“There are two kinds of teachers: the kind that fill you with so much quail shot that you can't move, and the kind that just gives you a little prod behind and you jump to the skies.” —Robert Frost
My boy just announced that English is his favorite class this year...and that, my friends, is a high school miracle. He's always had a head for math and science, which clearly did not come from me, and pretty much either abhorred and/or tolerated his English courses. Talk about a dagger straight to this mama's lit-lovin heart. Enter Ms. Gibson and in two weeks' time she's been able to do what his past teachers weren't able to do all school year: get Ben excited about reading.
How'd she do it, you ask? What secret strategy does she have that the others didn't? Choosing books kids actually want to read. Groundbreaking, I know. Yet it's a concept that managed to elude his past two teachers. Pretty sure he's still recovering from one of last year's picks: Siddhartha. A book like that will cure a kid of a love for reading by page two. My apologies if you loved it but we're talking 15-year-olds here.
This year's list? Golden. She's also showing the corresponding movies (if there is one) in class when they finish. Which officially makes her Ben's favorite teacher and my favorite person.
*Below is Ms. Gibson's reading list minus her summer pick, Ready Player One, which Ben loved, and Unbroken, above. How fun would it be to do a book club based on these books and their corresponding movies?
