Schooled

Best book I've read in a long time!

Fun, entertaining, great read! Sex and the City meets Dead Poet's Society. LOVED it! I'm a teacher and I highly recommend it! Can't wait until Lakhani's next book!

Quick and Cute

Quick, witty read. Plot was basic, but carried by great characters.

Does this really happen?

I loved this book. It was clever and fun to read. And now I wonder if this kind of thing actually happens within the schools of the super rich. This is the perfect beach read. It's like cotton candy for your mind. Nothing too heavy - but a great, read. I have recommended this to a couple of my girlfriends.

I am sure there are people who are materialistic like the students and parents in this book. I understand the struggle of the main character - she wants to follow her dream of teaching but finds out that it is financially harder than she thought, especially once she gets sucked into the shallow environment of the "rich kids" school. She gets caught up in a whirlwind expensive "stuff." She needs it to fit in and impress her students.

I am glad the book ends the way it does -very good.

Worth Reading

A perfect reminder that homework is bull, that school has little to do with education; and that a lot of parents only care about college names for the public "Wow" factor.

cute but not meaty

If you're looking for a deep and philosophical book this clearly isn't it but it was very fun to read. The designer labels were overkill after a while but honestly I think that was the point the author was trying to make. She wanted the reader to see just how ridiculous it all looked and sounded. The story was very easy to get into. It was also a quick read.

Good story, good ending

I enjoyed this book but got a little bogged down with the constant barrage of "designer labels". Ms. Lakhani could still have a great story without the over-usage of these. A good "light" read with a promising ending.

High-Interest

This book was fascinating to me and i can definitley relate seeing as I am a school teacher by day and a tutor by night. It is quite sad the sense of entitlement students being tutored exhibit. They think it is out duty to re-teach to such an extreme that they may not even need be present for the lecture in their classes. I tutor college students as well and it is nothing about the age, it is that these kids know their parents will pay any sum of money to get their kids through school, and we tutors know that we are replaceable so we must be steadfast in helping them and promote progress for the student. This book accurately represents the inner struggle many of us have to ask ourselves daily whether or not this tutoring is worth it and if it negates all of our hard work in the classroom, well then why do we bother? You dont go into teaching for the money afterall.... Well it is a great book, however, a little romance would have brought it to life a bit more, I think the writer wanted to keep this on one basic topic and in that she succeeded.

Interesting but a good read!

I read a review of this book so I picked it up. It was a good and fast read. I'm hoping that it is more fiction than truth!!!

A humorous, if terrifying, romp through the elite private school system

Everyone who has ever had a bad job, been disillusioned in a new career, or gotten smacked in the face by life should read this book. This new teacher, working at an elite private school in New York City, quickly discovers that none of the other teachers want her to do more than go through the motions. The parents of the students also complain that she is taking up the students' time with projects, and the parents are horrified when she tries to give a test in class. The students themselves don't resspect her until she starts wearing the same designer labels that they do, which she can afford once she climbs aboard the tutoring treadmill, charging outrageous sums to basically do the homework of students in other private schools, just as she knows other tutors are doing her students' homework. It's a vapid existence in a world of vapid, rich New Yorkers who seem to have no concept of the damage they're doing to their children by actively preventing them from learning. Public school doesn't seem so bad after spending time with these sad rich families.

Definitely interesting but one-sided

I was engrossed in this book because of its depiction of a world and a lifestlye that is so removed from most of us. However, I'm smart enough to realize that not all private school kids are this spoiled, self-centered and just plain dumb. I'm sure that many students are smart and work hard. How far can you get in ivy-league schools if you've never written anything yourself? Believe me, I attended one myself. I am not a minority neither part of the elite and I refuse to believe that everyone with money is shallow and will only pay for things, not strive to get them on merit. All in all, take it for what it is: an exaggerated tale. Still interesting, though.

Inside look at the drama of a private Manhattan school...juicy

Throughout the book you're a cheerleader for Anna. She has the passion to be the best teacher she can be, and dedicated to her students..However, she finds what it's like to teach 12 year olds and their tutors...By the end of the book you are happy not to be one of those parents on the Upper East Side, you kind of pity them....A great read!

DO NOT SUPPORT THIS BOOK

As a student of The Dalton School, the main thing she blatantly critizes, I ask everyone NOT to support this book. A lot of what she says is completely untrue. I have never had any friends who needed tutors and had to sink to the level of letting and or asking them to do their homework for them. What she speaks of is completely untrue. And how can she criticize and mock people who wear brand label clothing to school when she married a rich man and came to school everyday wearing the same type of clothing. She also preferred and favored all of the CLIQUEY girls yet she has the nerve to say bad things about them. And seriously she should have known Dalton was going to be different than the other schools she taught at. And if she really didn't want to be known as someone who taught there she shouldn't have accepted the job. Plus a lot of the teachers and main characters in the book are actual people teaching and currently attending the Dalton School. If she was going to be so onpoint with the descriptions of the characters 'and clearly give away who it was at the school' than she should have made it a memoir and not a fictional exposé when it clearly wasn't. DO NOT SUPPORT THIS BOOK BY BUYING IT.

A Great Read

Having just finished Anisha Lakhani's Schooled, I could not wait to share it with my teacher friends. Not only was this a book I could not put down, but it brought back memories of my earlier teacher days. Having been in the private sector for years, it allowed me to have many ah-ha moments mixed with the wit and humor of a fantastic writer. Anisha knows where she's going in her literary genre and I can not wait for her next book to be ready! I highly recommend this book and sing its praise to everyone!

