2 out of 4 stars
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Frank Sganga is a vigorous nonagenarian with decades of experience in education, who still plays racquetball. Humanists vs. Humanoids is his professional autobiography. If it were written in ancient times, it might have been called his Apologia, or “defense.” (If you are wondering about the unique title, its meaning will become clear in a moment.)
Mr. Sganga begins his story in 1968, when he was already a seasoned 47-year-old with experience in teaching, administration, and math curriculum design. That year, a teachers’ union led a massive walkout in Volusia County, Florida, where he worked. Because a strike was illegal according to the teachers’ contracts, the union asked them to “resign,” confident that they would get their old jobs back when negotiations were over.
Mr. Sganga was called in at the last moment to take charge of a high school in which the principal, vice principal, and a majority of the teachers had resigned. He had one weekend to find substitute teachers and prepare to take over the school to keep complete pandemonium from ensuing.
Due to his experience, leadership abilities, and forceful, maverick personality, Mr. Sganga not only kept order in the school, but kept it humming with orderly activity until the end of the semester. Had he not done so, the school might have been closed down and the senior class might not have graduated.
In the course of doing this, Mr. Sganga made enemies of some union members who remained in the school system for the rest of his career. He himself developed a strong antipathy to the union. The rest of the book details the ups and downs of his career in education, including primarily his efforts to advance to leadership positions and to get the recognition he felt he deserved for saving the school in 1968, as well as for subsequent accomplishments in designing teaching aids and innovative curricula. If you are curious about Mr. Sganga’s accomplishments, they are given in much more detail in the book. He describes his math programs (his forte) in some detail, and rehearses his accomplishments about once a chapter.
Mr. Sganga appears to be an excellent principal and an even better math teacher. His philosophy of coaching each math student individually, starting where they are at and building from there, makes me wish I’d had him as a math teacher.
However, I would not have wanted him as a colleague, boss, or especially a subordinate. Mr. Sganga evinces a bitter, self-righteous, and self-justifying attitude that unfortunately turns this book into little more than an extended rant. After I got through the part about the union walkout (which was fascinating), I had to take the book in small sips. The author interrupts his own story to insert self-justifying monologues so often that it is hard to keep reading for more than a few pages at a time.
This attitude could have been predicted from the first three chapters of the book, which lay out a simplistic philosophy of good and evil. For Mr. Sganga, the world is divided into two kinds of people, whom he calls Humanists and Humanoids. Humanists are normal, kind human beings who apply compassion, logic, and common sense. Naturally, Mr. Sganga classes himself among these. As for Humanoids, they are bureaucratic types who are devoid of common sense, compassion, or any normal human feeling except the hunger for power. For examples of Humanoids, Mr. Sganga mentions the Chinese takeover of Tibet; North Korean leader Kim Jong-un; Josef Stalin; Adolf Hitler (of course); and he goes into some detail about serial rapist and killer Ted Bundy.
To his credit, the author acknowledges that not every Humanoid is as depraved as Ted Bundy. He says that both Humanists and Humanoids can be rated on a scale of 1 to 10. Bundy is a 10. In practice, however, all it takes to get on his Humanoid list is to do something that harms or opposes him. When his beloved wife unexpectedly died of cancer, Mr. Sganga was convinced it was due to neglect and labeled her doctor a Humanoid. Late in the book, he refers to an enemy at work with whom he had some minor conflict as a “scale-10 Humanoid.”
Even more sinister, Mr. Sganga (who is intelligent, competitive, and savvy), believes that it is OK to treat humanoids immorally. For example, it is fine to lie to them, because you have to “use the same methods they do.” They are, after all, not even fully human!
The effects of this unfortunate philosophy can be seen in Mr. Sganga’s behavior throughout the book. On his own showing, he lies to his “Humanoid” bosses and colleagues, brags, and deliberately intimidates. He conducts smear campaigns in the local newspapers and writes anonymous poison pen notes and puts them in people’s mailboxes, justifying himself that “everyone knew I wrote it, but no one could prove it.” In the meantime, he is indignant with the Humanoids in his life for their “underhanded tactics” and for “not even having the decency to say it to my face.” When old enemies die, he figuratively dances on their graves, and literally refuses to attend their funerals (in one case because someone had the gall to write him a letter of appreciation instead of saying the same things to his face).
By the end of book, the Mr. Sganga is so paranoid that he sees sinister motives every time someone in his professional life does not agree with him. When people with whom he’s having a conflict still greet him in the hallways, this is hypocrisy and “acting like it wasn’t even happening.” It never occurs to him that perhaps these people are trying to behave graciously with someone who is giving them trouble.
I have no doubt that this review will get me put on Mr. Sganga’s “Humanoid” list. He will probably point out that he has decades of experience in teaching and administration, and I have none. That is very true.
Also true is his second anticipated claim, that everything written about his professional career is 100% true. The book is larded with original sources. Most chapters contain excerpts, or even the entirety, of numerous documents, such as interoffice memos, newspaper articles, and letters written by Mr. Sganga and by others. Mr. Sganga seems to have saved everything.
These excerpts themselves are frequently interrupted by the author’s own comments. Usually (except in the case of photocopies), the excerpt is indented, then the comment is indented further within the excerpt. However, there are many exceptions to this rule, and Mr. Sganga also inserts one- or two-word comments that are not italicized or indented. (He cannot bear to let his enemies have their say even for a paragraph!) These formatting issues are not terribly confusing, however, for it is always easy to tell what is the original source and what is Mr. Sganga’s own voice.
Other than the formatting issues, the book is well edited and also includes many photos. Mr. Sganga is careful to give his adversaries’ full names and to include their photos whenever possible.
I first picked up this book because the title led me to believe that it would be a philosophical exploration of what it means to be human. When I read the description, I saw that it was going to be a professional autobiography and an expose. That still sounded good … I love a good expose! But I knew there was a risk that the book would be a bitter rant, and that is exactly what it has turned out to be. Perhaps this book could have been a good expose of the Florida school system if written more dispassionately and with more of a focus on the conditions in the schools, less on Mr. Sganga’s career. Unfortunately, Mr. Sganga’s obvious goal of justifying himself takes this book out of the realm of investigative reporting and seriously damages its credibility. That’s too bad. I cannot give it a high rating. But because the actual writing is not too bad, I give Humanists vs. Humanoids two out of four stars.
******
Humanists vs. Humanoids
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