Under Running Laughter: Notes from a Renegade Classroom

After 15 years as a classics professor, Howe, ``in dismay over the decline of humanistic education,'' took a job teaching inner-city adolescents remanded to a foster care agency in Yonkers, N. Y. Describing his experiences with his students--oppositional, undersocialized girls and boys, predominantly black--in unvarnished yet respectful tones, Howe briefly reviews the ``psychoanalytic literature on the development of the dissocial child'' that gave structure and coherence to his dealings with his charges. He examines their troubled home lives, the chaos of which may account for the intemperate behaviors that brought about their placement at the residential facility. Howe reveals conflicted feelings about his exhaustive, never boring labors and makes recommendations for improving the foster care system while remaining realistic about the youths' limited potentials. He is an unconventional teacher, and his dedication to his ``throwaway'' students is inspirational. (Nov.)