Description

In 1977 Wayne Furlong, fresh out of university, finds himself in a job for which he is not equipped - English teacher in a tough all-boys secondary school in Melbourne, Australia. He has no learning theory, no confidence and no understanding of the people he is about to teach. He faces a world of binge-drinkers and dope-smokers, of old-school thugs and hippies, of loud music and violence. And that's just the staffroom.For the next forty years, in Melbourne and in Hong Kong, Wayne is slowly dragged to competence by a range of characters, minority and majority, indigenous and foreign, gay and straight, violent and kind, criminal and law-abiding. They are variously abled. They are funny and sad, spiritual and materialistic.They are all as different from him as he is from them and they are all the same.This is a book for educators and student teachers, for anyone who ever went to school, and for anyone who enjoys an entertaining read."Sincere. Humorous. Thought-provoking. Deep. Un-put-down-able. At a first glance, Buddha is a Punk Skater is a collection of witty and mesmerising short stories based on Wayne's reflections on his four-decade teaching career across Australia and Hong Kong. Having a deeper read of these stories I found myself constantly caught in deep thought, while accompanied by much light-hearted laughter. Wayne has ingeniously used a multitude of story-telling methods to make us think about the true purposes of education, the roles of schooling and what teachers can and should do. His humorous takes on experiences of himself, his colleagues and students, often made me imagine what I would have done if I were in those situations-his stories are powerful, educational and inspirational!"--Cora Lingling Xu (PhD Cambridge, Lecturer in Education, Keele University, UK)"This collection pays homage to the surprising and the frustrating; the amusing and confusing; the enlightening and liberating elements of the essentially human endeavour of teaching. While the narrative voice is lively and strong, it never assumes too much, nor does it impede upon the experience of the individuals we meet, all of whom are represented so authentically and with so much love by the author. The poignant and profound is balanced with genuine laugh out loud moments. To paraphrase a Taoist saying: when the reader is ready, the story appears. These stories demand reading. The time is ripe for such an anthology. The educational landscape and our collective lives will be better for it."-- Cindy Sullivan (BA; BSc; Grad Dip Student Welfare, University of Melbourne; Master of School Leadership, Monash University)"Wayne asks his readers, and he shows us, how to really observe ourselves. In so doing, he demonstrates how we can appreciate and make a virtue of the necessary and wonderful difference in the people around us, be they strangers, students, colleagues, neighbours, or superordinates." -Jason S Polley (PhD McGill), Associate Professor, Department of English, Hong Kong Baptist University; Co-editor, Cultural Conflict in Hong Kong: Angles on a Coherent Imaginary (Palgrave, 2018).