Board games

An overworked, underpaid faculty. Apathetic students. An unsympathetic community.

Sound familiar? It should. Dean Caputa’s novel Playing School may be fictional, but it draws heavily on his 15 years of experience teaching in the flawed public school system of East Baton Rouge Parish.

It’s a fascinating, but often gut-churning read. The teachers at the fictitious East Side High School battle parental apathy, student inability, below-average facilities and a Byzantine administration that hinders rather than helps. The forces that shape the lives of the students at East Side are shocking, made even more so with the knowledge that some are based on real events.

The book, Caputa states, was born of real-world frustration. Frustration with educational “experts” who have never taught, an out-of touch media, increasing class sizes and shrinking salaries; frustration with a system that punishes teachers based on test scores. The book, though, is about more than that.

“[It’s] about the bankruptcy of American culture that is flooding our schools,” Caputa says. “Public schools absorb what society feeds us, and what society is feeding us is poison.”

Caputa feels the teachers are overwhelmingly blamed for problem students, and unfairly pressured to fix problems that they have no control over. The teachers at East Side often go above and beyond for their students—free tutoring sessions, volunteering with school activities and sports, parent-teacher conferences—but few students are interested or thankful.

“If the kids aren’t willing participants in their own education, we can’t help,” Caputa says.

Despite being fictional, the book has an unflinchingly honest and upfront feel. Caputa doesn’t pull punches when he discusses the problems teachers face, such as students missing school for court dates, or who would rather be expelled than sit in a classroom.

Caputa insists, however, that he is not trying to indict anyone. Hence, the novel.

“These problems aren’t limited to Louisiana,” he says. “They could exist in any school across the country.”

Though the book is inarguably controversial, Caputa claims the reaction has been mostly positive, especially from employees in the educational sector. He hopes the book will reach the right people, and not be ignored or dismissed as an exaggeration. “The book is what it is,” Caputa says. “I don’t know if we can fix [the schools]. But if we are to fix them, then dismissing this book is foolish.” Playing School is available at Cottonwood Books and through authorhouse.com.