Somebody Else's Kids

Nonfiction by Torey Hayden.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

I read several books by Torey Hayden, a child psychologist/teacher who worked with disturbed or disabled kids and wrote about it, a couple of years ago in kind of a streak. Recently I was thinking about her stories again because I have several friends who are teachers, one specifically in special education, and we had been talking about the difference a teacher can make in a child's life. In the day to day work, it often seems as if nothing is changing with the troubled child, but when you look back over the year's work, you can see that progress has been made. I encouraged my friends to persevere with their "problem kids," and possibly document the process just for their own encouragement.

But I digress.

I found this when looking for books by Torey Hayden that I hadn't already read. It was as engrossing as the others, and also as realistic. Torey herself mentions her own occasional feelings of discouragement, and even has another educator tell her that she is "wasting herself" on these hopeless children. What a bummer! But the amazing thing is that she never gives up. At the end of the story there are no miracle cures or storybook perfect endings, but the children in her class are better off than they were before.

I also read by this author: Just Another Kid, One Child