Perspective

Sylvia Ashton-Warner writes her autobiographical account of her tenure as a teacher at a New Zealand school in the first person narrative. The first portion of the book focuses upon the organic teaching methods that Sylvia employs to meet the challenge of teaching the Maori children to read and write in English, a language with which they have little familiarity. After thoroughly describing the teaching process, the latter half of the book consists of direct excerpts from a diary kept by Sylvia during her teaching experience. These diary entries provide insight into Sylvia's personal struggles and feelings that are not contained in the first, rather technical, portion of the book.

As an accredited teacher describing her own experiences, there could be no better source to write the book, "Teacher" than Ashton-Warner herself. It is only through her own words that the reader is able to grasp the depth...