Look:

See, I like books. I even don’t have space for all of them:

Here you can see a handful of smaller books (the efficiently sized Salinger’s and Gatsby, etc.) resting on top of other books, which are actually in front of another row of books. That’s three books in the space designed for one! And I wonder why I can never find anything.

Anyway, I prelude the main point of this blog with these two pictures so that you, kind reader, know I’m not one that shies away from amassing a lot of books. I’m a junkie.

However, this – to me – seems like a problem:

(Donald Trump included to provide sense of scale.)

See, I didn’t actually buy any of these books. And these aren’t all of them. These are (quote unquote) “teacher” books. What’s that? How can you tell that these are “teacher” books? Well, it’s the size, silly. For some reason, “teacher” books are large, floppy, overpriced, and (generally) pretty crappy. The pile pictured is specifically the books I amassed from participating in the LAUSD BTSA induction program.

But listen, those aren’t the books I like. They aren’t the books I gain any kind of insight or meaning from. In fact, interestingly enough, the books that most practically affect what happens in my classroom and how I understand my practice are different. Maybe you can spot the key difference:

And just so you don’t think I picked two outliers, here are a few more (with the originals still there for context):

What is it about “teacher” books? At this point (and yes, I am still considered a new teacher), whenever I’m handed a “teacher” book (aka a big floppy one), I automatically recoil. I don’t anticipate learning anything from these books and they kind of set me up for feeling like another unnecessary protocol, worksheet, or poorly designed lesson plan is waiting between the covers.

Of course, there are some “teacher” books that try to appear legitimate. Here’s a book I’d consider to be a “teacher” book that I’m not that crazy about (next to another “teacher” book for comparison):

At the same time, there are a (very) few books that look like “teacher” books that are secretly awesome. Here’s two of them that I’ve relied on:

Ultimately, I’m pondering making a connection to our school’s implementation of the Accelerated Reader program as well as discussing that whole “blue-collar” versus “white-collar” thing I mentioned a few posts back. We can talk about all of this sooner or later. I also think this book issue goes back to the disconnect between (primary and secondary) schools and universities. There are two very different publishing industries fuelled by each of these groups both working within very different business models. This, too, leads me down the road to think about how these two different stacks of books reveal a divide between theoretical texts and those that offer direct services, recommendations, and protocols to be used in the classroom. It reminds me of a recent comment a teacher made in a meeting: “Most teachers don’t want [Professional Development] that is about theory. They want something they can use in their classroom immediately.” I don’t agree with this approach (if you couldn’t tell from the pictures), but it leads toward a (much needed) discussion about theory’s role in the classroom teacher’s development. I’ll work up a treatise on this shortly.

In the meantime, what do you think about the differences in “teacher” book sizes?