Going Remote: A Teacher's Journey

by Adam Bessie, Peter Glanting (Illustrator)

A searingly honest graphic memoir dispatch from a community college professor who cares deeply for his students and family while also combating personal health issues from the frontlines of public education during the pandemic.

With Peter Glanting’s powerful illustrations, author Adam Bessie, an English professor and graphic essayist, uses the unique historical moment of the COVID-19 pandemic as a catalyst to explore the existing inequalities and student struggles that plague the public education system. This graphic memoir chronicles the reverberations from the onset of the pandemic in 2020 when students and educators left their physical classrooms for remote learning. As a professor at a community college, Bessie shows how despite these challenges, teachers work tirelessly to create a more equitable educational system by responding to mental health issues and student needs.

From the Black Lives Matter protests to fielding distressed emails from students to considering the future of his own career, Going Remote also tells the personal story of Bessie’s cancer diagnosis and treatment during the pandemic. A fusion of memoir, meditation, and scholarship, Going Remote is a powerful account of a crisis moment in educational history demonstrating both personal and societal changes.

Includes back matter revealing the literary and theoretical touchpoints that inform Going Remote (works by Octavia Butler, Neil Postman, Jaron Lanier, and Diane Ravitch).

Going Remote is a joint production of The Censored Press and Seven Stories Press.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Memoir, Nonfiction, Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Education, Biography Memoir

160 pages, Paperback

Published February 7, 2023

Reviews

[John Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very moving and beautifully illustrated graphic novel.

I really enjoyed and related to the story of a teacher coping with the switch to remote teaching. Like Maus before it, this is told in the perfect medium and the story and artwork combine together to make something that is more powerful. The running sequence was particularly amazing. Themes of community, isolation, illness and education are illuminated by the pandemic and the authors. I am looking forward to seeing what they do next.

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

A community college professor recounts his experience with remote schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. On top of that, he has an ongoing struggle with cancer.

So, yeah, a real downer. Proceed with caution.

The art didn't do much for me, and I found the writing pretty dull as Bessie waxes philosophical and a bit poetic -- practically writing an ode to community colleges at times -- and touches without much impact upon related subjects like classism and racism. His perspective just did little for me. The only moments I slightly engaged with the book were when he tied remote learning and the pandemic into the classic science fiction novels he was teaching at the time.

[Nick Sears · Rating 4 out of 5]

A poignant thought provoking look on a time we probably would all like to forget. Going remote is a touching graphic novel chronicling the life of author Adam Bessie's brain cancer diagnosis amid the early stages of the pandemic. Dealing with this diagnosis while teaching virtually for the first time Bessie, and illustrator Peter Glanting convey a world that became the new normal. Glanting depicts virtual learning in a epic and yet terrifying science fiction style. Going Remote is a must read for anyone who also struggled with the ramifications of the pandemic or who's invested in the state of our education system.

[Konstantinos S Kalofonos · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not the stuffy non-fiction book you were assigned in school or dry memoir you pretended to read at your book club while hiding your face in your glass of wine and hoping no one asked what you thought the main themes were REALLY about.

As the five stars would imply, I loved the book.

The way Going Remote springs from the hearts and minds of Adam Bessie and Peter Glanting is refreshing! As someone mired in the corporate world, I am no stranger to Non-Fiction and Memoirs. This book break that old mold (a mold as old as saying they broke the mold).

I won’t go into details on the story because, well, you can get that from the book description up above.
The writing and art combine here to suck you in and make you feel present through the whole story. I felt personally vested from start to finish. The artwork never gets in the way and at times I just stopped to stare and feel.

And feel you will.

This book is an excellent example of how the graphic novel format can be further broadened to convey non-fiction information that makes it more engaging and accessible.

Go read it!

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up. A paean to the community college, and its equalizing power in providing education to all. Bessie explores the uniquely cyborgian and pillaging role Covid lockdowns played on this diverse student population from his singular perspective as a professor, artist, and cancer survivor. Bessie is a kind and liberal person as depicted in this quasi-memoir ‘graphic medicine’ tome which uses the world of sci-fi as a constant metaphor and reminder to live in the moment. Glanting’s art has a dystopic Harold Gray/Orphan Annie vibe and is quite good.

