A Teachers Memoir Featuring Great Stories and Information

This is a Leonberger blog, and every now and then I post reviews for Leonberger books. Some Leonberger books I love and some I don’t think are as good. Sometimes I also post reviews for other kinds of books but when I do it is books that I love and that I want others to read. Today I am posting a review for a book that I loved and that I think you should read, “They Call Me Mom: Making a Difference as an Elementary School Teacher” – by Pete Springer. This is a teacher’s memoir featuring a lot of great stories but also important insights and information valuable to both teachers as well as parents.

  • Paperback –  Publisher : Outskirts Press (July 16, 2018), ISBN-10 : 1977200052, ISBN-13 : 978-1977200051, 178 pages, Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.6 ounces, dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.38 x 9 inches, it cost $12.42 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
  • Kindle – Publisher : Outskirts Press, Inc. (September 23, 2019), ASIN : B07YBL8DPY, 169 pages. It is currently $2.99 on Amazon.com. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
Picture of happy children sitting at their desks and raising their hands.
Front cover of They Call Me Mom. Click here or the picture to visit the Amazon.com page for the paperback version of the book.

Amazon’s description of the book

Who Will You Inspire Today? Teachers face this challenge and responsibility each day, but in the process, the author discovers that his students can also have a profound influence on him. Pete Springer takes you on his memorable thirty-one-year journey in education as an elementary school teacher and offers the many valuable life and teaching lessons he learned along the way. Get ready to laugh out loud at some of the humorous and memorable experiences that all teachers face, feel inspired by the inherent goodness of children, and appreciate the importance of developing a sense of teamwork among the staff. Learn valuable tips for working with children, parents, fellow staff members, and administrators.

This book is ideal for young teachers, but also a reminder to all educators of the importance and responsibility of being a role model. This book is a must-read for all new teachers and those teachers that need a reminder they are human! Mr. Springer educates others in his easy-to-read, story-like, first-hand manuscript. You will laugh, cry, and get motivated to be the best educator you can. After reading this, I have a better outlook on relationships with my colleagues and am reminded to savor every moment. -Tami Beall (Principal, Pine Hill School).

This is my Amazon review of They Call Me Mom by Pete Springer

The Beauty and Challenges of an Underappreciated Profession

There is a joke. There are three reasons to become a teacher, June, July, and August. I used to think that was funny until my wife became a teacher. She was a teacher for about 5-6 years. During this time I learned that teachers don’t have the entire summer off, that they work long hours, often 60hrs a week, and that they have to handle a lot of very difficult situations and circumstances, all while getting a salary that is significantly less than other professionals with a similar level of education. I also learned from her experiences as a teacher as well as a parent of three children that teachers are invaluable and very appreciated by the children as well as by many parents but unfortunately underappreciated by some people and perhaps by society.

In this book the author describes his journey to become a teacher and his journey as a teacher. He recounts issues with setting up the classroom, working with students, some coming from very difficult home environments, helpful and unhelpful parents, colleagues and administrators, and handling discipline. Therefore, I believe this book is invaluable to new teachers as a practical problem-solving guide. However, I believe the book is also very valuable to parents. A lot of parents don’t understand that they need to be involved in their children’s education as helpful partners to the school and as positive role models. This book offers insights into why and how.

Teachers sometimes encounter some quite tricky situations. For example, two boys get into an altercation because one boy tells the second boy that he is going to hell because his family is not going to church. My instinct would be to tell the first boy that is an absurd belief and a terrible thing to say. However, that would be contradicting the belief system of the parents of that boy. So, you have to deal with it differently. An enraged parent makes a scene at the school because her kid told her that you said something at school that she disagrees with, but you never said this. How do you handle it? What about a father handing over divorce papers to his wife during a parent-teacher conference? What about parents getting arrested by the police in front of their kid? The author handles these tricky situations brilliantly and professionally. He dealt with challenges and provocations with wisdom and restraint. I don’t think I would have been able to handle these situations as well. I believe the solutions he had for the various examples he gives might be very helpful to other teachers.

