Pitt professor shares her tales of a teaching life
“WHY DID I GET A B? AND OTHER MYSTERIES WE’RE DISCUSSING IN THE FACULTY LOUNGE”
By Shannon Reed Atria Books ($26)
Shannon Reed’s “Why Did I Get a B?” is a tale of two books. Thankfully, the split does not represent the best and worst of times. Epochs of belief and incredulity better describe the divided soul of this collection. The factual writing in the book, the “essays,” as Ms. Reed calls them, make for an engaging memoir of a teaching life. How many people can say they have led preschool, middle school, high school and university classes? Count Shannon Reed among the few who have, and she shares insightful conversational tales of the highs and lows of such work.
In between these largely chronological episodes, Ms. Reed, a Pittsburgh-based university instructor, inserts her “humor pieces.” Some of these have already been published online, and most read like work typical for that forum — quickly read lists featuring snappy titles like “If Bruce Springsteen Wrote About Adjuncts” and “The Unspoken Rules of the Teachers’ Lounge.” Ms. Reed’s piece “If People Talked to Other Professionals the Way They Talk to Teachers” became the mostread piece of 2018 at McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.
So what inspires belief in Shannon Reed’s more personal teaching tales? The winning authenticity of her memoir stems from a willingness to explore potentially unflattering elements of both her worldview and teaching ability. She acknowledges the risk of coming off poorly by admitting she feared teaching “a bunch of Black South Brooklyn [high school] kids,” but goes on to confront how her limited interactions with African Americans reinforced her subtle racial biases. “I had a genuine sense of unease,” she writes, “but also an uneasiness at feeling uneasy. This discomfort is also called racism, by the way.” Ms. Reed avoids easy answers to overcoming such prejudices — she does not start leading classes made up of 95% Black students and suddenly find that people are people. She does learn over three years that her eclectic group of students have much to teach her about music and culture (the school is a theater arts magnet), intellectual curiosity, gender roles, economic disparity, and the power of a “Black and beautiful” identity.
The chapter titled “Paulie” will likely resonate more specifically with teachers, although anyone who has dealt with a difficult person or an inept supervisor could also relate. Paulie is the high school student out to make Ms. Reed’s life miserable. Disinterested in the work of class, lacking self-control and given to mouthing off with streams of offensive,cutting epitaphs, Paulie disrupts everyone’s learning daily. Administration metes out discipline on him unevenly and ineffectually. It also turns out Paulie has an individualized education plan the school is required by law to follow to help with his emotional difficulties — an IEP the principal chooses not to share with teachers until forced to do so under duress. Ms. Reed does yeoman’s work helping us feel for a kid who delights in hurting others while also stoking our outrage at how many adults fail Paulie as they pass him along from one inappropriate school placement to another.
Incredulity about “Why Did I Get a B?” appears with the comic writing that pops up between essays. These short pieces confound more than offer relief. The of-the-moment slang and style of writing in much of it grates a bit: “that is the kind of extra your … teachers are,” “they gave me half off … because, caffeine,” “Nash … never wins a Nobel Prize, obvs.” A few too many jokes feel forced, also, like teaching-related reworked Springsteen song titles such as “Because the Night Belongs to Lesson Plans” and “Blinded by the SMART Board Projector.” Some could use even more brevity. “Memo to Parents and Legal Guardians Re: Our Updated Schedule for Spirit Days at Mapledale Middle School” nails the theme that when you try to please everyone you please no one but hits it a little hard with two weeks’ worth of descriptions of meaningless themes like “Some Kind of Pride Day” and “Dress in a Color Day.” Finally, some of them suffer from odd placement, like “Other Vehicular Styles of Parenting,” a play on “helicopter parents,” appearing after an essay on what Ms. Reed learned as a preschool instructor.
Ultimately, Ms. Reed’s debut collection offers enough involving storytelling to recommend it. Humor being subjective, its comic interludes will charm some readers, especially those who spend a lot of time online. Ms. Reed promises more tales of her life and teaching in asides throughout “Why Did I Get a B?” And those will be especially welcome from this University of Pittsburgh professor, playwright and gentle provocateur.