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A review by canghary
Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me by Kate Clanchy
1.0
Edits (August 2021):
I would recommend reading Chimene Suleyman (@chimenesuleyman), Monisha Rajesh (monisha_rajesh) and Professor Sunny Singh (@ProfSunnySingh)’s Twitter threads on this. I also oppose the violence that they, and other authors of colour have received in response to speaking out. Clanchy and Picador’s apologies don’t go far enough, and Clanchy rewriting the book and continuing to profit off her bigotry is unacceptable.
__________________________________________
Over a series of months since I posted this review, the author has threatened to contact my employer, and she has orchestrated her followers on Twitter to comment on it, report it, and contact Goodreads, etc. She has accused me of defamation and abuse (although now all her comments have gone). The quotes I have given are (obviously) from the book and some are available online as previews, so it is baffling to me why Kate denies all of them. The public accusation from Kate that I have organised a pile-on with friends is untrue; this was my honest review and was completely unrelated to any other reviews the book has received. Rather, I would hope that Kate (and people who read this book without criticism) can take some time to reflect on the racism, xenophobia, anti-semitism, fatphobia, transphobia, and classism which run through the book. We are all continuously learning, but we must address our behaviours and be willing to do the work, rather than deny them. Lastly, despite the threats I will not take down my review. I felt (and feel) it was important to speak up for the young people that I believe this book lets down.
—————————————————————————
Original review (November 2020):
I'm a teacher myself and I had so many issues with this book. The narrative is centred on this white middle class woman's harmful, judgemental and bigoted views on race, class and body image. The young people she describes are narrowly fitted into these preconceived categories and Clanchy doesn't seem to view them through any other lens.
Firstly, Kate Clanchy describes young people of colour as racist stereotypes. She describes students as 'so Afghan', Black young people with 'chocolate skin', others with 'slanted eyes', 'almond-shaped eyes', an 'African voice' or a Jewish nose. She calls one young person 'African Jonathon'. Clanchy's viewpoints on young people of colour are bigoted, and I find it uncomfortable that she is profiting from their life stories as a middle class white woman. These young people have interesting stories and write wonderful poems, yet it's Clanchy who controls the narrative and makes the money from them.
Clanchy has a weird obsession with 'foreignness'. She discusses searching for unassimilated, 'very quiet foreign girls' for the Foyle Prize. She sees young people of colour as foreign objects, referring to 'my quiet foreign girls'. She describes some young people of colour as having 'that special, foreign ability'. (What does that mean?!) She writes, 'my assumption, when I sent out the Foreign Girl poems, was that they would be especially welcome because of their foreignness.' Rather than describing young people as talented writers, she talks about their foreigness. Clanchy also talks about wanting to cover up girls who she sees as being too risqué (and probably too disgustingly working class): 'If I could put a burqa on Susie and Kristell tomorrow, I would.'
There is a reoccurring theme disgust of working class people throughout the book. Clanchy has a snobbish and classist view of lower sets, which she acknowledges are primarily working class young people. She says 'no one likes set three [the lower set]', they are 'drearily mediocre', 'running feral', 'destroying lessons' and 'disrupting the whole school'. She states that there is fear between social classes, seemingly fearful of working class young people herself. Working classness is something that Clanchy keeps coming back to - once she has stamped the young people as working class, that is the only lens she will describe them through. She describes young people horrifically, with absolute disgust of their status; for example, 'Poverty is stamped through Cheyenne like letters in a stick of rock, manifesting itself in her rotting, nineteenth-century mouth.' (Cheyenne has dental issues, which Clanchy is disgusted by and places a lot of judgement on her mum for.) Clanchy says she is glad when Cheyenne leaves school early.
Unsurprisingly, Clanchy also has an outdated view on transgender young people, using a slur to describe one trans student she knew of. She comments on the young person's experiences, clearly without understanding gender herself.
