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While I was browsing for a book my eye caught another author's name that is familiar to me, Jack Staron. Forgetting about the book I was after, I opened up the link to "A Teacher Named Experience". After reading an abstract of the book and it's author I found out it was the Jack Staron I knew. Jack and I worked together, on and off in different schools, from 1967 to 1977. What really caught my attention was the teaser chapter titled, "A Chronicle of Failure". The chapter was about a boy named "Antonio", obviously a pseudonym, for a boy I had in class. I can no longer remember his name as it has been almost 50 years since he sat in my science classroom, but I am aware of the general facts of this story. I was glad to finally have a source with all of the details of this event, so with that in mind I sent for a copy of the book.
I ordered the book as a used copy through Goodwill Industries of Northern Michigan. The order was handled promptly and I received a "like-new" copy of the book for a total of $20.00; $4.00 for shipping and handling and $16.00 for the book. More about this later.
Staron's book is an easy read, and I finished it cover to cover in about 90 minutes. The different chapters about problems faced by students and the action taken by teachers and administrators might be of interest to new(er) teachers, but may not appeal to those not in the educational profession. Because I was aware of some of the people and events portrayed in this book, I probably found it more interesting than a typical reader. The chapters are a series of vignettes about problems faced by early adolescents, and how the problem was handled by the administrator, teacher, parent, and student. Overall the advice is good, especially for the newer teacher. These are the good points. What follows now is what I didn't like about the book.
This book was printed by "PublishAmerica" (PA). When I researched this company on the internet, the consensus of the sources reporting about this company is that PA is a Publish On Demand (POD) company and a vanity publisher. A vanity publisher is one in which the author pays to have his/her book published. This usually means that if the author was diligent in trying to find a publisher who would pay them to print the book, the experts in the publishing market did not find anything of particular interest or value in the manuscript.
Most of the time the manuscript is not edited except for a run through a spell checker. This may result in many errors as it is stated in the front of the book, "PublishAmerica has allowed this work to remain exactly as the author intended, verbatim, without editorial input." A book with too many errors is embarrassing to the author, and annoying to the reader. That is why editorial assistance from an expert is essential. Although I did not find an abundance of errors, proper editing would have improved the readability of this book.
The price new of this book is up to their seller. Unlike most books on the market which have the price on the cover or elsewhere on the book, this book doesn't. I purchased my copy used since the typical asking price for a new copy ranges from about $23.00 to $30.00. That's a lot of money for a 194 page paperback since most books of this type sell for five or more dollars less. Even at the $16.00 I paid for my used copy, that was a lot of money, and I know that if I did not personally know the author I would not have bought it at that price.
When I was teaching with Jack one of his favorite sayings when we had to write a report summing up a teaching module or for a semester's worth of work was to, "Make it look good on paper." and in this book, he also reported, "Never coach a child to lie. Train him/her to tell only part of the truth. " I'm sure that he did tell the truth about the instances in his book, and probably all of it. But he finally did get it to look good on paper even if he had to pay someone to do so.

The author of this book, Jack Staron, was one of my professors at Oakland University. If you are going into the teaching profession you have to read this book. It is filled with true experiences and practical thought-provoking resolutions. If you can't take the class from Professor Staron, then reading this book is the next best way to learning from an amazing educator.

This was an excellent resource to use as a reference for teaching. The author's experiences really made me pause and reflect on how to interact with my students.