Teacher: The One Who Made the Difference Reprint Edition, Kindle Edition

As far as it goes, this is a nice coming-of-age story about, well, a teacher "who made the difference," but I wish there were more focus on the teacher. There are large portions of the work in which the teacher and his philosophy class do not really figure at all, and in the end there are many questions about the nature of his influence that are left unanswered. I also wish the epilogue were longer: the author refers to the fact that this teacher left the profession after this one year; I wish he had gone into more explanation as to why.Also: I am by no means a prude, but I thought some of the language was unnecessary. Random f-words in otherwise clean narration evince a carelessness about tone and may make this book be deemed inappropriate by audiences that otherwise could gain something by study of and inspiration from it.

Mark Edmundson writes vividly of a time and place with which I am familiar (I knew the author in Junior High). More than anything, Teacher evokes strong memories of growing up when the world was changing in ways we didn't always understand, and people our age weren't quite sure of how we fit in. Its message is timeless, though, for the pressure to conform remains strong among teenagers, and I suspect it always will.Edmundson's writing is compelling: his portrait of Lears brought to mind teachers who made a difference to me and the choices I made in life because of their influence. His descriptions of his friends could easily be those of my own. Teacher is more than a memoir; it reads like a testament to a generation.Sin of Omission

Terrific story on high school experience, family, and how one great teacher changed the author's life. Loved the philosophical discussion and life lessons. A very good, smart and down-to-earth writer. The book really makes you think about our tendency to submit to authority and the pressures of group-think. I also went to Medford High (1960-62). Unlike Edmundson, however, I thought most of my teachers were generally very good, some wonderful. But I was in the college-prep track, where the best teachers were placed -- and the students were for the most part well-behaved and serious. I did sneak into a non-college-prep class once and it was like a different school; unruly students, broken teacher, very sad. So it is a testimony to this great teacher and Edmundson that he survived and became the exceptional author he is.

A poorly written memoir of how, in the late 1960's, a nerdy philosophy teacher, Franklin Lears, changes the life of Mark Edmundson, a high school football tough with few future prospects. Even though Edmundson himself became a professor of English at U of Virginia and a prizewinning scholar as a result, this memoir veers frequently and wildly off the potentially interesting theme of the story into incoherent ramblings about high school life at the bottom of the intelligence chain. He even misses the opportunity of seeking out Lears as an adult to let him know the profound impact he had on at least one student during Lears' first and last year as a high school teacher. This book, which received a moderately positive review in Newsweek, turned out to be a real disappointment.

Brought a tear to my eye.

I am a teacher and a writer, and I had so looked forward to this book. What a disappointment! This book is NOT really about the TEACHER who made the diffference to this writer (as I had expected). It is a coming-of-age story about this author. This story might mean something to anyone who experienced a similar coming of age (thug-turned-professor), but I'm afraid it meant very little to me. It was all I could do to FORCE myself to keep reading it, and by the end, I felt that I had completely wasted my time and my money. In my opinion, don't waste your money on this book.

Great book!

Mark Edmundson's TEACHER is a book which will probably make you think about your own high school years, but what's most important is, quite simply, that it will make you THINK. Because that is precisely what Edmundson's eccentrically brilliant teacher, Franklin Lears, was hoping to accomplish with the diverse group of Medford High kids that sat in his philosophy class back in 1969-1970. And he achieved this at least with author Edmundson, who was, he admits, a Schlitz-swilling, wannabe football hero who had sleepwalked his way through high school, incurious and questioning nothing, until he met Lears, who introduced him to the world of books and ideas - who made him THINK.TEACHER is also an inside look at the blue-collar working-class Massachusetts town of Medford - or "Me'ford" as the natives called it - where the author grew up, as well as the complex relationship he had with his father. There are stories of high school friends, football, sexual fantasizing, racial tensions, and pop culture influences. But Edmundson's narrative focuses primarily on the small, effeminate, Harvard-educated Franklin Lears, a teacher who emphasized critical thinking and individuality vs. the herd mentality. He used the Socratic method and brought in guest speakers (from the SDS) and used contemporary books like The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Penguin Modern Classics) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition. Edmundson devoured these and other books and began a quest for knowledge that would lead him to college, grad school at Yale and a professorship at the University of Virginia.He attributes all of this to a strange little man who taught for only one year, but made all the difference. Lears showed him books. Edmundson began reading. Here's what he says now about the importance of books -"... through books one is incarnated many times ... Those aghast at having only one life on earth are drawn inexorably to books, and in them find the deep and true illusion of living not just their own too short life but of inhabiting many existences, many modes of being, and so of cheating fate a little."Edmundson succeeds admirably in his intent of showing the importance of just one good teacher, but in tracing that teacher's influence on his own life he also shows how important books are. In one of the chapters here Edmundson relates how Lears combined his Socratic method with examining the lyrics of pop music. He called the chapter "Socrates Rocks." The same part of the book illustrates his own magical awakening to the world of books. He could just as easily have called the chapter "Books Rock."A fascinating read, well-written, reavealing and honest. Highly recommended.- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER