As a teacher, you teach. But, you teach to your audience and you have to remember who your audience is and not teach below them or above them, or you lose them. Mr. Haberman forgets this basic principle in this book and although his target audience is the right age to handle the material he is presenting, their maturity is not where it needs to be. Whether it is above or below, that is you the reader to decide. Michael, Mixer and Bones are not the least bit interested in what he has to offer in the classroom until he starts “playing with their heads” with the literature he is trying to make them absorb. Perhaps his technique is a bit too much for the trio and they can’t handle the pressure or perhaps they finally saw a way out or perhaps it was just a release, as a reader, we know that Mr. Haberman would just not let up. What about Tommy? He had it all, or at least the group looked up to him. What did he think of Mr. Haberman and his antics?I liked the language in the book; it seemed real and life-like. Each of the characters were unique and had their own drama going on. The cover of the book is what drew me to the book which really had nothing to do with the book and the title of the book has to do with respect which is what Mr. Haberman tried to give the boys, as he called them Gentlemen when talking to them. I thought the beginning of the book was extremely slow and sometimes when Mr. Haberman was talking about the book, Crime and Punishment, I thought he was going on and on and on. If I was in his class, I would have fallen asleep too. It was an interesting read though.