[Aidan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this, I really did. I enjoyed some of the discussions of community college and education during the pandemic. I am currently a substitute and have worked with the kids that only knew the pandemic, and to say they are fucked, I mean they are seriously fucked. The problem with this is that for me it was too short. I wanted a bit more analysis and discussion, instead we got surface level discussion of classism and racism in academia, with some self-loathing sprinkled in (which I thought was fine). Overall just wish it was more.

[Shana Bird · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This graphic memoir begins with Bessie reentering a classroom after nearly a year's absence for cancer treatment. But this is January of 2020, so Bessie soon finds himself separated from the classroom again, this time by COVID. He recounts his experience teaching community college remotely, using metaphors of some of the sci-fi and graphic novels he teaches. This slim memoir covers a lot in its 125 pages of story--including the important role of community colleges in democratizing education for marginalized communities (often the first ones to disappear after the switch to remote learning, due to lack of access, technology, space, time, or need to work other jobs). Other topics include illness, how teachers were as much tech support and crisis counselors as educators during the pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the role of "community" in the classroom, and how the "Cloud College" can't replicate the spark and power that students bring to the classroom together.

His main point is how this remote year, which he reinforces in the afterword, had "the potential to interrupt or accelerate the trends in education I'd been writing graphic essays about for years--corporatization, standardization, automation, segregation and white supremacy. In this moment of crisis, we could finally confront the dehumanizing forces that objectify students and educators and push toward a more liberatory and democratic education--or we could surrender to those forces."

One of the most affecting parts was him examining an empty campus, hoping that this pause might potentially usher in a more compassionate and student-centered education system. (I think many of us harbored these hopes that the pandemic experience might cause us to reexamine and restructure our lives and systems, individually and collectively, while the reality has left us returning to more of the same.)

This graphic memoir shares not only a personal experience, but also raises some important points that I wish were explored in more depth. It's clear that these are topics that the author reads, thinks, and cares a lot about (there is an extensive notes section, afterword, and interview)--and some of these important questions, ideas, and issues only got a few pages before moving on to yet another important topic.

[Chr*s Browning]

while i agree with most of the sentiments here, there’s something about the delivery that reads as cringe to me - maybe i’m just the irony-poisoned youth, but there’s certain public displays of empathy like this that feel more performative than practiced. maybe i really just don’t want to read about the pandemic at all, that shit was boring and mostly sucked and i lost my job and now i’m a totally different person. anyway, didn’t really feel the graphic nature of it helped anything, could have just been an essay in the Atlantic or something

[Chrissy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes and even specifically requested my library buy this book. I was sorely disappointed in the artwork and the story equally.

[Raquelle]

DNF @ 34%

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zoom calls and FaceTime are two mediums of communication that I dislike the most, even more than group texting. At least back in the day, Skype had a nuanced international flair. Postcards are still so legit and thoughtful.

FaceTime calls impair safe driving. It almost killed my little sister. She had to be medevaced from an accident in Maryland. She has also wrecked at least three cars since obtaining her driver's license...

I've just been patiently and turtlely waiting for the right person to feel inspired to teach me new things because unfortunately, you can't learn everything in life just reading books all the time.

I digress...

I was never particularly afraid of C-19 because I've made a conscious effort over the years to try and find comfort and happiness being alone anyways, but always deeply concerned of how it would impact the masses from a long-term psychological perspective. Especially because of modes of learning.

The graphic novel, Going Remote is honest and interesting. Even at an expedited read, there is some fabulous philosophy only improved upon by the art.

When I was in graduate school, the course Internet Applications For Educators was already a Pandemic playbook. I didn't like it, but I was versed and trained in it. Watching my older siblings (both still surviving public special education teachers) initially struggle with online learning to now turning substantial profits with Zoom tutoring leaves me stubbornly confused and slightly jealous more than anything.

