well-supported with lots of good research. The notes were extensive and provided me with some great additional reading.

I am SO disappointed with this book. I really wanted it to be better than it is.

ETA: Oops! Forgot this bit. I read a digital copy provided through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This is my very first one!

As a teacher of over 25 years I can't say I learned anything new from this book, but I certainly related to it, appreciated it and am glad its out there. I loved how the author starts by saying Covid didn't start the problems in education, it just laid them all out on the ground, which is what Ive been saying to anyone who asks me about Covid/education. I appreciated the perspectives these teachers shared and I hope those in NOT in education will take time to read this book. Thank you NetGalley!

Excellent book! A reaffirmation that teachers are under resourced, overworked, under paid and underappreciated. The Teachers shows us that as wonderful as teachers are and as hard as they work, our education system needs a major overhaul. The teacher stories included in this book are heartwarming, heartbreaking and everything in between. The author's investigative reporting was very thorough and so interesting. I did not find this book to lag at all!

So many adjectives describe Robbins' work - compelling, devastating, captivating, unforgettable, gutwrenching, illuminating, transformative. I could not put this book down, and kept finding all the spare moments I could to sneak a few more pages in before returning to the responsibilities of daily life.

The blend of narratives and investigative reporting goes above and beyond in Robbins' thorough examination of what teachers face every day - though either the three main teachers we follow over the course of an academic year, or the essays in between visiting them, would have felt just as well-rounded. While I sometimes did not want to leave the stories of Rebecca, Penny, or Miguel to focus on broader issues, the structure of the book feels necessary to show the widespread infrastructural and societal issues that these individuals face every day.

What stood out most is Robbins' point that while teachers are heroes, we shouldn't rely on that descriptor to explain away all the ills facing the profession - repeating that refrain only distracts from the broader forces contributing to our current situation. I've fallen prey to that construct before, but this book has reenergized my commitment to taking action to ensure teachers experience a safe environment where their value is recognized and lauded.

First of all, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advance copy of The Teachers by Alexandra Robbins. After reading some of Robbins's previous works, I knew that this one would speak to me as well. The way Alexandra Robbins respects her subjects while also being honest about their downsides feels unique in a landscape where it seems subjects are either lionized or demonized. In The Teachers, she follows three teachers in very different situations, showing the good, the bad, and the ugly of their experiences. They make mistakes, they have triumphs, and they're too often tied to a system that seems designed to make them (or their students) fail, all while society asks them to fix more and more of its ills. Interspersed between the stories of our spotlight teachers are essays in which the experiences of other education professionals throughout the country are incorporated alongside educational research findings.

Though a lot of this was not new territory for me, a nearly 20 year veteran of the teaching life, there were still instances that were shocking, particularly the teacher bullying section. Though I've experienced bullying from parents and the general public, reading about the experiences of others makes me even more grateful for the collegial environment fostered by my admin and co-workers.

All in all, Alexandra Robbins never disappoints. I highly recommend this book.

ARC read through NetGalley, all opinions are my own. This book. Wow is all I can say. As a teacher, I wouldn't say it was eyeopening because I personally have experienced some of the things discussed or have heard of people experiencing them, but it still was eyeopening in its own way. I wouldn't say I enjoyed this book, so much as I related to it and wanted to keep living the school year through these teachers. I don't say this much, but I think everyone, especially parents with kids in school, should read this book.

I just reviewed the book the teachers by Alexandra Robbins...The book is amazing...I enjoyed reading it. The book relates many stories from educators but returns throughout the school year primarily to three teachers: Penny, a southern middle school maths teacher; Miguel, a special education teacher in the Western United States; and Rebecca, an East Coast elementary school teacher. They all are committed to assisting their pupils, but also struggle to cope with the dynamics inside their school, the greater community, and their own lives. Robbins chronologically relates events, with each chapter connected with a certain month. One portion that stuck out, however, came in December when she talked about "'Safe Harbor': the Most Underestimated Teacher in the Building," an entire section on school librarians.
The necessity of having a full-time certified school librarian (unfortunately, not the case in over forty percent of public and private K-12 schools) highlights that "for more than 30 years, impact studies have connected excellent school library programs to student accomplishment."

