Rebecca Potter
BOTH SIDES
THE CLASSROOM FROM WHERE I STAND
BY REBECCA POTTER ‧ RELEASE DATE: JUNE 30, 2020
A high school teacher reflects on challenges she’s faced as a student and an educator in this debut memoir.
Potter’s book begins with a Kentucky high school principal putting the author and all the other teachers on buses to visit poverty-stricken sections of their district, where many of their students reside. The roads are so bumpy that one of Potter’s colleagues throws up on the bus. As they drive past run-down trailers and dilapidated shacks, an administrator tells the passengers, “Don’t forget that when you get mad about them not having a pencil.” It’s a lesson that Potter, who taught high school English for more than 17 years, learned well. In a series of essays that move forward and backward in time, the author gracefully explores the ways in which good teachers help students navigate lives full of poverty, drugs, violence, unintended pregnancy, and death. Fortunately for Potter’s students, she remembers her own struggles on their side of the desk. Her father had to quit high school to get a job, her grandfather couldn’t read, and she dealt with her own obsessive-compulsive disorder. Her writings show that she knows what it’s like to face tall odds during one’s teen years; every minor failure feels like the end of the world. Potter also effectively pays tribute to the teachers who helped her at pivotal times in her life as a student and new teacher, but the biggest tribute to their legacy is her own remarkable career. Throughout the book, she admirably relates how she’s gone the extra mile for students by giving them a pat on the back, for example, or attending a funeral. Although she honestly recognizes times when she’s come up short and shies away from trumpeting her victories, it’s hard to come away from this collection without a sense of awe for the herculean efforts of teachers like her.
An absorbing and inspiring remembrance.
-Kirkus Reviews
THE CLASSROOM FROM WHERE I STAND
BY REBECCA POTTER ‧ RELEASE DATE: JUNE 30, 2020
A high school teacher reflects on challenges she’s faced as a student and an educator in this debut memoir.
Potter’s book begins with a Kentucky high school principal putting the author and all the other teachers on buses to visit poverty-stricken sections of their district, where many of their students reside. The roads are so bumpy that one of Potter’s colleagues throws up on the bus. As they drive past run-down trailers and dilapidated shacks, an administrator tells the passengers, “Don’t forget that when you get mad about them not having a pencil.” It’s a lesson that Potter, who taught high school English for more than 17 years, learned well. In a series of essays that move forward and backward in time, the author gracefully explores the ways in which good teachers help students navigate lives full of poverty, drugs, violence, unintended pregnancy, and death. Fortunately for Potter’s students, she remembers her own struggles on their side of the desk. Her father had to quit high school to get a job, her grandfather couldn’t read, and she dealt with her own obsessive-compulsive disorder. Her writings show that she knows what it’s like to face tall odds during one’s teen years; every minor failure feels like the end of the world. Potter also effectively pays tribute to the teachers who helped her at pivotal times in her life as a student and new teacher, but the biggest tribute to their legacy is her own remarkable career. Throughout the book, she admirably relates how she’s gone the extra mile for students by giving them a pat on the back, for example, or attending a funeral. Although she honestly recognizes times when she’s come up short and shies away from trumpeting her victories, it’s hard to come away from this collection without a sense of awe for the herculean efforts of teachers like her.
An absorbing and inspiring remembrance.
-Kirkus Reviews
