Throwing the Hammer

By Gary J Kirchner

Paranoid administrators, interdepartmental feuds, quirky staff members, and an eccentric headmaster: welcome to Winston Grant High School.
Mark Patterson has a master's degree in physics, wants to do nothing more than surf and ski, and believes that high school teaching will be the cushy job of his dreams. He receives a rude awakening when he becomes a physics teacher at Winston Grant, a begrudging little brother amidst rival private school heavyweights.
From the outset, Mark must tiptoe through a virtual minefield of Procrustean rules, coddling parents, scheming colleagues, and, of course, teen-aged students.
Things don't go well, inside or outside the classroom. His students call him Mr. Goofegg. His football team is pathetic. His lunch-table kids behave like Neanderthals. His teaching supervisor, aka the "education implementation strategist," criticizes him for using equations. His colleagues have even organized a betting pool for when he will get fired.
And when Mark discovers that a weak student in his class is a physics genius, he finds himself caught in the middle of a conflict between father and son, a conflict which could destroy the young man's potential. Or help Mark find his.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1038344115
• ISBN13: 9781038344113
• Release Date: November 2025
• Publisher: FriesenPress
• Length: 294 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"