The Overly Honest Teacher

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A book review of The Overly Honest Teacher: Parenting Advice from the Classroom by Meredith Essalat M.Ed.

A book review of The Overly Honest Teacher: Parenting Advice from the Classroom by Meredith Essalat M.Ed.

Stars: ****

The Collective Book Studio (2020)
Parenting/Education
128 pages

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This post contains affiliate links.

Summary: All parents want their children to be able to vocalize how they are feeling—to own their emotions, their opinions, their fears, and their views of the world. To achieve this, parents need to be models, showing their kids the importance of honest dialogue and effective listening. But parents don’t always feel prepared.

As both a teacher and school principal, Meredith Essalat has lived the daily challenges of helping children navigate through their young lives. She has seen the struggles that parents have as they balance longer working hours with the demands of home life. And how it’s the teachers who are often caught in the middle. In an effort to stop pointing out each other’s flaws—and instead letting kids know they are supported—Meredith offers hard-won pointers, enabling parents, teachers, and students alike to encourage one another while holding everyone accountable for their actions.

Combining humor with straightforward, practical advice, the Overly Honest Teacher shows parents how to welcome everyday parenting gracefully. The results will be well-adjusted, positive, enthusiastic young adults ready to work hard and take on the world. And isn’t that what we all want for our children?

The Overly Honest Teacher

In this book the author gives parenting advice from a teacher’s perspective. When she said she doesn’t have children of her own, I was thinking that she wouldn’t be able to give good advice but I was wrong. She clearly knows children.

The book gives advice and examples of what happens when there are issues in each section she talks about. She implores each parent to do things such as letting your child experience bad grades when they are truly earned. She wants us to filter what we say and how we act in front of our kids. The author talks about electronics addition, lack of respect for items and other important points.

She gives strategies for implementing these changes and examples of what you could say to your child to get better answers than just “nothing” and “fine.” She often talks about self harm and all the times she talked to kids who were in bad situations or hurting themselves in different ways. It’s scary to see how many times she has dealt with it.

The book isn’t too long which is good because parents often don’t have a lot of time to read.

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About Kathleen

I've been a nonfiction lover for as long as I can remember. I love children's nonfiction as well and love to share my knowledge and the books I gained them from, with the world. I wish more people would give nonfiction a chance.