Teaching Stories

In her afterword, Peggy McIntosh, director of the Center for Research on Women at Wellesley College, notes that she wishes Logan had taught her own children. By the time readers finish this collection of both touching and funny tales, they will know just what she means. Over her 30-year career, Logan forged a connection with her sixth, seventh and eight graders in inner-city public schools in San Francisco, particularly the one which Logan and generations of her family had attended. Logan has quietly imaginative ways of tapping into her students' own creativity and enthusiasms--whether it is by making a relationship quilt, getting boys to think about what it would be like to be a girl, or having students create their own plays based on Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare ("" `You phony old Capulet,' one says. `You jive ass Montague,' the other one replies, `Your mother'""). In her own wise, observant and brilliantly pragmatic way, Logan exemplifies the unobtrusive implementation of many of current school reform recommendations. Her students won various prizes, but her real reward was the achievement of her goal ""to make my classroom a safe, comfortable, inspiring place for students of differing backgrounds."" These stories spark optimism for the future of America's schools. (Sept.)