An eye-opening account of the many deficiencies in the field of education, particularly for teachers. It hits on many teacher frustrations and reasons for frequent burnout. The language at times was too much, but overall a quick and enjoyable read.

This was definitely a real life glimpse into the day to day life as a teacher in the United States. While it was gritty and real, it at times felt a little too whiny and sarcastic. Thank you, NetGalley for the ARC!

Being a retired teacher this book appealed to me- we've all had days like that! To start with I struggled with his rants & total negativity. About halfway through I had to go & read something else. However, as it is a short book I thought I'd go back & managed to finish it. Towards the end I began to appreciate that so much of his vitriol was born from the frustration of not being able to do what he went into teaching for -make a difference to those he taught! His language is pretty strong & he has some wonderful exclamations of disbelief!

All in all it was worth reading & made me sad that education these days is such an uphill battle. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

Oh, this is a tough one to review! There’s no doubt it’s funny – and depressingly sad at times. A real-life, raw, unfiltered look behind the scenes of life as an American school teacher. To be honest, it’s a story repeated across the world; I can definitely hear my UK-based teacher friends agreeing unanimously with a LOT of the points raised.

Underfunding. Teaching to tests. Get the kids passed, doesn’t matter if they get it. Teach and street. Abuse. Timetabling conflicts. No accountability … the list goes on.

However, whilst I had a huge amount of sympathy for the author, I also got dizzy due to the constant eye-rolling. Whilst I have no doubt a lot of the rants were meant to be tongue in cheek (someone with such a proclivity for wanting to hurt children should perhaps (i) rethink their career choice (ii) not live in a country where guns are so easily accessible), there were many times it went a bit too far.

I frequently found myself thinking it sounded like a young teen had written this, with the desire to be controversial; look at me saying the bad words Mumma, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it! Do intelligent people really say, “suck my dick?” Is that actually a thing?

Now, I can swear like a sailor myself, I am a HUGE fan of the f-word, and I have no issues with its appearance on my Kindle. However, when it feels like the cuss fairy has flown in and taken a crap everywhere, it gets a bit tedious, and actually detracts from the no doubt sound point the author is trying to make.

I’m not entirely sure what the point of the book was, other than to maybe give the author a bestseller and a quick route out of teaching. I hope, for everyone’s sake, it works. Or, at least, it was cathartic for the author, and a humourous distraction for his co-workers.

The Stars
A tedious three stars – just too over the top.

AUTHOR

Robert Lantana has a dozen years of teaching in the dark denizens of education we like to call schools. During his time as an instructor, he seems to have acquired the attitude that all is lost in the current system of education. He produced this satire depicting the trials and tribulations of a day in the life of a teacher.

TARGET AUDIENCE

Teachers, Student Teachers, Students, Parent & Teacher Association, and scholars over 18 years of age may find this tome interesting.

SYNOPSIS

I Hate Everything: A Day in the Life of a Teacher is an no holds barred discourse on the profession from the point of view of a working educator. It is a funny, raw, vulgar, expletive filled rant against the experience of teaching in a modern-day academic institution.

The book begins with cutting humor and a bitter irony that comes to characterize the book by the end. The individual chapters include the express reason that he hates everything; capitalized for emphasis. The humor quickly becomes sidelined with his loss of hope and motivation. The disparaging opinion of the tutor’s allegations leaves the reader in no doubt as to his frustrations. His antipathy quickly becomes palpable.

Initially funny with reckless abandon and an utter lack of finesse, the atmosphere quickly changes and becomes terminally depressing and lacking in any kind of positive appeal. Phrases used to describe those in his care like “psychotic zombie monkeys” or as a “self-absorbed, reality-warped generation” line the pages. The disparaging remarks continue and are qualified towards the end the book with the comment “we aren’t educating the future. We are herding cattle.”

You have to dig deep on occasion to find the humanity that this character is left with. Despite the constant unending whinging on about his loss of faith and hope in a broken system; some passages showed he entered the profession with positive aspirations, goals, and a genuine love for imparting knowledge to willing and able students. Lantana describes the dulling of his initial enthusiasm as it slowly eroded over time due to poor pay, disrespect from the school body and the administration. The long hours with little thanks combined with trying to teach the unteachable whilst protecting the academically motivated continue to skew his mindset in a negative direction.

You could be forgiven for thinking that Lantana couldn’t give a damn about the young people under his tutelage. However, woven through the pages is a small voice which shows just how much he cares for the institution and its charges. He is concerned enough to write a book to expose to the world the problems of todays academia. His expressed concern about his scholars not having enough to eat, lacking home based leadership and basic social skills more than prompt the reader to understand his earlier desperation.

CONCLUSION

If you enjoy dark humor mixed with witty irony and raw unfiltered opinions and language that would make a sailor blush, I think you might just appreciate this. I know that many in the Western teaching profession will see similarities in their own working conditions and will sympathize with the author and his experiences.

I found this book to be a mixed bag of dark humor and the desperate cry of a solitary instructor who has lost all hope of improving an impossible situation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank Robert Lantana, NetGalley, and Dog Ear Publishing for affording me the opportunity to review I Hate Everything: A Day in the Life of a Teacher.

