Essay Questions

Who are the unteachables?

The title refers to a special class made up of misfits, kids with behavior problems, students with learning disabilities, and assorted other pupils that teachers would just rather not have to deal with for one reason or another. In violation of the most fundamental concept of the American educational system the class is a rejection of standardization and homogeneity that is comprised of those with no other bonding age besides that most fundamental agency of the academic system: age. By rejecting the guiding notion that standardization of curriculum and teaching methods to suit all students in an equally mediocre fashion rather than appealing to the greatest strengths of learning capacity, placing kids deemed “unteachable” is essentially a white flag of surrender by the school stating that nothing the system has nothing to offer them. The existence of the class itself is a letter of confession that the system is broken beyond the capacity to be repaired in a way that can provide these kids with any hope for their academic future.

How is the title doubly ironic?

If you give a book a title like The Unteachables that is specifically directed to school-age readers, it is pretty much a guarantee that the title characters are, in fact, going to prove not to be unteachable. And that is exactly how the story plays out: the kids in class all reveal a capacity to learn. Therein lies the doubly ironic dimension of the title. The first reaction upon seeing this title is, naturally enough, that it is going to be about a bunch of students who be taught which is then subconsciously translated into meaning that they can’t learn. But that is not actually what “unteachable” means. The definition of unteachable is unambiguous: an incapacity for something to be taught. The first level of irony, therefore, is that the unteachable students turn out to be entirely teachable. The darker layer of irony is the suggestion that their real problem all along has not been their own capacity for learning but rather the systemic failure of the system to provide them instructors capable of teaching.

What is the thematic rationale for splitting the narrative perspective into multiple viewpoints?

Lying at the heart of the book’s storyline is an event which brings into focus the thematic examination of the difference between perception of the truth and the actual facts. Mr. Kermit’s entire career has been undermined and broken by his attachment to a cheating scandal which took place early in that career. Although the facts are indisputable that he himself was not actually involved and did nothing wrong, the circumstances of the scandalous activities nevertheless touched upon him and the media coverage forever tainted his reputation in the community. The choice of having multiple narrators offering multiple perspectives on everything that is going on in the story is a reflective commentary on the nature of how factual truth and perceptual truth can widely vary and wildly diverge from each other.