About the Book
How do you survive teaching English when hammers replacing pens is just the beginning of a craziness that takes over from the happy and positive
normality of a job started 30 years ago? Do you simply survive, strike
out or accept defeat? Is hiding in a false ceiling a sensible protest,
and will killing the Headmaster bring about dramatic change? Names are
changed and a precise location concealed, but could such a school exist
and have students and their teachers really behaved like this?
Through
dramatic and sensitive snapshots, the history of 30 years' teaching in
one school is revealed in candid, surreal and comic vignettes, all
linked by one teacher's experience and a core of real students and
teachers who made the job impossible or deeply rewarding. There is
comedy in the horror, and passion in the despair. Above all there is
honesty
'Writing With Hammers' is a serious, angry, often
satirical and always heartfelt novel about teaching English for over 30
years. The book recalls and reveals students, teachers, school and
government decision-making, and the full spectrum of ordinary to
extraordinary experiences in the day-to-day rigours of the job. It is an
episodic story taking a sardonic swipe at the real struggles to find
success – which it does – but also power to survive within the daunting
demands of this life-consuming occupation. Any teachers as well as
students will find real and resonant echoes of their own educational
experiences in its humour and honesty.
Mike Ferguson is an award-winning, published poet; is widely published in school textbooks, educational journals and online forums on the
teaching of English and creative writing, and regularly blogs about writing and autobiographical storytelling. Retired from teaching, he taught
English to 11-18 year old students for 30 years, 18 as Head of English.
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