Book Review: Confessions of a Teacher Or, How to Be a Part-Timer
By Mary Allen Redd, Cascade Books, 2009
Reviewed by Doreen R. Lewis, Ph.D.
Put on your seatbelt when you decide to sit down and read, Confessions of a Teacher Or, How to Be a Part-Timer, by Mary Allen Redd. You’re about to experience an unfiltered, daringly bold and outspoken treatise about the experience of teaching like a carnival ride you’ve never known. I would venture to guess that the vast majority of books written for the faculty audience are works that are predictably literal, educational, and crafted in academic-style with a certain degree of formality, even those books that we might consider a “light read.” Prepare yourself for a twist on writing style with Confessions – this book is the intersection of serious-subject-matter meets satire. You’ll laugh, you’ll get mad, and you will see truths that make you feel not-so-alone in your teaching frustrations.
This slim 122-page book has a catchy title and, based solely on appearances when I picked it up, I figured I would be reading anecdotal true-life stories with bits of trite humor similar to snippets you might see published in a college newsletter, or on a community message board where benign experiences are shared among colleagues. I was right only to a certain degree… The author does relate true and amusing tales about the classroom, but (knock me over with a feather) she holds back absolutely nothing, exposing the stupidity or vices of administration, students and institutional policy makers.
The book begins with the experience of earning a Ph.D., leading to status as an academic faculty member. Redd writes, “If the BS degree stands for you know what, and the MS is more the same, so goes the quip, then Ph.D. means piled higher and deeper.” This sentence illustrates the theme of this book—that everything in academia is pretty much bullshit. Fast forward through opening pages which describe the red tape college professors face in getting hired, then getting rated, considered for “professor” status or tenure, etc. Redd initially appears disgruntled. I began to feel as though I were reading a book about the negative hype about being an “adjunct” who is underpaid and under-appreciated. I wondered if Redd was a whippersnapper/upstart who was anti-establishment and trying to carve a niche for herself as a writer—at the risk of insulting, well, everyone.
Surely, the publishing of this book would get any one of us adjuncts fired for its controversial content had we been the author. Who would be so brave to expose what’s wrong in the university system? I became curious about the book’s author. Where is Redd now?
I found Redd’s profile on Prabook.com, a website directory which has a mission to share professionals’ contributions to their nation, local community or any professional field, and on whom sufficient data can be found in books, magazines, public and private libraries, and archives. Mary Allen Redd’s profile shows she was born in 1939 (she’s no whippersnapper), and she has an impressive resume that includes graduating from fine schools, publishing not only in academia, but novels, too. It is not clear if she is active today, but hail to this strong woman who dared to challenge status quo. This book, published in 2009, still holds a great deal of relevance today.
Confessions will likely resonate with seasoned faculty who have a sense of humor and who are not easily offended. Redd writes from years of experience as one who endured many of the trials known to this field of work. I was able to connect with Redd’s book. I’m someone who has lived through the horrors she describes in my experience as an instructor, but maybe I hadn’t seen the problems as sharply as the lens through which she sees. Satire is always a little challenging for someone as serious and literal as I, but when I realized the “fun” in this writing, I kicked back and read some more with greater ease.
The chapters on “Syllabi” and “Schedule” poke fun at how to please administration with a large number of pages required for the teacher’s classroom rules — “the chunkier the better,” all intended to cover yourself. Students pull their tricks to take advantage of attendance and late policies, and in the book Redd humorously challenges student excuses. The author, perhaps shockingly, suggests universities over-cater to students with disabilities.
“Everyone is protected these days,” she writes, but she gives some sage advice to gain compliance from students who take advantage of accommodations given to them. She also notes that, “Learning does not take place on Fridays,” and advises methods for coping with problem students – the ones whom she labels, “sick persons, missing persons, sleepers, suck-ups, student athletes, haters, religious fundamentalists.” There is something in this book to offend nearly everyone, but hopefully there are more giggles than hurt feelings.
Even the most serious of matters get jabs, too, in Confessions. Faculty required to attend trainings on sexual harassment get what Redd calls a “prize” for showing up – a box lunch, “with everybody elbowing for the roast beef sandwich over the pita bread with sprouts.” As for grading, Redd says, “What was once a C is now a B…. The low B is the grade of the lazy… and what is clearly a C, what any other instructor would indict as a C, is puffed up, a lie.”
Part II of the book is titled, “On the Skids.” It discusses unemployment and the pros and cons of working part-time in alternative settings. Some of this includes distance education or becoming a writer, working in a community college setting and thoughts on relocation. Finally, in Part III, entitled, “Part-Timer,” the author provides how-to tips. These include ideas for dealing with what Redd calls “chores,” such as volunteering, which she says does not further your career. Understand the pay of an adjunct – it’s comical and you receive no benefits, no insurance, no office space. The author compares campuses of types of institutions replete with their extremely distant buildings. “Your location will be the furthest building, highest floor.”
One would have to wonder that in an era today (10 years later from the book’s publishing date) if this book launched today what might happen. If news of it hit the social networks, I wonder if there wouldn’t be an outcry for its ban. I imagine students protesting on campus with signs about insensitivity by an adjunct. Nonetheless, this is a book I would highly recommend for its novelty and entertainment value.
*****
