Holler if You Hear Me by Gregory

Holler if You Hear Me by Gregory Michie

According to teacher Gregory Michie, the portrayal of urban schools in the popular media tends to have the character of either two, polarized extremes: "On one hand are the horror stories... On the other hand is the occasional account of the miracle worker" (Michie 2009: xxi). Michie's account entitled Holler if you hear me of his own experiences is Michie's attempt to offer a more balanced perspective. Michie was a public school teacher in a largely nonwhite, inner city Chicago school. He chronicles his own journey in his book, as well as those of some representative students in a series of profiles that unfold in both the first and third person.

What is particularly moving about Michie's account is his willingness to follow up with some of his students, to determine how their education continues to affect them. One boy, who seemed like a tough teenager at age twelve, at age seventeen is full of rage and withdrawn as an adolescent."As a sixth grader, Hector had seemed so grown up to me much of the time. Now, as a 17-year-old, he seems unprepared to give way to adulthood" (Michie 2009: 37). Michie is honest about his difficulties as a teacher, noting how every day is a fight against distractions to learning, spanning from children wrangling for attention, to difficult home environments that take children's focus away from their schooling, to the pull of illegal activities and negative peer influences.

Michie grew up in an environment far different from that of his students' but he tries to view their situation with compassion. Michie says that the segregation he witnesses in the South Side of Chicago is worse than anything he had ever seen growing up in the South. Michie wrote plays as a teen; when Michie first began teaching, he was hired as a day-to-day substitute for a reading lab class where most of the students answered with "nothing" when asked what they enjoyed reading (Michie 2009: 5).

Michie initially experienced a profound culture clash between himself and his students. He wanted to be a kind, sensitive teacher who stimulated his student's interest in learning by encouraging them to read Malcolm X Gwendolyn Brooks. However, even his own students told him that he had to be "meaner" (Michie 2009: 7). They were used to very authoritarian discipline. Michie had to find a way to merge his goals with the culture of his students, rather than striving to impose his own idealistic expectations on the situation.

Despite his self-effacing attitude, Michie has clearly strived to have an impact upon his student's lives. The chapters of the book that showcase the lives of different students highlight many triumphs. One of the most moving stories is of Nancy, who falls in love with the book The House on Mango Street, which Michie introduced in his classroom. Not only is Nancy and her friend's love of reading inspired by the book, but Michie receives an education from his Latina students about many of the cultural references he never understood before, as a white male. Eventually, the girls who are fans of the book write to the author who actually agrees to come to the school and watch a performance of her text (Michie 2009: 67).