I Wish My Teacher Knew

This book gives such an honest look at why teaching is so hard. This book hits on so many things and points out where our society has dropped the ball for some of these kids. The author goes into detail about poverty, food and housing insecurity, family and personal loss and grief, abuse and trauma. She brings the statistics to life through the words of her students, as they share their answers to her simple writing prompt. This book is a huge eye opener and makes you think. This is an excellent read for anyone.

**This book was reviewed for Perseus, Da Capo Press via Netgalley.

Schwartz’ poignant book is a testimony to the impact and power a teacher has. Rather than going through the mere drudgery of teaching, day in, day out, Schwartz went out of her way to really get to know her students. Teachers really play the role of psychologist and sociologist, in addition to their 'job’ of passing along information.

Kids of all ages have myriad problems most people either don't know, or don't care about, but those problems, and lack of a positive outlet of release, can lead to all manner of behavioural issues. Children look up to teachers as mentors, and all it takes is one to pay attention, and genuinely care to make a difference. Throughout this book, Kyle illustrates this again, and again, with many different issues. Specific examples of students’ “I wish my teacher knew…” are given, but if you are expecting the whole book to be that, you are destined for disappointment. There are anecdotal stories I found more fascinating than the kids’ submissions, mainly because of the difficulty I had reading the photocopies of the on the Kindle.

📚📚📚📚 Should be required reading for all teachers.

Kids need to be known and heard by someone who cares about them. And teachers need to know their students in order to be able to really see them and be able to help them. That's what this book is about. It's helpful to teachers. I would recommend it.

There is so much more to teaching than just teaching, and this book helps show that.

This is a resource that I wish every educator and even parent would read. It addresses heavy topics and aims you with the ability to do the same with the various children or students in your life. The author sounds like an amazing educator and I pray and hope that my children are privileged enough to have teachers who are just as amazing and as invested in them.