Disappointingly Unoriginal

As a former Lakhani student, I feel that I have a right to feel betrayed in a sense. Personally, I thought she was a great teacher. Unfortunately, the book seemed to be a biased biography of Lakhani's life at Dalton. The book makes it sound as if almost everyone at Dalton (and other NYC private schools) has a personal tutor that does work for them, and even worse, students are allowed to cheat! That is absolutely not true. The picture of the school that she portrays in the book is almost exactly like Dalton, located in the same spot with the same security guard, same theater, and even the same lessons as taught by Lakhani when she was a teacher! The way she describes a teacher with who she supposedly feuded with at Dalton is just plain wicked.

Life on the Other Side of the Desk

My Review of SCHOOLED by Anisha Lakhani Submitted by Karen Haney, July, 2008 For those of us who are teachers, we are too late! The ¿Nanny Diaries¿ of education we have always wanted to pen, has been written. Anisha Lakhani¿s Schooled is the story of Anna Taggert and her experiences with the world of education from the teacher¿s side of the desk¿. well, at least if the desk is in privileged Manhattan private schools. Anna, who comes from a grounded family of well educated parents who are pleased she is graduating from Columbia, are shocked when she tells them she is going to teach. She has the drive and heart of the young, dedicated, and clueless who go into education for all the right reasons and haven¿t as yet been jaded by the bureaucracy and red tape! She is prepared for the reality of lesson plans, inspiring students, and smaller paychecks, or thinks she is until she really gets into the job. Anna quickly notices that all the students, as well as an aloof teacher named ¿Randi¿ all dress better than she does. Their Channel book bags alone cost more than a month¿s salary. Her walkup apartment is far from the rewards her Ivy League friends are now living in with their high paying jobs. It doesn¿t take Anna too long to realize that not only do the students not want to do the work she enthusiastically tries to inspire them to do, but nor do the parents whose interests only lie in the ¿A¿ grade. Their child¿s admission to THE ¿right college¿ with these ¿A¿ grades, as well as time to socialize outside of school, attending every party, bar mitzvah, and opening available to them is these parents¿ and children¿s priority. Anna finds that the work her students turn in, impressive as it is, is not being done by them at all, but rather by high paid tutors¿VERY high paid tutors! Her idealism is short lived as she is lured into the life tutoring can afford her. When reprimanded by the headmaster for making students actually work in class, Anna finally relents. As she connects with Randi and the golden haired mothers outside school, Anna is enticed by the designer clothes and is soon strutting into school herself in Juicy jumpsuits, with a new designer bag by her side. She spends her days off literally spending at Barney¿s, being hosted at swanky restaurants for lunch and dinner, and residing at a new address on Madison Avenue. Anna goes overboard as the heady feeling of this lifestyle carries her away, but it doesn¿t take much for reality to quickly burst her bubble and finally pop her back into the real world. How Anna handles the precocious adolescents and parents and her whirlwind life in the fast lane of name-dropping fashion and places she is wined and dined, makes for a delightfully decadent romp in Manhattan¿s world of private education. Anisha Lakhani¿s personal connection with this real slice of the privileged life, adds a bit of authenticity to a story that most mortals, especially educators, might find hard to believe. The story entertains and is a fast, light read that keeps you going if for no other reason than to read more about a life one would like to temporarily imagine living in! Strongly recommended for an enjoyable education! Submitted by K. Haney, July, 2008

Filthy lucre beats academic integrity every time

Schooled is the perfect primer for every middle-American family with a college-bound or currently enrolled college student. Anisha Lakhani wrote a novel but the real world is easily visible between the lines¿except to the students, parents, school administrators, and academic parasites she amusingly describes. She admirably explains just how little $500,000-plus per child buys in tuition, tutoring, and donations to exclusive, private New York City preparatory schools. Aberrant families that ¿fork it over¿ get, on average, a pseudo-¿A¿ student headed for an Ivy League university¿a hollow teenager for whom lying, cheating, and literally staying ¿in fashion¿ is the only way to live a virtually illiterate teenager whose parents successfully instilled in them that the end 'or admission to the ¿right¿ university' is justifiable by any means¿honesty, morals, and personal integrity be damned! Schooled¿s hero, Anna Taggart, gets her teaching ¿dream job¿ and then quickly learns that grades, not education, are the only things valued by moneyed-New York City families. And that grades are the product of a tutor¿s, not student¿s work. She awkwardly succumbs to the obvious conflict-of-interest first by becoming the enemy 'or tutor', and then by shirking more-and-more of her teaching responsibilities, all in the pursuit of more money. Between her shopping fixes and overt plagiarism, Anna gradually sees that tutoring has completely supplanted teaching: Everything she does is in the names of Prada, Klein, Gucci, Lauren, and other so-called arbiters of ¿I deserve it¿ merchandise. From newbie teacher to veteran prostitute before Thanksgiving break! That is the ¿filthy lucre¿ world into which Ms. Taggart fell, and eventually rose from after her own ¿Howard Beale moment¿ '¿I¿m made as hell and I¿m not going to take it any more,¿ from the movie, Network'. Schooled explains why honest, middle-American students are forced to study every spare minute to just barely maintain their academic success. Their academic servitude is mandatory because their intellectually honest, personally researched and written papers are graded in comparison to papers prepared by academic whores with bachelor, master, or doctoral qualifications after their names! Even more vulgar is the fact that instructors assign ¿A¿ grades without any remorse since it might affect their own outside tutoring income! After such a revealing story, only one question lingers: Did Harold Moscowitz have a ¿faux¿ mitzvah, too?

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