Being With Children

by Phillip Lopate

In the 1960s, prizewinning writer Philip Lopate went into an urban school to teach poetry and became a part of the school community. Being with Children , first published in 1975 but out of print for many years, is Lopate’s classic account of his relationship to his craft and to his young students. Hailed by the New York Times as “a wise and tender portrait of a small society,” Lopate’s book explores the horrible and beautiful aspects of being with young people five hours a day, and explains why teachers persist in staying with the public schools and trying to make them into places where young people can flower.

Genres: Education

402 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Phillip Lopate is the author of three personal essay collections, two novels, two poetry collections, a memoir of his teaching experiences, and a collection of his movie criticism. He has edited the following anthologies, and his essays, fiction, poetry, film and architectural criticism have appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Essays, The Paris Review, Harper's, Vogue, Esquire, New York Times, Harvard Educational Review, Conde Nast Traveler, and many other periodicals and anthologies. He has been awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, a New York Public Library Center for Scholars and Writers Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts grants, and two New York Foundation for the Arts grants. After working with children for twelve years as a writer in the schools, he taught creative writing and literature at Fordham, Cooper Union, University of Houston, and New York University. He currently holds the John Cranford Adams Chair at Hofstra University, and also teaches in the MFA graduate programs at Columbia, the New School and Bennington.

Reviews

[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A humorous record of a writer with no teaching background who teaches writing. There are really great writing activities. The responses are great with a lot of samples of what kids did.

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

More interesting as an advanced form of the grad school class BlackBoard comment post and a reference on how wacky the 70s were. Classic.