Pete Springer was clearly a very competent and thoughtful teacher who loved his job despite all the difficulties, and I think we can all learn from what he has written in this book. He recounts a lot of anecdotes, which he narrates with humor and intelligence. The book is interesting and very well written. It is a real page turner. It also has an important message for all of us. The education of our children is essential for the future of our nation. Unfortunately, it is often held hostage by political fads and bureaucrats with little understanding of the realities facing the educators. Teachers typically stay 7 years in their profession and fewer young people are becoming teachers because they see that the teaching profession is underappreciated and underpaid. We need to listen to the teachers more. In summary, this is a delightful, interesting as well as important read that I highly recommend to both new teachers and parents of school children.

Back cover of They Call Me Mom. Click here or the picture to visit the Amazon.com page for the kindle version of the book.

About the Author

I’m a retired elementary teacher (31 years) who will always be a strong advocate for children, education, and teachers. My favorite thing to do as a teacher was to read to my students, and now I’m following my heart and writing children’s books for middle grades.

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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

72 thoughts on “A Teachers Memoir Featuring Great Stories and Information”

  1. Many of the women in my family were and are teachers. In times past, it was considered a good job for a woman because you had the summer off with your kids. Many of the complaints you list here echo what I grew up hearing: low pay, lack of appreciation for the job, lack of parental involvement—or the other extreme, including “How dare you give my child genius a C!”—and politicians setting unrealistic goals or goals that had nothing to do with education.

    It’s very sad sometimes to think that a nation as rich as the United States has such a poor, uneven education system. We could and should do much better.

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    1. A well-rounded staff is made up of a combination of young and experienced females and males. One positive trend I saw over the course of my career was that more males were moving into the primary grades. Children need good role models, regardless of gender.

      Ugh—politicians who have never worked in education making educational policy that doesn’t make sense.

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      1. Yes more male teachers is a good trend. There were a few male teachers at my kids school who were very important role models as well as excellent teachers. When I read your book I could not help remembering them and recognizing you in them.

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    2. Yes you are right Denise. I grew up in Sweden and I remember a system where teachers were appreciated, had better salaries, and did not have to deal with social problems and difficult parents as much. The final result was that students were much better prepared when they were done with high school. That also became apparent to me as a university level exchange student. American universities are great but American students had a lot of catch up to do, not to mention those the many who never got a chance to go to college. When my wife became a teacher I was shocked to see the amount of problems and challenges American teachers had to deal with.

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      1. The vast majority of teachers I’ve known and dealt with are caring people. They’re certainly not in the job for fame and fortune. The deck is stacked against them in many ways.

        The book you reviewed (nicely!) and the author show the caring, thoughtful side of teaching elementary students; this is something to treasure. It really does make a difference.

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    1. Thanks, Patricia. I haven’t seen you around much lately, but I see you’re up to 39 titles, so no doubt you’ve been busy. I still remember enjoying Joyful Trouble a few years back.

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    1. We teachers are like military vets, exchanging war stories. I don’t mean that in a negative sense but more in terms of knowing what it takes on the front lines. Thank you for your years of service in education, Jacqui.

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  5. Pete’s book was great. I read it a few years ago, and though I’m not a teacher, I recognized a lot of wisdom in it that applies to life in general, especially in relating to kids. He also practices what he preaches even though he’s retired. Just who he is. You write such thoughtful reviews, Thomas. I really enjoy them. Congrats to Pete.

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    1. We’re grandparents as of last Friday, Diana. It’s interesting to watch from afar (2,000 miles away) as our son and daughter-in-law are starting to figure things out as parents. Teachers and parents can appreciate what each other is going through.

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    1. Tweens/teens can be a challenging age to work with. I served as a youth group counselor one summer, and their problems tend to get bigger the older they get.

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    2. Thank you so much Robbie. I assume that was in South Africa. I noticed when my wife was a teacher that it is more difficult to be a teacher here in the US than in Sweden. Maybe it is the same in South Africa? It is certainly not an easy job.

