"I believe that the most important ingredient in being a good teacher is the ability to connect with the students."
 |
Love Is In This Room by Laurel Lorraine Lancer, PhD Trafford Publishing
book review by C.D.
For nearly 45 years, Laurel Lancer worked as a special education teacher in the public school systems. Throughout those years, Lancer witnessed dramatic changes in the American educational system as school districts turned into bureaucracies, teachers became mere "facilitators," and rote instruction became cold, impersonal, and thoroughly lacking in creativity. In her aptly titled memoir, Love Is In This Room, Lancer chronicles the experiences of her well-suited teaching career, and openly reveals the intimate stories of her most memorable students and the life events that brought them to her classroom. As both teacher and writer, Lancer speaks from the heart. In vivid detail she recalls the physical characteristics, unique personalities, and problematic natures of her former pupils. These young individuals faced a variety of difficulties ranging from learning disabilities to academic failure, emotional disturbances to physical handicaps, autism, defiant behavior, and aggression. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Lancer also taught gifted students. But whether concerns were positive or negative, the author's emphatic narrative confirms the power of "love and understanding" as the best approach to reaching and teaching each and every child.
The stories she shares are touching and humorous, and at times heart-wrenching. Poignantly, Lancer devotes one entire chapter to a student that witnessed the murder of her entire family. As a testament to devotion and concern, Lancer kept in touch with this student throughout her life, as she did with many of her other students. As an effective teacher, Lancer tapped into resources and often used art, poetry, and music as components to enrich the learning process. Poems included in the final pages of this work help to shed light on the emotions, intellect, and truly creative minds of these special students. Lancer wrote this book "as a tribute to old values in education, and to my beloved students who made my experience so wonderful." Surely for the majority of these students, Lancer's heartfelt efforts created an equally memorable experience. Herein the experience will extend to the reader.