autobiography by a great american author

books:


	• The Thread That Runs So True: A Mountain School Teacher Tells His Story Jesse Stuart Touchstone, 1950 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 29 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Best Book About Teaching as a Profession

This was the book I read in high school that made me want to be a teacher. Jesse Stuart's experiences as a young Kentucky teacher in the hill country are classic.

His writing is sincere and full of the love of education. Both of his parents were good hard-working people who could barely read.

Only a true writer could have conveyed the sense of adventure, the wonder, and above all, the sense of accomplishment that inspiring young minds gives to the true teacher.

autobiography by a great american author

When I was in Junior High I found Jesse Stuart's book "Hie to the Hunters" in the school library. It remains one of the best books I have ever read. Stuart was at the same time a tough man's man and a sensitive poet. His love of the natural beauty of Kentucky and his people shines through in all his writing, as does his toughness, hard work and perseverance. He was born in the hill country of Kentucky to a father who was not literate and a mother who had only completed a few years of grade school, yet he and his brothers and sisters learned the value of education and became school teachers. "The Thread That Runs So True" is the story of his career in education, beginning when he was a 17-year-old teaching a rural one-room school in the 1920s, through stints as a principal and superintendent of schools, and finally as a farmer, author, and lecturer. "The Thread That Runs So True", written in 1949, remains probably his best-known book, but parts of it are almost too painful to read. Stuart's first year of teaching was at a country school where his older sister had been badly beaten up and driven from the school by a tough male student. Stuart wrote poignantly of the beautiful and the ugly in this book, and it is very worthwhile reading.

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Teaching in "The Good-Old Days"

Twenty-two years ago (in 1986) I was a freshman in high school. My English teacher assigned The Thread That Runs So True as part of our summer reading. I am now a college professor & I thought that it would be fun to reread the book now that I have classes to teach.

Stuart's book is powerful. He explains the limited circumstances of his Kentucky pupils in a way that makes you think about the lack of opportunities many Americans face. Stuart will also force you to take off your rose-colored glasses about how wonderful things used to be. He recounts stories of students beating up teachers, indifferent administrators, and students literally walking barefoot in the snow to get to school. The good-old days weren't so great.

One of the best aspects of the Thread That Runs So True is that Stuart has tremendous faith in humanity - and in education's ability to improve each of us and our society. He recounts many instances in which students from the most-impoverished families dramatically improved their lives by going to school. Even a cynic will find it difficult not to feel a little inspired by reading this book.

In my opinion, the book is not perfect. Stuart's argument that education funding is the panacea to cure society's ills is dated; we now know that money for education is very important, but that money alone does not always promote student achievement. Also, I don't want to give anything away, but I thought that the ending of the book was very unsatisfying.

While The Thread That Runs So True has a few drawbacks, it is an inspiring story that will teach you a lot about education early in the 20th Century U.S.

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Education DNA

This book and story takes the reader into the world of education at the grass roots rural level. From the one room school house with 20 year old students still mired in the first grade to brilliant students from impoverished backgrounds. A terrific review and account of cultural conditions in the 1930's, from the depression to WWII. A must read for educators/teachers. Many of the methods and means used by the author will shock and surprise today's readers, but this is Kentucky in the 1930's. Imagery depicted is fantastic.

Great book

I am not one that usualy likes the books teachers require me to read, but this book was great. The story was captivating and fun. The reading was light and I wasn't a fan of the choppy "chaptering" of the book, but I did enjoy it very much.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

First published in 1949, Jesse Stuart's now classic personal account of his twenty years of teaching in the mountain region of Kentucky has enchanted and inspired generations of students and teachers. With eloquence and wit, Stuart traces his twenty-year career in education, which began, when he was only seventeen years old, with teaching grades one through eight in a one-room schoolhouse. Before long Stuart was on a path that made him principal and finally superintendent of city and county schools. The road was not smooth, however, and Stuart faced many challenges, from students who were considerably older -- and bigger -- than he to well-meaning but distrustful parents, uncooperative administrators and, most daunting, his own fear of failure. Through it all, Stuart never lost his abiding faith in the power of education. A graceful ode to what he considered the greatest profession there is, Jesse Stuart's The Thread That Runs So True is timeless proof that "good teaching is forever and the teacher is immortal."

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