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  7. I agree that teachers are underappreciated and underpaid. Unfortunately, some states are lowering their standards to become a teacher, which is causing an influx of people who are unfit to teach. Throwing money at the problem doesn’t seem to help since the administrators in public schools seem to get most of it. Our local charter school has been very successful.

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    1. Thanks for these comments, Dawn. Many people don’t realize the seriousness of our nationwide teacher shortage. Lots of educators are leaving the profession because they feel overwhelmed by all the obstacles. (e.g. lack of parental support, ineffective administration, and children carrying a host of emotional baggage whose anger comes out at school.) There are a lot of children these days who don’t belong in a traditional classroom, despite having one-on-one aids.

      I’m glad your charter school has been able to navigate these challenges.

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  8. Thanks so much for your wonderful review, Thomas. Our educational system is imperfect, but for the most part it’s filled with good people trying to inspire a classroom of kids of varying abilities to become the best version of themselves.

    All of societies problems get magnified at school where teachers have a mixture of children from the most stable of environments to understandably angry children accustomed to living in dysfunction. As a teacher, you wish you could take those children home to give them an equal chance in life. A partnership between home and school is the ideal situation, but as educators, we have to play the cards were dealt.

    Thanks again for your thoughtful review. It means a lot to me.

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    1. Yes I certainly understand that. I saw that when my wife was a teacher and I understood better as I read your book. The social problems are bigger here in the US compared to Sweden and the kids are more difficult, well at least that was the case when I was a kid. There seems to be more difficult parents here too. I believe being a teacher here is tougher than being a teacher in Sweden and Finland. Also thank you so much for your kind words Pete.

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    1. Right back at you, young man. I’m finally a grandfather, John. I’m sure a post will be coming in a couple of weeks after we visit them.

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    1. Thanks so much, Jan. Thomas is a great guy. If you haven’t read about about his Leonberger Bronco, I highly recommend it.

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  12. Great review and sounds like a wonderful book, will definitely be adding it to my TBR list. Teachers are such a vital part of society and still so often under appreciated.

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    1. Thanks for the supportive comment about teachers, Pooja. I know of at least ten of my former students who went into teaching, one who I actually taught with near the end of my career.

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  13. What a lovely post, Thomas! Some of my favorite teachers undoubtedly changed the course of my education and attitude towards learning, positively of course, and I couldn’t be more grateful for them. It’s nice to read about good teachers being highlighted and to see their efforts being recognized. Teaching isn’t easy, and I too have often felt that it is an underappreciated profession. Yet, some of my most inspiring mentor figures have been teachers. And teachers aren’t just in schools — I’ve learned so much from my family members, friends, writing community, and more, simply by being around them and listening to what they have to say.

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    1. Thank you so much Damyanti and you are so right. Teachers are very important and good teachers are gold. It is a profession that needs better support from society. There are so many things we have learned and that we need to learn. I read in a science article that we do not need to worry about new knowledge pushing out old knowledge. Our brain can easily handle all of it. In fact we need to keep learning.

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    2. Great point about teachers not always having to be in schools, Damyanti. We all have the power to teach others. Parents are constantly teaching their kids values and lifetime lessons. We can’t be embarrassed to ask for help. Technology was never one of my strong suits, and I leaned on my 6th graders to help me. Not only did I learn, but they felt good about themselves.

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    2. Hi, Debby. Good to see you over here at Thomas’s blog. You’re moving into a pleasant time of the year in Canada. We’re heading to the United States side of Lake Superior in July for a Springer Family Reunion. Our big news is we’re traveling to South Dakota in another week to see our first grandchild in person. I’m glad FaceTime exists, but I can’t wait to hold Jack and watch our son be a father.

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      1. Hi Pete. Oh wow! Congratulations my friend. I know you’ve been excited to be a granddad since you heard the news. Yes, we finally have nice weather and I hope you have an amazing time with your family! ❤

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  15. Thank you Thomas for sharing this book… And I agree teachers are so important and hold a huge responsibility in influencing and enabling young minds to use their own minds in how to think and act responsibly ..