Thanks #netgalleryarc #theteachers

As a former classroom teacher and school librarian, I scooped this up as soon as I saw it on Netgalley. Robbins follows three teachers over the course of a school year, detailing their struggles and triumphs. Intermingled with those narratives are a series of essays that touch on different issues teachers are facing including escalation in student violence, an increase in rude behavior from parents, less support from administration, and increased workloads running into a decrease in support staff, materials, and funding. Robbins did a great job of choosing teachers from different geographical locations, grade levels, and content areas, and as a former self-contained special education teacher, I was especially glad to see that represented. It's a setting that I think a lot of teachers and administrators don't understand much less the general public. Overall, Robbins paints the portrait of teachers who desperately love their students and have hung on as long as they have because they treasure those moments of connection and growth but who are feeling more and more like teaching is hurting their physical, mental, and emotional health and just isn't compatible with a life that includes anything else. I wish we could require that everyone read this book before commenting anywhere on the Internet about teachers and/or public education.

If you are a teacher, know a teacher, have a student in school, are an administrator, or really just anyone; you should read this book. It is a REAL account of what it is like teaching in the school system in current times—highs and lows. If you have ever said “teaching is easy, all you do is babysit”, then I highly recommend you pick this one up. This book follows three teachers throughout the course of a school year and will show you why, even through all the struggles, they still choose to do this job. It will also show you why there has been a mass exodus in the teaching profession over the last several years. Teaching is the only career I know, and I feel I have been mostly fortunate in my experiences (with a few exceptions); but, I can relate to these stories so much as well. Throughout the book, there is also commentary from other teachers and the author even substitutes and works in schools herself to see what it is like and to conduct research. This is an intriguing book that doesn’t read as boring nonfiction. The world needs this!

I've been a fan of Alexandra Robbins since The Overachievers, so I was especially excited to get my hands on this book. She does an excellent job tracing the course of a school year in several different districts. Like most of her books, we follow a few specific teachers throughout, but there are interviews with lots of others mixed in as well. And although Robbins does focus a bit on the pandemic, she makes it clear that Covid 19 is not the sole focus of this book. Things have been wrong for a while! As a former teacher, I felt like this was a great, honest look inside the classroom, and I was especially impressed to see that Robbins herself has taken on subbing responsibilities. There's truly no way to truly know what it's like to be a teacher if you haven't actually done it (and no, "being in the classroom" as a student doesn't count!), but this book comes pretty close.

THE TEACHERS by Alexandra Robbins (The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth, Overachievers, Nurses and more) is subtitled "A Year Inside America's Most Vulnerable, Important Profession." Robbins, an award-winning investigative reporter, relates many stories from educators but returns throughout the school year primarily to three teachers: Penny, a southern middle school math teacher; Miguel, a special education teacher in the Western United States; and Rebecca, an East Coast elementary school teacher. Clearly, they all are devoted to helping their students, but also struggle to deal with the dynamics within their school, the larger community, and their personal lives. Robbins shares events in a chronological manner, with each chapter associated with a particular month. One section that stood out, though, comes in December when she writes about "'Safe Harbor': the Most Underestimated Teacher in the Building," an entire section on school librarians. Robbins highlights the importance of having a full-time qualified school librarian (sadly, not the case in nearly forty percent of public and independent K-12 schools) and stresses that "for more than 30 years, impact studies have linked strong school library programs and student achievement." THE TEACHERS received starred reviews from Kirkus ("An important and eye-opening book") and Publishers Weekly ("deeply researched and impressive study"). School board members (and parents!) across the country should read this for a better understanding (albeit filtered through Robbins' interviews with hundreds of teachers and her experience as a substitute teacher for a year) of what professional educators face every day. The balance between the rewards of truly helping students and the increasingly arrogant demands from parents and inflated bureaucracies is shifting. Teachers deserve recognition and respect, allowing them to pour more energy into better student outcomes. The alternative will be fewer applicants, even greater attrition, and a decline in professionalism. Read, question, and then reach out to boost morale and bring more joy to classrooms.

Links to just a couple of relevant articles about school librarians:
https://libslide.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/SLC-Investigating-the-Status-of-School-Librarian-Employment.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336645317_They_Paved_Paradise_School_Librarians_and_School_Libraries_Are_Disappearing_and_We_Won%27t_Know_What_We%27ve_Lost_Until_It%27s_Gone

The Teachers: A Year Inside America's Most Vulnerable, Important Profession by Alexandra Robbins is a fascinating look into elementary, middle, and high school classrooms. Being a teacher is such an important labor of love, not a profession to go into looking to become wealthy. I found this book to be compelling and such an interesting peek into our educational system. I have read quite a few books by Alexandra Robbins and really appreciate her commitment to diving deep into the subject matter to put forth as much realness as possible.

The author reports on the lives of three teachers as she follows them for a year in their classrooms. Each teacher is from a different part of the U.S. and navigating their own challenges as an educator. Educators will relate to much of what is written about in these teachers' stories and those outside education will gain insight into the profession. This exploration of what it's like to be a teacher today is powerful and should be read widely.