by T.B. Perry B
House Publications, 2011
ISBN 978-0-9810499-7-7
$19.99, 82 pp, adult
http://tbperry.com
Lessons in Falling consists of brilliant, dark poems that speak of the many ways both teachers and students fail, and are failed by the education system and by society. The boredom, the despair, the isolation, the frustration, the bullying, the knives, the self-destruction… sometimes in the barely-relieved horrors of these poems it is hard to know whether it is the teacher or the student that is being spoken of and which of the two is suffering more. The odd poem addressing the photocopying machine is hardly light relief. Yes, these things need saying, and they are passionately said here, but surely a few tender moments, a few A+s, a few students lingering after school with interest and questions would change the readers’ nods of despairing recognition of the failings of the classroom into feelings of renewal and that, perhaps, a teacher’s life is all worthwhile.
Review by Naomi Wakan.
This review is from Canadian Teacher Magazine’s Mar/Apr 2011 issue.