"You're making how much an hour?""Two hundred dollars.""Do you ride in on a pony?"All she wants to do is teach. For Anna Taggert, an earnest Ivy League graduate, pursuing her passion as a teacher means engaging young hearts and minds. She longs to be in a place where she can be her best self, and give that best to her students. Turns out it isn't that easy. Landing a job at an elite private school in Manhattan, Anna finds her dreams of chalk boards and lesson plans replaced with board families, learning specialists, and benefit-planning mothers. Not to mention the grim realities of her small paycheck. And then comes the realization that the papers she grades are not the work of her students, but of their high-priced, college-educated tutors. After uncovering this underground economy where a teacher can make the same hourly rate as a Manhattan attorney, Anna herself is seduced by lucrative offers -- one after another. Teacher by day, tutor by night, she starts to sample the good life her students enjoy: binges at Barneys, dinners at the Waverly Inn, and a new address on Madison Avenue. Until, that is, the truth sets in.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Glamorous Disasters is a better book about Upper East Side tutors
Comment: It would have been only fair if the author referenced that book.

It came out in 2006 discussing this exact same issue, with a more interesting protagonist.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: From J. Kaye's Book Blog
Comment: I'm glad I avoided the negative reviews before reading the book. On second thought, it might not have mattered. I wanted to read this one ever since it arrived, but had a ton of books to read first. Glad I didn't rushed because I enjoyed this book immensely. I love the light-hearted way Anisha Lakhani, the author, fashioned her main character, Anna Taggart, in a dismal profession.

The only mistake I made was watching FREEDOM WRITERS when I was midway through reading this book. Seriously not a recommended as it ruins the comedy side of this novel. I loved this book and look forward to more from this author!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down!
Comment: Is this book educational? no. Is there some hidden meaning? No, not really. But is it pure entertainment? yes! I couldn't put this book down! I loved every minute of it! I am not a teacher, but would think this book would make an excellent gift for a teacher. Its definitely worth reading in my opinion.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Not a bad Read
Comment: Schooled

Schooled is a fun, light and enjoyable novel by debut author, Anisha Lakhani. Schooled is full of moral issues, big money and spoiled rich kids and their parents taking advantage of the school system to their own detriment. Based on the author's own experiences, SCHOOLED may shock those who think the road to Ivy League Schools is paved with the brightest and best. Lakhani exposes a portion of society that feels money can buy anything including good grades for students whose vocabulary and comprehension are at primary school level.

The other really great comparison with this book is the non-fiction first-person narrative "Teacher Man" by Frank McCourt, whose venues are also schools in New York City, but in the public sector. In the end, both he and Anisha Lakhani end up as writers, and we, the reading public is the beneficiaries of their years in the classroom.

Of course, a good part of Anna's story takes place outside the school setting, exposing a whole underground world of private tutoring to the rich kids of Manhattan's elite families. "Tutoring" here is mostly a euphemism for actually writing the student's papers for them, and here is where the moral issues are most dramatically highlighted, counterbalanced with the continual need for filthy lucre just to live comfortably in Manhattan on a teacher's salary, especially in the private school system.

Almost as stressful as financial matters is the balance of power between the teachers and the students and, even more obnoxiously, their parents. The most interesting aspect of the book is how Anna's view of herself and her students evolves by the end of the book. Although the ending is a bit abrupt, and skirts the very financial issues that started Anna down her path, it still gives the reader a feeling of resolution. Midway through the book I was becoming thoroughly put off by the repetitious mentioning of brands and labels, but they were part of Anna's world for the period she succumbed to their charms and function a bit like totems she is finally able to reject when she re-discovers her passion for teaching. For me....not a bad read because this was the environment that I grew up in.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Private School Hell
Comment: At best, I thought "Schooled" would be an amusing little diversion. What I got is a disturbing group portrait of abhorrent children, parents and teachers who live in an absurdly materialistic world and subsist on the premise that everything and everyone is for sale. Lakhani's writing is fair at best, and I found the fact that she is a former teacher truly distasteful (she comes off as whiney, disgruntled and shallow). I disliked this book for basically the same reasons that I could barely get past chapter 3 of "Sex and the City" - it is populated with mindless spoiled brats of all ages who do nothing worthwhile. I found the characters annoying and the plot despicable. The subject matter was definitely not my thing, but better writing could have helped me to hate it less.

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