I have written a grab bag of love letters in my temperate life, but could never write a love letter to teaching because for a long time I had lost faith. I was pink-slipped the year I won a teaching award because of budget restraints. That never made any sense to me, especially when the ethos of special education is so theory based with consequence of reward.

I'm shure the tools are still worth dusting off again at some point...

Either way, this graphic novel is well deserving of a focused read.

[Ags · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pieces of this that were very creative and useful: the illustration of a Zoom classroom/black and muted boxes + writing about how many students, even in person, had been flattened out and forced on mute forever; the comparison of Zoom classes to "The Machine Stops"; and the reflection of feeling, during remote learning, more like an IT guy and an untrained social worker than a professor.

This takes up many important topics that I wanted to experience a graphic novel about: the parallel racial justice movements and the pandemic + what this means for community colleges, the comparison of remote learning and sci-fi ideas, having brain cancer during the height of COVID restrictions, and efforts to better address student mental health needs from a systems perspective. All of these topics are touched on, but really sped through/not dug into in a way that leaves these conversations hanging (and almost a feeling of the graphic novel bringing these things up just for the sake of bringing them up, like to check a box that these topics were there in some way). The lack of specificity also sort of took the air out of the topics they do dig into with a little more time. So, this is more like a series of ultra-brief reflections on some aspects of the pandemic + remote learning than a full, rich story/journey. And I don't know if it's fair to call this a memoir?

I liked the interview with the two authors at the end, and there was cool info in the notes. In my copy, the notes section was messed up, so the page numbers and chapter placements were off, which was frustrating but not impossible to understand.

[Ame · Rating 4 out of 5]

An honest exploration from a community college professor before COVID lockdowns began in early 2020 and how going remote took the "community" out of college. Bessie also delves into his cancer treatment, Black Lives Matter, the initially exclusionary origins of community college, and where community colleges go from here "post-COVID".

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh god, I wanted to like this more. 2.5 rounded up.

My problem with the book is this. In terms of a memoir about how the pandemic lock down effected and affected one professor and his students, its good. Much of what Bessie write about what Community Colleges should be is spot on. It is the fact that while he talks about the community college as a community, he actually does really mention two important member groups of that community.

To be fair, even though Bessie is tenure track, he does mention adjuncts in passing once and there is a footnote about where to go to get more detail about what adjuncts face. But that is such bs coop out. It isn't just that part time professor were hurt more by the pandemic than for times (I, for instance, loss 90% of my income for a year). Its that our working conditions suck. Adjuncts wouldn't have a sabbatical, for instnace. While it is a memoir, Bessie was clearly in communication with his part time co-workers. Why couldn't he have had included a conversation with them? Members of the community who in most cases make up most of the department staff in many community colleges?

But at least the part timers get a mention. The support staff - janitors, food service, landscapers, part time admin for instance, don't get a mention at all. It's like in Bessie's world, the Community in the college is just mostly full time professors and students. That's hardly the case.

Maybe I am feeling angry about this because last summer my brother who taught middle school died at the end of summer session I was teaching - a semester that ended with less than a week before the fall session started. I didn't get compassionate leave or anything. I didn't get a department wide acknowledgement of my brother's death. But a full timer, got a month off and a department wide email with her address so we could send cards.

Maybe it's because one semester when an adjunct that had taught and tutored at a college for 20 plus years died suddenly, the department said nothing, and the only reason the rest of us knew was because more than one of us knew her husband.

Yeah, I'm angry.

