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Rating: 
Summary: Gain insight
Review: ... this is book is funny and so honest. oh, everyone says "funny" and "honest" about brendan halpin's writing. it's true!i love the way he is able to show us so sharply the kinds of irritating people we all know in our workplaces, and the way he can show how he loves his students without being at all self-aggrandizing. my favorite bit is when brendan is calmed by one colleague's extreme rage, as if there were only a certain quantity of rage available and the boss was hogging it all up. i look forward to b.h.'s next books...
Rating:
Summary: Recovering Your Faculties
Review: Brendan Halpin's second book is another anguished, hilarious, fast-paced, smart, and brutally honest memoir. The subject this time is his life's work-teaching high school-and the frustrations and joys he experiences teaching in a variety of schools in the Boston area over a nearly ten year period. There is nothing maudlin in his writing, although, if you read between the lines, you quickly realize he is a very compassionate person. And it's that compassion, whether for his wife or his students, that causes so much conflict (whether with medical professionals or school administrators), but also, at the risk of being maudlin myself, saves him. It's another excellent, refreshing, and heart-breaking book by him and I look forward to his next one.
Rating: 
Summary: Education, Humor and the Real World......An Interesting Read
Review: Brendon Halpin has written a teaching story which will send any reader into a state of laughter. The twists and turns throughout Halpin's career would seem endless if not for the crude narration and comedy. As Halpin steps up the ladder he goes from a soft student teacher to a hard inner-city educator. There are many situations which will make you laugh, and others that will make you want to never go to school again. Halpin also touches on the fact that there really are A LOT of "bad" teachers out there. This is an excellent book for anyone to read - parents, students, new teachers and experienced teachers. Faculties is a quick, substance-packed book that will enlighten any reader.
Rating:
Summary: Education, Humor and the Real World......An Interesting Read
Review: Brendon Halpin has written a teaching story which will send any reader into a state of laughter. The twists and turns throughout Halpin's career would seem endless if not for the crude narration and comedy. As Halpin steps up the ladder he goes from a soft student teacher to a hard inner-city educator. There are many situations which will make you laugh, and others that will make you want to never go to school again. Halpin also touches on the fact that there really are A LOT of "bad" teachers out there. This is an excellent book for anyone to read - parents, students, new teachers and experienced teachers. Faculties is a quick, substance-packed book that will enlighten any reader.
Rating:
Summary: Witty/sad musings from a teacher who cares
Review: I don't know how Brendan Halpin does it. Over a period of ten years, working as a high school English teacher in at least three very different educational systems in and around Boston--and faced with occasionally disruptive students, frequently disgruntled fellow staff, and sadistic-and/or-stupid administrators--he nevertheless keeps his cool (for the most part), enjoys his work, and (perhaps most impressive of all) successfully conveys on the printed page what's so special about teaching. He has a genuine love for his vocation and a genuine fondness for his students. The first-person narrative really gives you a sense of what he experienced--the good as well as the (sometimes hideously) bad. I'm glad I didn't go into teaching--but it's nice to know that people like Halpin have.
Rating:
Summary: The Funniest Book I Have Read in a Long Time...
Review: Losing My Faculties
By Brendan Halpin
Hardly a day passes that we don't read an article or hear a story about schools. Most often, we hear what's wrong with schools. Reports of promised reform and fix-it-once-and-for-all solutions are commonplace. And one has to wonder after a while, if these magical solutions are finally going to fix things, then why do we continue to hear about how bad schools are year after year after year?
Far too absent among the reports of what's wrong with education are the voices of teachers who spend day after day, year after year, in the schools that outsiders are always promising to reform!
Teaching is a special calling. It is not a profession one enters for the money, nor for the prestige (and certainly not -- contrary to oft-heard cynic's explanation -- for the easy life, clean work and summers off!)
By and large, most teachers want to do a good job. They want their students to learn and they try to do their very best to achieve those ends.
Losing My Faculties is the story of one very committed teacher who truly considers teaching to be a special and important vocation. And it is also a story of teaching as a profession that can't help but make the person choosing it as a lifework to wonder about their sanity from time to time.
Author Brendan Halpin tells his own story of his journey through his first eight years as a teacher in Boston area schools. This is Halpin's chronicle of his beginning years as he works in four different schools across the span the book. He tells of his good experiences with his students, his classes that are great. He acknowledges his failures and shortcomings as a teacher and he clearly considers what he, as one teacher, can continue to do to try to improve.
