It's Your Time You're Wasting

Book excerpt: Frank Chalk is a teacher in a fairly poor inner city school - a school where the kids get drunk, take drugs and beat up the teachers... when they can be bothered to turn up. He confiscates their porn, booze and trainers, fends off angry parents and worries about the few conscientious pupils. Terrifying and hilarious, IT'S YOUR TIME YOU'RE WASTING is Chalk's real-life diary from the front line of the modern edukashun system. This book is a real word-of-mouth title. Think of comic genius Chris Lilley's "SUMMER HEIGHTS HIGH meets WASTING POLICE TIME by PC David Copperfield! Frank Chalk is a pseudonym for a disgruntled teacher in an inner city school in the UK - "a school where the kids get drunk, take drugs and beat up the teachers when they can be bothered to show up". Just like PC Copperfield in WASTING POLICE TIME, it's blackly and bleakly humorous. It's the diary of life on the front line but in this case, it's in the modern edukashun system. Fighting apathy, Frank has to battle the tearaways, their parents, and he worries about the few conscientious pupils. He muses on the shortcomings of the staff (including his own) while confiscating porn and booze and even spots the odd spark of hope amid all the despair. The appalling decline of education in the UK is very much mirrored here in Australia and this book is perfectly timed for the "Back to School Year". Frank Chalk was discovered via his popular blogsite: www.frankchalk.blogspot.com Frank taught for 16 years in state schools. He left the profession in late 2005 while still in his early 40s, having grown impossibly frustrated with working in the public sector education. He now runs his own business and is no longer involved in education (sensible bastard!). He's married to a teacher (poor bastard).