[Ronnie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This one's all over the place and veers suddenly and wildly off course a few times for no discernable reason. It recounts the author's own experience as a tenured English professor at a community college when the pandemic hit, forcing classes to be held remotely, which is an interesting enough premise and the reason I picked it up, but he makes the same points repetitively and takes the opportunity to delve into the Occupy Oakland protests of 2011 as well as the George Floyd protests of 2020 and the Black Lives Matter movement and structured racism in general, amply expressing white guilt about it all while blaming both the "cutthroat neoliberal state" for gutting the premise of community care (even more than COVID and technological platforms have) and the "right-wing press" that has peddled "the stereotypes of 'The Bad Teacher'" for, he says, decades, all of which is way less interesting and mostly seems gratuitous. The fact that he's battling brain cancer at the same time the world is going into lockdown definitely makes the story more personal and impossible not to be thinking of all the author himself was dealing with when everything else was also falling apart--he very deliberately ensures that by making himself the focal point of the story. The most refreshing page happens when his wife at one point basically shuts him down by expressing the same commonsense insight we all had to tell ourselves and our children during the pandemic and every other era:

"Enough of the What Ifs," she tells him. "We've always had to live with them. We've had to choose life, to choose to do what we love, what we dream in the face of the What Ifs. Yes, COVID might get worse. Yes, the tumor might come back. We'll fight back. We'll adapt. We always have. And what choice do we have?"

Needless to say, this book needed a lot more of the wife.

[Grégoire Maillard · Rating 2 out of 5]

it feels like this a graphic novel made by a teacher, about a teacher, for the teachers; in this piece, Bessie recalls the weird years that we all lived through in 2020 and 2021, the author mostly narrates his thoughts on how he felt through the different episodes of covid (the outbreak, the first lockdowns, the Zoom experiences, etc.) from the perspective of a community college literature professor which is quite interesting, he also makes a parallel with his journey fighting cancer which offers interesting parallels (personal disease vs. global disease; the loneliness of global lockdown vs. the loneliness of fighting a disease); reading Going Remote felt like a long monologue with some repetitions (the same point is brought multiple times), there’s a lack of dialogue and action(which to some extent would remind us of the covid’s first wave, but I doubt the idea was to reproduce this feeling); what I preferred in this graphic novel was the multiple sci-fi literature references (which were sort of obscure in my eyes) which obviously offer great perspective of things when you feel that you live in a sci-fi era as well; I did not get the relevancy into incorporating BLM and the author’s white guilt within the story, also the main character is working for a community college which is more diverse than traditional universities, this brings the author to notice that the more marginalized a student is and the most likely it is that this same student might be more impacted by online education, as it is nothing groundbreaking I am not sure why the author refers to it numerous times; to end on a good note I really like the drawing style, the characters look funny, and Bessie looks very stylish with his hat.

[Alex Klimkewicz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Graphic novel about one community college English professor’s experience with the COVID-19 pandemic coinciding with his one treatments for brain cancer. Having taught English at the high school level — both remotely and with blended learning classrooms — I can wholeheartedly identify with Bessie’s experiences of teaching remotely and suffering the loss of a learning community face-to-face. Education has suffered a great deal of trauma in the past few years, and sometimes I feel as if we are only just slowly recovering. It a process that is continuing even now five years later. Can we be whole again? How will technology play a role in education as the 21st century progresses? Will students simply be shunted into edu-boxes or shunned from school altogether? What’s the best way to reach marginalized communities when schools close their doors to in-person learning? These are questions brought up in the book — questions left inadequately answered. We are still reckoning with the societal changes cause by COVID-19, and it’s good to be quite a long time before we are fully healed. 3.25 stars.

[Dan Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anytime I see a comic that is going to focus on Covid and the pandemic I get a little worried. Considering how close we all the the height of the pandemic can it add anything to the conversation? Is this just another version of the same story we have gotten ad nauseam? With Going Remote: A Teacher's Journey that was not a concern.

For one you of course have the personal story of dealing with the reassurance of brain cancer during the largest pandemic in a century. That alone adds to the dilemma we all faced, but what made it all work is it did not stop there. Much of this is a look at Community colleges and how they operate as a microcosm for how tragedy disproportionately hurts the most disenfranchised. Community colleges were designed to help those who need help the most get a small step ahead. To break from the cycle of poverty and persecution so many are unable to escape from, this made apparent how fragile that structure is, and how when our resources are needed the most they are not there. An eye-opening read more should check out.

