Katharine Birbalsingh

This is a not terribly interesting story of a year in the life of a teacher in an inner city school in the UK where the aim is to get the kids to pass with Cs. Not that all the kids are thick, deprived or badly-behaved, just that the black ones (yes, black, this is the UK not America) have a choice - bad behaviour and welcome to the peer group or work hard and accept isolation. The author who is Jamaican, or at least half, by birth or by heritage visits a couple of schools in Jamaica and is shocked at the good behaviour, manners and desire to learn of the kids in even the ghetto schools. Its like that in the West Indies. The majority of grandparents had schooling to 16 only rarely and only as a privilege and that hasn't quite worn off yet.

Its an ok book, but not one worth seeking out although I think that the author might well develop into a very good writer indeed.… (mere)