James Herndon (writer)

James Herndon (1926-1990) was an American writer and educator. He is most well-known for two memoirs of teaching, "The Way It Spozed To Be" and "How To Survive In Your Native Land." [GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #78, Vol. 13, No. 6. Date of Issue: December 1, 1990.; http://www.unschooling.com/gws/?cat=11 ] He is considered one of the influential 1970's writers on education, among the ranks of John Holt, George Dennison, Jonathan Kozol, Paul Goodman, and Herbert Kohl. [Time Magazine, May 31, 1971, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944450-1,00.html"Crucial Issues in Secondary Education" by William van Til, Theory into Practice, Vol. 15, No. 3, The High School / Promises to Keep (Jun., 1976), pp. 183-190http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0040-5841%28197606%2915%3A3%3C183%3ACIISE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5&size=LARGE&origin=JSTOR-enlargePage "Feminist Engagements: Reading, resisting and revisioning male theorists in education and cultural studies" by Claudia Mitchell, McGill Journal of Education, Winter 2003http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3965/is_200301/ai_n9228243Doralice Lange de Souza's thesis for Graduate School of Education of Harvard University, http://dspace.c3sl.ufpr.br/dspace/bitstream/1884/2386/1/doralice.pdf"No More Teachers' Dirty Looks" by Theodor H. Nelson, Computer Lib 1974 http://www.newmediareader.com/book_samples/nmr-21-nelson.pdf]

Writing career

Herndon's first book, "The Way It Spozed To Be" (1968), chronicles his first year teaching, in a poor, segregated junior high school in urban California. This book describes his despair at the inadequacy of the school system and his innovative efforts to teach his students to read, which led to his being fired at the end of the year for poor classroom management. [ Herndon, James, "The Way It Spozed To Be". 1968: Simon & Schuster, New York. and "The Way We Live Now" by Edgar Z. Friedenberg, New York Review of Books, Volume 10, Number 10 · May 23, 1968, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=11672]

Herndon's second book "How To Survive In Your Native Land" (1971) centers on Herndon's subsequent decade teaching. Its humorous, Beat style led reviewers to compare Herndon to Kurt Vonnegut. [Time Magazine, May 31, 1971, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944450,00.html?promoid=googlep and "Teaching Kids and Making Do" by Richard Locke, New York Times, April 10, 1971 http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F70F17F93E54127B93C2A8178FD85F458785F9]

In 1973, Herndon privately published "Everything As Expected", an account of his then-wife Fran Herndon's collage collaborations with poet Jack Spicer. The Herndons were part of Jack Spicer's circle in San Francisco. ["Jack Spicer and the Art of Fran Herndon" by James Herndon, Jacket Magazine #7, April 1999. http://jacketmagazine.com/07/spicer-herndon.html] "Sorrowless Times", James Herndon's memoir of his years as a merchant marine during World War II, was published in 1981. [ Sorrowless Times, James Herndon. Simon & Schuster: New York, 1981. ]

In 1985, Herndon published "Notes From A Schoolteacher", further musings on American education, including his reflections on his role as president of his local teacher's union. [ Notes From A Schoolteacher, James Herndon, Simon & Schuster: New York, 1985. and "When Douglas Broke The Water Fountain" by Joseph Featherstone, New York Times, October 13, 1985 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D01E5DB1339F930A25753C1A963948260&sec=&spon= ]

Bibliography

"The Way It Spozed To Be." 1968. ISBN 0867094079

"How To Survive In Your Native Land". 1971. New edition 1997. ISBN 0867094087

"Everything as Expected". 1973.

"Sorrowless Times". 1981. ISBN 0671243217

"Notes From A Schoolteacher." ISBN 067162816X

Notes and references