Tuesday, April 23, 2019

New review: No Child Left Alive "disgusting and an insult to anyone who cares about public education"

A new review was posted on Amazon earlier this month about my novel No Child Left Alive and the reviewer agreed with the assessment of two earlier reviewers, frequent Joplin Globe opinion page writers Geoff Caldwell and Anson Burlingame.

The new reviewer was succinct in his or her opinion of my book:

This book was disgusting and an insult to anyone who cares about public education. Vulgarity abounds with all the sex and drugs.








It has been a while since I have taken a look at the book, but I certainly dispute the reviewer's point. I don't remember there being any drugs in No Child Left Alive.

At least, it's obvious the reviewer read the book.

***
If you check out the Amazon reviews page, the people who reviewed No Child Left Alive either absolutely loved it or absolutely hated it. As longtime Turner Report readers are aware, this is the book that led to the end of my teaching career and it is available at bargain prices in both paperback and e-book formats on Amazon and locally at Always Buying Books and Changing Hands Book Shoppe in Joplin and Pat's Books in Carthage.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

To be clear, the book wasn't good.

Anonymous said...

Your account of the “end of your teaching career” at Joplin Schools has been told over and over, but I don’t recall hearing about your efforts in applying to any of the other fine schools in this area.

Did you ever apply around to the other schools and were rejected with your dismissal from Joplin Schools given as the reason? Or did you decide to let your dismissal from Joplin be the end and chose to making a living off of playing the victim?

Anonymous said...

The book was okay. It sounded pretty realistic to me. Some of the events were VERY familiar.

Randy said...

To the anonymous commenter at 7:28 a.m.

I have applied for approximately 40 teaching jobs over the past few years, all at area districts. I was qualified for each of the positions. I taught for 14 years, was a finalist for Joplin Teacher of the Year, and had references from a superintendent, a principal and a former principal.

I have never been called for an interview for any of those positions and only one time did a school even call my references. I don't have any idea what the reason was, though it is fairly obvious.

As far as I have been able to tell, most of these jobs went to people who were either beginning teachers or only had a few years of experience. Two of those who were hired for positions I have been applied for were arrested and were no longer teaching because of having sex with students.

So, to answer your question, you sanctimonious jerk, I have continued to apply for teaching positions, as recently as three weeks ago. I have made a living by providing a news service, not by "playing the victim."

Anonymous said...

Hahahaha

I guess the traffic on the high road was too congested?

Anonymous said...

Randy,
I appreciate your news service and I know what R8 did to you and how very wrong it was.

As for 7:28 and/or 2:23,
Having your name unfairly dragged through the mud and having your profession taken from you with lies and innuendo is a terrible thing. I have never seen Randy "playing the victim" but he has reported the facts. Randy had a much kinder name for you than I.

Anonymous said...

You wrote a slanderous and defamatory semi-pornographic novel about your superiors and after a short trial was found guilty of deliberate violation of school board policies. No school board wants to hire a rogue teacher who won't obey their rules. Most parents in the area are glad you are gone for good. You want to wallow in self-pity then have at it.

Anonymous said...

Some of us are clueless as to what happened between you and Joplin schools.

Anonymous said...

From what was made public, Randy's teaching career ended due to choices he made. 4:14 kind of hit the nail on the head. Actions have consequences. However, when doors close others open. After reading his post above, I do have to wonder why he would bother applying for teaching position in this area.

Anonymous said...

8:21--You can go into the archives on here and see what happened. It seems surreal unless you were there and saw what the former administration and board did. Some of the back-stabbers are still there stepping on others as they climb to their personal goals of power. Others are still there because they managed to fly under the radar and just take care of their classrooms. The previous administration got rid of the majority of teachers and staff with experience and who might ask why they were doing the questionable things that were happening.

11:02--The board policy Randy broke was to record the meetings he had. This was done to protect himself. If he hadn't told them he had the recording, they wouldn't have known. But, they were after him and at that time, if they went after you, you were gone.
Randy was not a bad teacher. My son had him and I'm glad he did. Other parents also appreciated him as their children's teacher.

The book wasn't great but wasn't bad. It didn't need the sex portions, in my opinion. The interesting part is, you can tell Randy wrote about what he knows.

If you weren't there, you have no idea how much fear and nonsense were happening. It's hard to even describe and almost sounds ridiculous but it was very real.

If you really dislike Randy this much, why in heaven's name do you continue to read his stuff?

Anonymous said...

Pretty disturbing.. is that why the details of sexual abuse against children are posted in these stories we read on here? No thanks