Bio:
JEAN A. MILLER MARINER devoted over thirty years at six different schools to teaching middle-school through college-level math and psychology courses, all while rearing three children with her beloved husband. With a Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Colorado College, she also coached swimming, math, and debate competitions; organized community service activities; served as a dorm parent; and wrote for a textbook company. She splits her time between the mountains of rural Maine and the mountains of the southwest.
Reviews:
You will find this book warm, welcoming, familiar, and joyful. It is a great reminder of the power of the profession and the heart behind why we all do it.
Jessie Barrie, M.A., Ph.D., Head of School, Bosque School, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Backward and Blind accurately and beautifully describes the surprises, joys, challenges, and amazing moments that accompany life at boarding school for a young teacher — it’s a great read for the aspiring teacher and seasoned professional alike.
Timothy D. Smith, Career Independent School Mathematics Educator, Cate School , Carpinteria, California.
Jean Miller Mariner’s Backward and Blind distills the wonderful madness of life as an educator into narratives that are at once warm, wild, and insightful. For early career educators, the stories are reminders that the inevitable moments of doubt along the way are often the seeds of lessons that endure long beyond the time students leave the classroom.
Andrew Gorvetzian, M.A., Independent School Spanish Educator, Albuquerque Academy, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Jean Miller Mariner portrays the experience of the early years of teaching with warmth, humor, and insight. The reader is both captivated by her stories and also understands viscerally why teachers see their work with their adolescent charges as an avocation. So well written and so vivid, this memoir should be issued to any young aspiring educator—they will feel a jolt of recognition and a reminder to stay the course.
Stephanie Lipkowitz, M.A., Associate Head of School, Albuquerque Academy. Former advisory board member of Columbia University’s Klingenstein Center, Founding Contributing Editor to Klingbrief, Lead English Teacher and Program Coordinator for the Summer Institute for Early Career Teachers at the Klingenstein Center.
This book breaks the standard classroom desktop narrative and shows that teaching is first about connecting with and interacting with humans, both in and outside the classroom, and then secondarily about subject matter. Veteran teacher Jean Miller Mariner does this through relating some epic stories (anonymized of course) that will leave you asking yourself, ‘Wow, what would I, as the adult in the room, have done in that situation?’ At the same time, she explores reconnecting with her students once they too become adults, further driving home the fact that it’s about the human connection. Most of all, you get to peer inside a teacher’s personal world of growth as she goes from a young first time teacher to one who herself has become a grown up in this world.
Troy Lanier B.E.E., M.A., St Stephen’s Episcopal School, Austin, Texas, Science and Mathematics Educator and Author, Filmmaking for Teens and DadLabs Guide to Fatherhood.
Jean Miller Mariner is excellent writer whose vivid voice connects so directly and
lovingly with students and colleagues who clearly were blessed to share space and time with her.
Peter Thorp, M.Ed., Educational Consultant to USA and African Secondary Schools, Retired founding head of school of Gashora Girls Academy, Rwanda.
Throughout her impactful career of teaching and learning, Jean Miller Mariner was a keen observer and captivating storyteller. And now we all benefit as she shares her stories. They entertain us, but they also ask us to consider lives well lived in the classroom and in schools, whether we are just starting out or have our own stories to tell. Take pleasure in this book, and then share it with those seeking impact and meaning in their professional lives.
Andrew T. Watson M.S., Senior Talent Consultant, DRG Talent, former Head of School, Albuquerque Academy.
Here you’ll meet an educator who figured out how to educate and inspire her students even during Covid isolation! Her stories inspire teachers, parents, and everyone to be creative, intelligent, and fun-loving, especially in our relationships with teenagers. Prepare to laugh!
Rev. Judy Myers Hoffhine, Teacher and Pastor.
Backward and Blind provides a masterful gaze into the illusion of being the teacher of children when on a deeper level, the inverse is true. In a look back, Jean Miller Mariner discovers the eternal wisdom—just when you think you have something nailed down, you don’t. Honest and joyful, she shares through storytelling the lessons a degree can’t teach: stay open to the lessons surrounding you.
Andrea Bowen, M.A., Retired Elementary School Counselor, State of Maine.