Robert Lantana takes you through a day in the life of a teacher. There is no doubt in my mind that the thoughts and rants that go through his mind during this one day or echoed by many and not just teachers. I found myself in total agreement with many of his rants. The book is disheartening in the fact that it shows so many of the failures of our society that are not currently being addressed, but don’t let that stop you from reading it. It is hilarious! I found myself laughing out loud at many of the things that he talked about within the book. I will admit that I did not agree with all his rants, but when do you ever totally agree, 100%, with someone. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend reading it, perhaps with a glass of wine or the beverage of your choice. If you have plans to be a teacher, you should definitely read it, but it shines a light on society at this current juncture. Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to enjoy this book.

I have enjoyed various books about peoples professions and this one is filled with humour and a fair number of rants. Even non teachers can look back at their school days and think ‘I remember doing that’.

Worth a read but probably more relatable for teachers and tutors

This is a unique book. I am not a teacher, although I have given lectures and taught students at a graduate school level, so the beginning of the book was a bit of a shock at first. Then many of the points mirrored my own experiences as the parent of four children, with the youngest in high school now. So many of the points made, very loudly in this small book, resonant as true in almost any public school system in the US. My children have gone through a magnet sort of school and yet it is underfunded, teachers underpaid and overburdened with responsibilities and everyone loses. The only people not losing are the administrators who earn the real money, what little there is of it, to be had in education. It feels like a reward for failing at the highest levels. Failing the teachers they serve, failing the students they serve, failing the schools they manage. Some of the answers are alluded to in the problems presented, such as in bringing up a study of failure rates on the "End of Course" tests while these same students earned their diplomas. I have seen the same thing, for instance, last year, my child took an advanced science class and earned 99-100 throughout the entire school year and just barely passed the EOC bringing her yearly grade down to a low A. So, is this a problem with the school, the teacher or my child? Was she too confident? Did she not study? Was the class watered down compared to the test?
This brings up another excellent point in the book, "Students should be held 100% accountable for their OWN learning". This is an absolute brilliant point and should be made by schools and educators daily. But, how are students to do this if they do not have the tools or the knowledge of what is expected of them in a course in order to successfully learn the material? The author mentions previously students having to work through problems in a textbook and then ask questions from there, whereas now there is a "learned helplessness" to education on the student's side. From my own kids' perspective I can see this is a huge issue as school budgets are crunched and there aren't textbooks or online books for everyone. The kids are left without the resources to do the work themselves thus relying even more on overburdened teachers for adequate and frequent communication. Unfortunately, this turns into a vicious circle of spotty communication, poor planning on everyone's part and missed learning opportunities.
There are many other, wonderful and correctly made points in this small book that are well worth the time.
My only criticisms are in the approach and some of the word choices. I am assuming, not knowing the author, that his rants are meant tongue in cheek out of frustration but as a parent I certainly do not want to think that teachers are constantly wanting to physically harm my child, even in their imaginations. So I am not sure this is the best way to win over the audience that may actually be on the same side of this fight. The other negative comment is that, while I agree wholeheartedly with the opinions of Trump and his election, it appears hypocritical to call him out for all of his -isms and then throw around the words "retarded" and "special ed" like its nothing. It seems to me that some degree of insight into the importance of being respectful towards the very people that Trump has openly mocked (especially those that cannot defend themselves) would be a better look.
Thank you for this ARC.
#Netgalley #DogEarPublishing #RobertLantana

I would recommend this for those who teach or plan to teach. It raises excellent examples of the frustration of teaching. For every child who is ready and willing to learn there is one who can't or won't .
Rules made by people who never taught. Teachers trying to parent the kids who have no guidance at home. I have also encountered students in high school lacking basic math skills, coping skills and desire to work. We can't hurt their feelings. We must take the disrespect and ignore the disruptions.
Coming home exhausted. with hours of work ahead. Robert Lantana expresses the problems of today's education in this country. Teaching has.become impersonal and tedious.
I liked most of the book. I felt some of his language could be toned down. Th hitting with a brick remarks bothered me. I think this book was his therapy.. I hope he decides his next move whether to stay or go.

If you’re not a teacher you probably can’t relate to this book. I was dying laughing at some parts because this is what teachers go through!

Some of the quotes I liked:
“Students need to be held 100% accountable for their learning. If they cannot handle the classroom environment, meaning that they disrupt, sleep, skip or do any of the shut that keeps 98 percent of instructors from doing their jobs, then guess what? They do not need to be in a classroom.”


While some of the rants I disagreed with, overall the book was a quick read and very funny and this author has the mouth of a sailor as do many teachers.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book is both hilarious but also disheartening. While I didn't agree with all of the "rants", most of then were spot on. I like his sense of humor. Beware of the heavy use of swear words. That really didn't bother me but it will to some readers.

I was given an advanced readers copy for #NetGalley. Lets be honest here... the only people who are reading this are teachers. I am one of those teachers... 20 years teaching middle school and I feel each and every one of his 'rants'... This is a difficult job... that is NOT going to change. I agreed with the majority of what he was saying, and he was very humorous. Super quick read, and was an enjoyable book, probably not one that I can recommend to some of my colleagues, as it is goes a little overboard with language, but I did enjoy.

This book had a very realistic and accurate portrayal of what it is like being a teacher. Some parts were funny and entertaining while others were disheartening—which is precisely what it can be like as an educator.