This book is the epitome of middle class ignorance. I wasn't interested in Clancy's woes of middle class intelligent children 'missing out' on prizes to non-middle class children who've shown progress. She talks about her 'blonde and angelic' (read: white) son, and how it isn't his fault that he's middle class, but how he is a clever and dazzling pioneer who made school a better place. She talks about long-term ambition as being middle-class. Her views reek of middle class children being 'naturally intelligent', and ignorance of the fact that intelligence is also about a child's access to resources.
Lastly, Clanchy's fatphobic views run throughout the book. As a teacher myself, I found Clanchy's commentary on young people's bodies bizarre, harmful and inappropriate. She describes one young person as having a 'bosomy, curvy figure with a tiny waist'. Clancy says 'she has put on a great deal of weight, so that the pretty figure is blurred, and so that she looks like her mum.' She goes onto describe another as, 'not very pretty…she was fat', as if her body image determines her value as a person. Another girl has been 'brought down from beauty' because she put on weight and became fat. There's a horrible chunk at the end of the book where Clanchy is judging the fat girls for eating the biscuits that she puts out, and then judging the skinny girl for pandering to the male gaze. She says the girls 'can't refuse biscuits any more than they can study' or 'believe in university any more than they can believe in thinness' (!!!). Clanchy herself says that she can 'manage' to not 'stuff fig rolls into her fat face' because she's middle class as opposed to her working class students. I find the idea to a teacher commenting on the fatness and thinness of young people inappropriate and harmful. Clanchy herself admits in the book that she has a snobbish, commodifying and patriarchal gaze, and furthermore these are clearly issues that she is dealing with herself - but I wonder why she thought it was ok to publish these judgements in a book.
Wildly, Clanchy describes herself as a 'nice, liberal person', which seems to place herself as a white, educated middle-class woman above these raced and classed objects she describes. Clanchy doesn't see these young people as humans; she sees them as 'foreign', or 'feral' working class, or ugly and fat. The book as a whole is one, long passage of judgements, prejudices and bigotry. I only hope that these views weren't conveyed to the young people she has taught over the years - they deserve better.
I would recommend reading Chimene Suleyman (@chimenesuleyman), Monisha Rajesh (monisha_rajesh) and Professor Sunny Singh (@ProfSunnySingh)’s Twitter threads on this. I also oppose the violence that they, and other authors of colour have received in response to speaking out. Clanchy and Picador’s apologies don’t go far enough, and Clanchy rewriting the book and continuing to profit off her bigotry is unacceptable.
__________________________________________
Over a series of months since I posted this review, the author has threatened to contact my employer, and she has orchestrated her followers on Twitter to comment on it, report it, and contact Goodreads, etc. She has accused me of defamation and abuse (although now all her comments have gone). The quotes I have given are (obviously) from the book and some are available online as previews, so it is baffling to me why Kate denies all of them. The public accusation from Kate that I have organised a pile-on with friends is untrue; this was my honest review and was completely unrelated to any other reviews the book has received. Rather, I would hope that Kate (and people who read this book without criticism) can take some time to reflect on the racism, xenophobia, anti-semitism, fatphobia, transphobia, and classism which run through the book. We are all continuously learning, but we must address our behaviours and be willing to do the work, rather than deny them. Lastly, despite the threats I will not take down my review. I felt (and feel) it was important to speak up for the young people that I believe this book lets down.
—————————————————————————
Original review (November 2020):
I'm a teacher myself and I had so many issues with this book. The narrative is centred on this white middle class woman's harmful, judgemental and bigoted views on race, class and body image. The young people she describes are narrowly fitted into these preconceived categories and Clanchy doesn't seem to view them through any other lens.
Firstly, Kate Clanchy describes young people of colour as racist stereotypes. She describes students as 'so Afghan', Black young people with 'chocolate skin', others with 'slanted eyes', 'almond-shaped eyes', an 'African voice' or a Jewish nose. She calls one young person 'African Jonathon'. Clanchy's viewpoints on young people of colour are bigoted, and I find it uncomfortable that she is profiting from their life stories as a middle class white woman. These young people have interesting stories and write wonderful poems, yet it's Clanchy who controls the narrative and makes the money from them.
