Tim Clancy

Review of Best In Class: Essential Wisdom from Real Student Writing by Tim Clancy

I'm torn.

Tim Clancy's Best in Class: Essential Wisdom from Real Student Writing is at once a minuscule but delightful collection of one- or two-sentence clips of student writing, but also a book that does not properly rise to the level of a book.

To Mr. Clancy's credit, he kept for years a folder filled with the funniest and most interesting gems of student writing from the high school classes he taught. We should all take a cue from him. I myself have a collection of notes and sayings starting from when my kids were very young. Sadly, it is woefully incomplete. I did, however, include the context of each quotation where it is warranted. For many of the snippets here, I wish Clancy had included some brief contextual information, perhaps an intro to each chapter. What was the assignment? Was this snippet from Class Clown or Front-Row Girl?

That aside, it is a fine little collection. Here are a few of my favorites:

SPOILERS BETWEEN THE ASTERISKS:
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She lost the use of her legs and her boyfriend.
If you're quiet enough you can hear a pin drop in a haystack.
Everyone may not see it my way, but I know that they are wrong.
If it weren't for the Age of Reason, we'd still be hunting witches and wearing powdered wigs.
All of a sudden sheep were surrounding me, going "baah" and whatnot.
If life throws you a packet of Kool Aid, make some Kool Aid.
You should take time to get to know people before you hate them.
**************************************************

What troubles me is that this collection is more appropriately published as an essay, or as a list on social media. Most of us have scrolled through collections similar to Clancy's in our Facebook feed. Frankly, many of them were even funnier than his. Should this really be a book?

Probably not.

Granted, I own some books of this size: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder; On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt; Joseph Gordon-Levitt's collection of Tiny Book[s] of Tiny Stories. But the first two, despite being essay-length, are self-contained expositions of serious matters. And the Tiny Stories books are, well, self-described, and while they may exhibit a bit of marketing gimmickry, you can't say they aren't what they purport to be. To have a Tiny Book of Tiny Stories, you probably need a tiny book.

Best in Class, however, is mostly padding. Clancy wrote 321 words for his Introduction, but after that, it's just quotations. There are about 168 quotes spread over 136 pages. You will read it at approximately the speed at which you can turn the pages. Of the 136 pages, only 104 contain quotes; the other 32 pages are the front material and the blank pages and headings for the 12 chapters. In other words, this book consists mostly of, well, nothing. Exacerbating the problem: it is almost certainly impossible to justify separating these quotes into 12 chapters; the themes for the chapters simply are not that distinct.

But perhaps this is just the rantings of the pedant who rules my internal dialogue. Although I maintain that this should have been a list on Mr. Clancy’s blog, what content there is really is very funny.… (meer)

BEST IN CLASS by Tim Clancy shares words of wisdom from his high school students.

For decades, Clancy collected writing assignments from his high school students. From thought-provoking prose to silly stories, the collection contains a wide variety of short compositions reflecting the perspectives of teens. The book is divided into a dozen short chapters that explore themes such as romance, the natural world, and advice.

Those who have children or have worked with young people will relate to this collection of nearly 200 examples of authentic youth writing.

ARC courtesy of the publisher.… (meer)