Tales from the teachers' lounge

From the critically acclaimed author of Daddy Needs a Drink--hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "consistently hilarious"--comes a series of irreverent, wickedly observant essays about what it really means to be a teacher today. With his trademark wit and wisdom, Robert Wilder dissects the world's noblest profession--whether he's taming a classroom full of hormonal teenagers or going one-on-one with the school bully.Wilder was twenty-six when he found his true calling. Leaving a lucrative advertising career in New York, he got a job as an assistant first-grade teacher at a Santa Fe alternative school--and never looked back. Now he brings his unique perspective--as a teacher, parent, and former student--to a series of laugh-out-loud essays that show teaching at its most absurd...and most rewarding. With brutal candor he chronicles his own lively adventures in modern education, from navigating cutthroat kindergarten sign-ups to subbing for a class experi-ment gone wrong--and dares to tell about it.He shares the surprising lessons he's learned in the trenches of his profession, including how to bribe a four-year-old (his own) to stop swearing in a Lutheran preschool and the best way to