Why Shoot the Teacher

by Max Braithwaite

Why Shoot the Teacher is a caustic, amiable, and unflinchingly honest account of one young man's first collision with reality - an ill paid teaching assignment in an isolated country school during the Great Depression. The young man is Max Braithwaite, now one of this country's most successful authors and freelance writers. The story he has to tell is riotous, grim, candid and infinitely entertaining. This is a Braithwaite at his vintage best and the humor that earned him the 1972 Leacock Memorial Metal is here in rich abundance. Here, too, is the de-humanizing desolation of the "Dirty Thirties" on the Saskatchewan Praries, the ordeal of youth among a populace bereft of pity and charity, and the human compassion that adds warmth and poignancy to Braithwaite's recollections.

Genres: Canada, Nonfiction, Biography, Humor, Autobiography, Classics, History

162 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

1911-1994

Reviews

[William O’Pomegranate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book rocks.

It is a memoir of a young man getting a job as a teacher in the prairies during the great depression. There isn't much of an overarching plot. Braithwaite got his start writing short stories and it shows. It’s more of a a group of short stories that a closely related rather than a novel.

It's quite funny but the humour is front weighted. In the end, it's a series story of a bygone era that may never come again, but also a story of a young person striking off on their own for the first time. it was a pleasure to be transported of into this world that is so distant yet relatable so completely.

[James Hutchison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why Shoot the Teacher is a memorable, humorous and candid glimpse into a harsh time. Partly autobiographical the story revolves around a young teacher venturing into rural Saskatchewan in the middle of the prairie winter to teach in a one-room schoolhouse and experience many of the hard realities of depression-era Canada.

"Something was bothering me. All that I was leaving I had hated during the past six months - the loneliness, frustration, poverty. But there was an annoying pull backwards, a definite reluctance to leave. Was it the attraction of habit (a released prisoner might miss the cell for a day), or was it something more? Had this place and these happenings become a part of me, affecting to some extent my thoughts and actions for all time?"

[Rick Patterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is palatable mainly because it's so bite-sized. One season in Saskatchewan during the Dirty Thirties is enough for anyone, and as an unpaid teacher on the bald-ass prairie, surviving the challenges of snow and dust, politics and pedagogy, Max Braithwaite's ordeal is, mercifully, a short-lived one. If you have a taste for this but want to experience it in a more existentially fraught context, pick up Sinclair Ross' As For Me And My House, which is enough to make you want to use the straight razor. This, certainly, is much more amenable and accessible, but even so, by the end of it you really want to have a drink, if only to get the dust out of your sinuses.

[Darlene Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

More reading for our reading group at New Market Manor
There are 10 to 20 seniors who come regularly at 10:15 am to 11 on a Wednesday morning - to "read" with me. Our discussions are as interesting as the books, for sure!
They didn't find "teacher" as amusing as "3 in a bed" - but it touched many memories for them - brought out many shared memories of their own - growing up on the prairies over these years. The story of the coyote was a little too lengthy - but otherwise they really enjoyed reminiscing about such memories.

[Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really quite an entertaining and engagingly-written memoir. As a note to self, and to other high-school teachers of Canadian history, this would be a very rich resource for a unit on the Great Depression in Canada.

[Tim Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

I dig these stories about life in the prairies. Fun tale for sure. Plus, I'm somewhat biased, my cousin is in the movie. Ha.

[Marjorie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story of hardship during the 1930s. This young man who taught school without pay for a year on the Canadian Prairies tells the tale of that year. This is non fiction and when this book was written writers did not worry as much about being sued for saying something that may be considered harsh. He was equally hard on himself by letting the reader know some of his thoughts. He did not necessarily draw a flatting picture of himself. This is a book that will stay with you and also reminds the reader just how very different life is today.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume covers Max's first year of teaching in a one-room schoolhouse in a very rural town in Saskatchewan during the Depression. He was paid with lodging, food and promissory notes. This year taught him about isolation and loneliness. Written episodically, the beginning is humour-laden but that peters out and the ending is bittersweet. Written in 1965 from a contemporary pov honestly about the 1930s. It won't appeal to those who can't handle non-PC content.

[Rhonda Leanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an interesting, autobiographical story of a young school teacher in the 1930s prairie dustbowl. I found the story was very readable, and the time period (obviously) interests me. It was a dark, lonely, dust-filled book, but that made it a super-interesting read. Thankfully, there was none of the style of humour that made me DNF his later books (it didn't age well). I'd be curious to watch the old movie based on this book. I vaguely remember watching it way back in high school.

[Ryan Gibbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story of tribulations from working as a new teacher in rural Saskatchewan during the Depression reveals, with humor and hardship, why many left the area for new opportunities.

"At twenty-five minutes after two on the afternoon of the third of January, 1933, I stepped out of a frost-covered C.N.R. passenger car onto the worn, wooden platform of Bleke, Saskatchewan...."

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, easy read.

[GAW · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Calvin Klassen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had me rolling in laughter

[Savannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cute story about teaching in Saskatchewan during the great depression.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Why Shoot the Teacher' spotlights the trials and tribulations of a young school teacher in rural Saskatchewan in 1933. With a witty and irreverent style, Braithwaite takes the reader on a journey through the harsh Saskatchewan winter, devastating financial times, one-room schoolhouses and being over one's head. This autobiographical novel is unflinchingly candid while simultaneously heartwarming and laugh-out-loud funny. Although my first teaching position was of a single grade in rural Ontario in the early 80s, Braithwaite's overall experience was surprisingly relatable. After you have finished reading, the 1977 Canadian movie adaptation (available on Youtube) is well-worth watching.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

1st Read: November 4, 1993 - November 16, 1993 (*** Rating)
I had returned back to an adult school in 1993 and this book was part of the recommended reading for grade ten English Literature. I remember seeing this book in my hometown school and never paid any mind to it. It is actually not that bad of a story and I related a lot to the prairie scenes and the wide open spaces of it all. I can see myself reading it again.

[MusicalMommy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have vague memories of this movie playing on TV every couple of years while I was growing up. I never watched the movie but was delighted to discover that it was first a book. The read is a nostalgic, humorous, sometimes sad & poignant set of memoirs of a young male school teacher in a one-room schoolhouse, fighting for survival, sanity on the Canadian Prairies during the Great Depression.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very enjoyable story about a teacher's first teaching job in a rural farming community in the 1930's. A one room schoolhouse consisting of children from grades 1 through 10. A difficult job for teacher's of that era!

[Jane Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully hilarious - and about the prairies!

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe not necessarily a masterpiece, but still an enjoyable read.

[Ali]

I LIKE IT