An Empty Spoon

by Sunny Decker

Sunny Decker was twenty-two and fresh out of college when she went to teach in an inner-city high school. It had the highest dropout rate, the highest crime rate, and the highest absentee rate in the city.

That's what everyone told Sunny. What they didn't tell her is in this book: the heartbreak, the striving, the humor and imagination, the anger, the people who got things done in spite of everything.

(From back cover of book)

Genres: Nonfiction, Education, Autobiography, Memoir, Biography Memoir, Biography, Teaching

174 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

Reviews

[Ethan Decker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a little biased: my mom wrote this book. But regardless, I think it's beautifully written, and a great story of her years as a white teacher in an all-black school in Philly.

[Margie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard to put down, well written candid account of the harsh reality of the educational system in the 60s. Set in an inner city high school in Philly, the many lessons learned by a young white teacher and her experience teaching predominantly undervalued black students are spellbinding. Many of the students writings featured throughout speak of the truth still today and the inequities that continue to plague our students in impoverished areas. Heart breaking are the enormous challenges at home that most of us who are privileged could not even imagine.

[jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

old book (1970) but vivid in it's applicability even today. story of upper class college graduate gone to philly to teach inner city kids. true and meaningful as the cultural gaps are recognized and bridged through kindness on both sides of the divide. a reality of the unequal access many in our country have to quality education and therefore economic justice -- that is all too common as we speak.

[sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The whole trouble with the institution is that it tells kids they should think, and then refuses to acknowledge or tolerate any new ideas. Basically, it’s trying to teach you to function within it—not to change it.”

its sad finishing this book, its great. i struggled reading the students handwriting but regardless its adds authenticity to their words. loved the Japanese poetry (haiku) and how students expressed themselves using it.

some of the Japanese haiku i loved:
“The world is alive now
They can see and hear
Why can’t they feel?

In everyone’s life
There’s lots of togetherness
What happened to mine?”

“Love leaves a black spot
Which takes time to erase
Hate is easier”

“Believe and exist
I died believing
I always believe”

“I grab for my life
Though death is not far away
i died when i was born”

also some quotes that i liked:

“some passed you in the hall the next year and seemed shocked when you remembered them. as if they never expected you to”

“it takes a hell of a lot to kill a dream, and there’s nothing more horrible than a man without one. especially when he’s fourteen.

*students wrote:*
“”i picture my future being nothing because i’m nothing””
“”i have fail with help
i also fail trying by myself
failure is like shame”””

“I’d learned to keep quiet in the face of problems, too. i didn’t feel compelled to solve their troubles—no stranger ever solved mine. The kids seemed just as happy and open. I guess all they wanted was an ear.”

[Robin]

Sounds interesting. A fresh out of college teacher goes to teach at an inner-city school. Life story!

[Jacqi · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is about a young, white English teacher who begins her teaching career in an all Black school in Pittsburgh. It chronicles her struggles the two years that she taught there and how she fought the "establishment" to reach her students. Martin Luther King was murdered during her second year of teaching and she documents how there was a rise of Black power amongst some of her students. She chronicles the level of poverty and adversity that her students faced in coming to school and how she was asked to pass students who rarely showed up and did virtually no work. The reading level of her students was atrocious yet she found ways to engage them thru having them write poetry, letters, rewriting the West Side story and enacting it.

What I didn't care for was the author's writing style. It was very in your face which maybe was the style of the time as the book is copyrighted 1970. It starts out with her describing some of her students as fat or ugly. This set my teeth on edge as a former educator.

I would have really given the book a 1.5 rating.

[Chrisangel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this around the same time I read Bel Kaufman's "Up The Down Staircase" and discovered that truth can be a better book than fiction.

[Reader Girl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this when I was in high school and remember being suitably impressed. My life in white rural middle class America was so starkly different from the black inner city poverty-stricken kids in this book. They seemed so grown up I was in awe of them. Reading this now as an adult, I see the book entirely differently. A) it is poorly written. There are lots of good points, but as an English teacher, you'd think Decker would be more organized. Then again, she says in the book that she doesn't like to follow the rules. B) It's extremely sad that not much has changed in 40+ years. It would be interesting to read a modern day book of this nature to compare inner city schools of today with those of the late 1960s.

[Mary Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

“part of the art of teaching is the ability to rearrange the world for students - to force them to see things in a new way. i've known too many stupid intellectuals to believe that education and wisdom come as a package deal along with facts, it's your perspective that counts - your ability to see differently, not just to see a lot.”
― Sunny Decker, An Empty Spoon

[Bookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I disagreed with her on some of her expressed views and opinions, it was an enthralling read;finished it in a day:still relevant, or maybe I should say I felt as if someone was writing their experience from last/this year.

[InternetRex · Rating 3 out of 5]

My guess: takes place at Gratz. What do you think?

[Don Gubler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book about education and teaching. Why doesn't education teach?

[Sara Best · Rating 5 out of 5]

40 years later I ended up teaching at an inner city alternative education program in Philadelphia.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

A young white woman gets her first teaching job at an inner city school in the 60s.

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read this one repeatedly. I like it. Great true story of a floundering young English teacher at an inner-city school.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerfully written book about working with inner city children in the 60's.

[Michael David · Rating 4 out of 5]

'One of the problems with this whole system is that it rewards you for going through the motions.' (p. 122)

'Don't judge a book by its cover' has been one of the worst pieces of advice that I have inculcated for myself because it closes one's mind off from actually enjoying books that are good, but not masterpieces. It was only when I actually started to purchase books because I liked their covers and synopses that I allowed myself to broaden the horizons of my knowledge. I'm not saying that it's bad to only read the classics (I've actually gotten far because I predominantly read classics), but it's always better to open one's mind to slightly less than stellar literature.

'An Empty Spoon' is among those books I've discovered because I liked the cover, and I liked the blurb at the back. It's a memoir of a white teacher at the peak of the Black Supremacy era and during the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. Despite the fact that she was white, she tried her best to teach and illuminate the dark lives of her highly-underprivileged black students. She poignantly wrote about their dehumanization and their stoic acceptance, and the fact that no matter how she tried to help them, she always fell short because of their own negativity and the lack of government support towards their lives. At the end of the book she stopped teaching because she was going to give birth, but even though there is a multitude of failures among her students, it's enlightening to know that she had changed some lives for the better. It's still an overwhelmingly negative book, with a lot more questions than answers, but at least it shoves the reader awake with the truth during that time.

'I've known too many stupid intellectuals to believe that education and wisdom come as a package deal along with facts. It's your perspective that counts - your ability to see differently, not just a lot. (p.131)'

I've been one of those stupid intellectuals once. I'm only slightly idiotic nowadays, thanks to books like these.