    I Had one such teacher in my young life, and English teacher, who saw I was struggling and who introduced me to her own library of books, who would lend them to me to read.. She not only saw ME, but she enabled me to improve my reading and writing skills.. And I will never forget her kindness and patience.

    Such teachers are rare these days.. I would say Pete, is up amongst those rare breeds of teachers along with Jennie, a dear blogging friend.

    Lessons in school are not always about the 3 R’s…. 🙂 but how to interact and treat each other with respect and kindness… If I teacher can do all of that, they are what being a teacher is all about..

    Many thanks for sharing Petes Book … Wishing you both a peaceful weekend x ❤

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    1. Yes you are so right. It is great that you had a teacher who helped you out. Those teachers are indeed important. Learning how to interact with each other is indeed a very important part of school that kids who are entirely taught at home miss out on. Thank you so much and I wish you a great weekend and rest of the week as well.

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  16. Thomas, a superb review of Pete’s book and wow, what a lot of experience of teaching! No wonder the book is full of wise & funny anecdotes. He really stayed the course in teaching – I didn’t realise that the average teacher only stayed 7 years in the profession. I looked it up and it is a similar figure here in the UK – the morale is very low and far too much time spent with paperwork and testing!

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    1. Wow it is too bad it is the same in UK. Yes between political fads regarding how teaching and education should be done, opinionated and self absorbed parents, parents who don’t care, social problems, paperwork, testing, relatively low pay, etc., it is a lot more difficult job than people realize. Teacher shortage is becoming a serious problem.

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  17. I enjoyed reading this wonderful review of Pete’s book, Thomas! I read it a few years back and totally loved it. Pete thoroughly covered every aspect of teaching. When I read about how he set up the classroom at the beginning of the year, I saw myself doing the same thing. Any new teacher should read that part of the book. The rest of the book is for new and seasoned teachers as well. Yes, teachers spend about 60 hours a week, stay after school, and work at home for preparation, and shopping for classroom materials. Congratulations to Pete for this insightful review.

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    1. Yes you certainly know all about this. I was just reading in Bill Mahers new book about teachers having an insufficient salary and having to buy supplies for the class room. He was saying that many people say to teachers “well your reward is in heaven”, but the problem is, like he said, “rent is due down on earth”. Teachers work hard and have a very challenging job. I am certainly very grateful for our teachers and I wouldn’t mind increasing the taxes a little bit to help out our teachers. Thank you very much for your kind words.

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      1. Exactly, teachers have to pay rent here on Earth. I have no idea why the salary is low in the first place, Thomas. Perhaps they (whoever they are) think it’s an 8:00 to 3:00 job. But any responsible teacher never leaves at 3:00 pm. Some people work 8 to 5 or 9 to 5 and daydream here and there. Teachers (especially elementary) work every minute and use their own time to prepare.
        When I answered the phone in the classroom or talked to someone at the door for just a few seconds, the kids thought they could take a break!! 🙂 🙂

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    2. Yes I know. Teachers don’t go home at three o clock, and they work at home, and they don’t have June, July and August off. My wife was a teacher so I know those details. I just looked up the average salary for a teacher in Texas $41,000.00 and for a software engineer $126,000.00. Without stating mine (or my wife’s) salary I knew the difference was big. Both require at least a bachelors degreee, both are not 8-5 jobs, and are stressful but in different ways. I’ve seen my wife work up close and of course I knew my own job. Software engineer is not more difficult than being a teacher. On the contrary, as a software engineer you can go to the bathroom any time you like and you don’t have to buy supplies. That salary difference make no sense.

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      1. I know you know, Thomas! Software engineering job is not any harder than a teacher’s job. Portland teachers were on strike for 14 days demending a salry increase. They only got 14.4% over the next three years. They have to work to make up the days the kids missed school when they were on strike. I don’t know what the public can do for the teachers.

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    3. As Pete was saying in the book, young people are noticing and a teacher shortage is developing. There are many people who love teaching and therefore they accept a lower salary and more stress to a certain extent, but you can only push so far before people become reluctant to become teachers. I really hope the situation for teachers get better because we certainly can’t be without teachers.

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