Bernie Schein

writer, educator

In his over 40 years as an educator, Bernie Schein, author of If Holden Caulfield Were in My Classroom has “gotten personal” with countless students, bucking the conventional wisdom that education must be impersonal, formal, and objective. In countless talks and workshops, he has shared his views on everything from the shortcomings of the SAT and No Child Left Behind to the need for students to be emotionally open and aware before true learning can take place. Schein was the principal of three different schools in Mississippi and South Carolina before he taught full time at the Paideia School in Atlanta, which he helped to start. The subjects he taught included creative and expository writing, literature, drama, and social studies, where his approach was distinguished by its group dynamics and his unique class government and court system. He has been an educational consultant throughout his career and continues to teach creative writing to both adolescents and adults. He was chosen District Teacher of the Year in the Atlanta, Georgia area in 1978. Schein holds a Master of Education degree from Harvard University, with an emphasis in educational psychology. His stories and essays have been published in Atlanta Magazine, Atlanta Weekly, Creative Loafing, and the Mississippi Educational Advance. His previous book (co-authored with his wife, Martha Schein), Open Classrooms in the Middle School, was a featured selection of the Educators’ Book Club. Bernie Schein lives in Beaufort, SC, near Charleston.