Chalkdust Memories follows the arc of the author's 26 years in the classroom. Dunnan was driven from teaching, and effectively prevented from ever teaching again, through the concerted actions of a corrupt, rich, white suburban high school noprth of Boston. Together with the author's previous book, Notes to a New Teacher, it forms bookends to a teaching career. However, whereas Notes mixes memoir with insight and instruction for people entering teaching, Chalkdust Memories is strictly a memoir. Looking back over a classroom career, it brings humor, reflection, and a degree of cynicism to the...