Brendan Halpin tells his story in a straightforward almost conversational way. One can imagine sitting with a friend as he relays the story of work across a series of years. The result is a comical, blunt and spirited book that always shows a profound concern for kids. There is no question but that Brendan Halpin should be a teacher. He;s a natural! Sadly, I could easily see him hanging up his schoolbag and finding himself a new path on which to travel.
There is ample evidence that schools indeed need to get back to basics and stop the business of constantly seeking to start over again. Education is big business for some. Reform is an industry into itself. Testing is a monopoly. There are as many educational experts and consultants as there are schools in this country! Few of these businesses are truly concerned about improving education.
If legislators and school leaders truly want to make improvements in schools, they need to start with hiring, paying and affirming good teachers. Start spending time with teachers. Listen to them. Work side by side with them for a while.
If someone regularly told me how lousy I was, or how bad everyone in my profession was, it wouldn't take me very long to get discouraged. We have far too many discouraged teachers in this country! We lose way too many new teachers each year because they are never given the kind of support and mentoring they need to become great teachers.
Yes, there are poor teachers. Get rid of them! Keep the schools as simple as possible. And, above all, yes, return to the basics. History long demonstrates to us that gimmicks aren't the answer. Excellent education happens where a safe and caring environment is created for kids to learn. Success happens where there are dedicated teachers with high expectations who care about their students. Excellent education isn't always found in affuent school districts or in the most modern of schools. It is found where competent people care, work hard and challenge their students to do the same. In these schools there is a fundamental affirmation for the sacred calling that teaching is for anyone who undertakes its work. And, the results show.
As Brendan Halpin chronicles his journey through the often-unpleasant start of his career, he indirectly tells us just what is wrong with education. Perhaps we need to listen more carefully to his story, and the stories of many others who have the courage and energy to do this same work with America's future on a daily basis. Stop paying the testing companies. Halt the consultancies. Forget the experts. We have them in our schools. Put some of the money being wasted on outsiders back into the schools. And, then and only then will education see true reform!
Highly recommended.
Daniel J. Maloney
Saint Paul, Minnesota USA
Rating:
Summary: the REAL teacher
Review: Losing My Faculties destroys the stereotypical idea that teachers lives are made up of easy work and summers off. There is much more to Brendan Haplin. He is a dedicated teacher whose passion for education and the students well being is evident. The book covers his first 8 years of teaching at four different schools. Through each of these events, he acknowledges his struggles with students, faculty and school board members. Each encounter is told in a very blunt and factual way, which often comes across as sarcastic and quite funny. I found myself truly enjoying this book. I admired that Halpin was not shy to question his authorities or push his ideas, in a school setting, which tends to force people to conform. He came across many problems with the school systems of today. At points, Halpin seemed to become discouraged but his students and memorable classes inspired him. The overall message of his dedication and passion for students was portrayed in an exciting style, which kept me wanting more. A great read for aspiring teachers, as well as teacher "doubters".
Rating: 
Summary: interesting....
Review: This is an interesting book.... I have two points to make about it.
1. I thought it would be about a teacher who had some tough trials but came through them, inspiring, yada yada yada. It's not. I think maybe Mr. Halpin wanted it to be about that but to me, it has a different point. I see this as an accurate memoir of how many teachers become so negative and jaded. Mr. Halpin starts out the story with his first teaching experience. He recounts how enthusiastic he was and how dismayed he was by the other teachers' negativity and lack of enthusiasm. He talks about other teachers who gossip and don't care about the kids in the same way he does. As the years progress, he goes to different schools, meets with changing and unsupportive administration, etc. By the end, he seems as old and crotchety and negative as all the rest. But, he doesn't think he's being negative. By the end of the book, he really annoys me. That being said, this is not necessarily a bad thing because its honest and real. I enjoyed understanding why some teachers become the way they do.
Second point: Considering Mr. Halpin is an English teacher, he has the worst grammar and sentence structure I have ever seen in a book. I'm not sure how he ever taught English. His sentences run on, are filled with tangents, he doesn't focus on one topic in his paragraphs. I don't know whether he did this on purpose or not. However, it makes the book interesting. It's like you are inside his brain and hearing everything exactly how he thinks it, unedited.
This book is interesting because it is honest and raw. It doesn't really have much of an ending and sometimes Mr. Halpin grates on you, but it is truthful and real and gives you a good look into his life.
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