Sex, Lies and the Classroom author James Wilcox talks out-crazying crazy students
| James Wilcox: “Sometimes you have to out-crazy the crazies.” |
James P. Wilcox knows the classroom. Before becoming a teacher at the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy four years ago, Wilcox taught at Northeast High School.
His experience with inner-city schools informs his first novel, Sex, Lies and the Classroom. The story follows a teacher in an unnamed urban school who tries to reach his students with methods that could charitably be called unorthodox. Three of his female students decide to teach him a lesson in ways you can probably guess at reading the book’s title.
Without spoiling anything, here’s what Wilcox thinks about the state of urban schools, creating unsympathetic characters and why sometimes it’s good to act crazier than your worst pupils.