[Ryan Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a biased review. I’m a teacher—3rd grade instead of community college. I’m a cancer survivor who remains immunocompromised and my wife took chemotherapy for leukemia during the first months of the COVID shutdown in 2020. I, too, taught online during the first 18 months of the pandemic and I, too, yearned for a reimagining of educational community that didn’t happen. So while Bessie’s thoughts don’t perfectly match my own, there is adequate overlap. That said, this graphic novel uses images brilliantly to make metaphorical connections to the thoughtful text and allows the unanswered questions to linger with enough space for the reader to ponder how we all might work toward a more just and equitable community.

[Joseph B · Rating 4 out of 5]

While Going Remote does take a close look at the way the pandemic affected community colleges; I couldn't help but feel it didn't say as much as it thought it did. That said, Adam Bessie does a fine job telling his tale of a professor with cancer suddenly thrust into the world of remote learning as the COVID-19 global pandemic raged across the world in 2020. I did enjoy his light commentary on classism, the struggle of web access for low income students, and his own struggles with an unfortunate cancer diagnosis. But I didn't connect with some of his other waxing on the beautiful potential of community colleges (and I attended one). The art is solid. It doesn't really do anything unique, but it does tell the story. Overall I'd give this a 4 out of 5 stars.

[Antoinette Van Beck · Rating 5 out of 5]

what a poignant account of the shift in life and education that came with the pandemic in 2020. this graphic memoir does a fantastic job of parsing the difficult realities of trying to engage with learning communities on new platforms, especially regarding the social disconnect that came with them. i loved the critical analysis of education via community college as a way-station wherein people of all sorts interact and can expand their perspectives and professional life, particularly with the ways that it has been made a joke in modern culture. overall an excellent story that summarized the joys, fears, and novelties of education before, during, and after the pandemic lockdowns.

[Dania · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oof this book took me back to the start of the COVID-19 Era! Since Adam Bessie teaches sci-fi/fantasy in community college in the San Fran Bay area, what he was teaching was literally happening in the remote reality that we were all subjected to!

I like how Bessie mentions "graphic medicine" coined by Ian Williams (also graphic novelist and doctor) for how he views graphic novels.... it's such a cool way of looking at them and I can relate!

Lastly, I love the last lines of the novel: "We went remote, and right now we're here." 🤔

[Tessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a teacher who worked through the Covid closures, reading about that time and experience always brings the feels. The frenzy of that week in March 2020, the uncertainty, the sadness and loss, the worry, the action and simultaneous inaction.

This is an insightful recount of that time, from the standpoint of a community college teacher who is living with cancer and worrying about the diverse collection of students who he is responsible for teaching.

[Grace Farris · Rating 5 out of 5]

A life-affirming examination of living with brain cancer, teaching community college and navigating the pandemic. Bessie explores all of these topics with curiosity and kindness, and deftly weaves in science fiction elements from the English courses he teaches. A great read for anyone interested in healthcare, education or creative writing.

[Chris Breitenbach · Rating 4 out of 5]

A heartfelt exploration of the pandemic and the challenges of remote teaching during lockdown as seen through the eyes of a community college professor contending with his own illness. Unabashedly progressive, Bessie's comfort zone is the graphic essay, though soars when he zeroes in on and gives voice to students and family.

[Edward Farrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very deep dive into one teacher’s pandemic experience and the tsunami ripples that COVID has caused in society. Backed up with, and built higher with great illustrations to convey the story. A great read.

[Tenli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Going remote is a short work, but it packs a punch. Bessie recounts the craziness and extraordinary boredom of the deepest days of lockdown, meditating on immense inequities as well as personal crisis through the lens of a community college instructor. A quick but intense read.

[Brianna McCarthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked this up at the library on a whim- it captures what I went through as a teacher during the COVID shutdown as well so I was of course interested in seeing how he could put it into words, and pictures! Great story for a graphic novel, I devoured this in one sitting.

[Katy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Compelling story that veers too far into sci for themes and art for me