Hickory Tunes

This book is not a memoir. Nor is it an autobiography. Neither is it a diary nor a scholarly essay, a confession or a consolation. It is not a Menippean satire. It is not entirely a personal philosophy about how teaching should be done or how teachers should be constructed or how educators should proceed about their jobs. It is not a manual. It is not a history of educational practices nor is it a diatribe concerning social trends and behaviours as they pertain to the classroom over time. It is not an exercise in cultural studies. It is not an accounting or a field notes or a scientific study or a demonstration of hyperthymesia. It is not a cock and bull story, at least not all of it. ... So, what is this book? Well, you've been to school and you know what it was like; in your reading here, you will be the one most qualified to answer that question. What is this book! For now, best perhaps to think of Epimenides' old syllogism and go forward with the simple idea that, in all probability, everything written in these pages is false. And there, let the lesson begin.