Clanchy has a weird obsession with 'foreignness'. She discusses searching for unassimilated, 'very quiet foreign girls' for the Foyle Prize. She sees young people of colour as foreign objects, referring to 'my quiet foreign girls'. She describes some young people of colour as having 'that special, foreign ability'. (What does that mean?!) She writes, 'my assumption, when I sent out the Foreign Girl poems, was that they would be especially welcome because of their foreignness.' Rather than describing young people as talented writers, she talks about their foreigness. Clanchy also talks about wanting to cover up girls who she sees as being too risqué (and probably too disgustingly working class): 'If I could put a burqa on Susie and Kristell tomorrow, I would.'
There is a reoccurring theme disgust of working class people throughout the book. Clanchy has a snobbish and classist view of lower sets, which she acknowledges are primarily working class young people. She says 'no one likes set three [the lower set]', they are 'drearily mediocre', 'running feral', 'destroying lessons' and 'disrupting the whole school'. She states that there is fear between social classes, seemingly fearful of working class young people herself. Working classness is something that Clanchy keeps coming back to - once she has stamped the young people as working class, that is the only lens she will describe them through. She describes young people horrifically, with absolute disgust of their status; for example, 'Poverty is stamped through Cheyenne like letters in a stick of rock, manifesting itself in her rotting, nineteenth-century mouth.' (Cheyenne has dental issues, which Clanchy is disgusted by and places a lot of judgement on her mum for.) Clanchy says she is glad when Cheyenne leaves school early.
Unsurprisingly, Clanchy also has an outdated view on transgender young people, using a slur to describe one trans student she knew of. She comments on the young person's experiences, clearly without understanding gender herself.
This book is the epitome of middle class ignorance. I wasn't interested in Clancy's woes of middle class intelligent children 'missing out' on prizes to non-middle class children who've shown progress. She talks about her 'blonde and angelic' (read: white) son, and how it isn't his fault that he's middle class, but how he is a clever and dazzling pioneer who made school a better place. She talks about long-term ambition as being middle-class. Her views reek of middle class children being 'naturally intelligent', and ignorance of the fact that intelligence is also about a child's access to resources.
Lastly, Clanchy's fatphobic views run throughout the book. As a teacher myself, I found Clanchy's commentary on young people's bodies bizarre, harmful and inappropriate. She describes one young person as having a 'bosomy, curvy figure with a tiny waist'. Clancy says 'she has put on a great deal of weight, so that the pretty figure is blurred, and so that she looks like her mum.' She goes onto describe another as, 'not very pretty…she was fat', as if her body image determines her value as a person. Another girl has been 'brought down from beauty' because she put on weight and became fat. There's a horrible chunk at the end of the book where Clanchy is judging the fat girls for eating the biscuits that she puts out, and then judging the skinny girl for pandering to the male gaze. She says the girls 'can't refuse biscuits any more than they can study' or 'believe in university any more than they can believe in thinness' (!!!). Clanchy herself says that she can 'manage' to not 'stuff fig rolls into her fat face' because she's middle class as opposed to her working class students. I find the idea to a teacher commenting on the fatness and thinness of young people inappropriate and harmful. Clanchy herself admits in the book that she has a snobbish, commodifying and patriarchal gaze, and furthermore these are clearly issues that she is dealing with herself - but I wonder why she thought it was ok to publish these judgements in a book.
Wildly, Clanchy describes herself as a 'nice, liberal person', which seems to place herself as a white, educated middle-class woman above these raced and classed objects she describes. Clanchy doesn't see these young people as humans; she sees them as 'foreign', or 'feral' working class, or ugly and fat. The book as a whole is one, long passage of judgements, prejudices and bigotry. I only hope that these views weren't conveyed to the young people she has taught over the years - they deserve better.