I enjoyed reading Kidder’s nonfiction books, Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World and Strength in What Remains, and decided to catch up on some of his backlist. He is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author with what I feel is a unique approach to his reportage. He seems to embed himself in his stories for months and produces truly in-depth looks at interesting subjects. His books read with the ease of novels but are wonderfully well researched.
Though Among Schoolchildren was first released in 1989, it doesn’t read as being out of date. In fact, since I just read an article showing how far children’s education levels dropped during the Covid Pandemic, it seems more pertinent than ever. Here, Kidder embeds himself in Mrs. Zajac’s class in the “Flats” of Holyoke, Massachusetts, an economically depressed area, and follows her class for the full school year. He shows the hours Zajac puts in at school, the more hours at home grading papers, and even more hours with disturbed sleep as she worries about “her” children. Just as today, many of her students are from broken homes, have poor nutrition, and/or are neglected or abused. She tries to instill a love of learning in these kids, but it’s hard to learn when you’re demoralized and hungry.
This is remarkable picture of education in America and how it is largely failing, despite teachers’ labors and love. Zajac’s school is a microcosm of what works—and doesn’t work—in our school systems. We need to address what doesn’t work before America is truly “dumbed down” to idiocy.
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Among Schoolchildren (Harper Perennial, Reprint edition, September 1, 1990) is available through:
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