The Unteachables

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2019

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-5

Chapters 6-8

Chapters 9-11

Chapters 12-14

Chapters 15-17

Chapters 18-20

Chapters 21-22

Chapters 23-26

Chapters 27-29

Chapters 30-32

Character Analysis

Themes

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Important Quotes

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Themes

There Are Different Kinds of Smart

Typical education prizes a specific kind of intelligence: doing well in academic subjects. Students who learn poorly with traditional teaching styles, regardless of the reason, are discouraged or dismissed. This educational model doesn’t take different types of intelligence into account. In The Unteachables, Room 117 holds students deemed “stupid” by the administration’s very narrow definition. The novel shows how important different types of intelligence are.

The kids in room 117 each have their own type of intelligence. Parker struggles with reading, but understands mechanics on an adult level. Rahim sleeps through class, but is a talented artist. Mateo has an amazing memory, which uses to connect deeply and analytically with pop culture, teaching himself Klingon and using the Grinch as real-life inspiration for the vuvuzela heist. Barnstorm slacks off in school, but is a gifted athlete with physical precision and a competitive streak that he can harness for productive work. In their classroom, Kiana stands out because she is a more neurotypical student—she excels in core subjects and gets good grades from standard teaching.

The Unteachables highlights the importance of cultivating many different types of intelligence for both traditional and nontraditional learners. Over the course of the book, the book-smart Kiana learns to be flexible, working with machines at Terranova Motors, seeing the kinetic chaos of her baby brother as a science lesson, and helping Parker work through anagrams. These things spur character growth. We also see an adult version of a room 117 kid in Jake Terranova. Though he cheated his way through school, through his machination there he learned street smarts. Now he thinks on the fly and reads situations and people well enough to thrives in the business world.

Belief in Yourself Comes From Inside

Throughout The Unteachables, the characters seek approval or acceptance from others. While this is a normal human trait, it is ineffective at producing the desired results until people learn to believe in themselves. Room 117 begins as a place where this lack of external validation creates withdrawn students and a teacher who has given up. It ends as a safe space for its students and teacher, a place where accomplishments—academic and extracurricular for the students and vocational ones for Mr. Kermit—lead to internal feelings of self-worth. Believing in themselves allows the Unteachables to succeed.

Each person in room 117 faces inner struggle. Mr. Kermit, who never got over the blow of the cheating scandal, doesn’t believe in himself and doesn’t even try to teach. As he comes to see the potential in his students and relearns to help them achieve, his confidence repairs itself. Aldo and Parker disparage their shortcomings: Aldo hates his anger and dislikes himself, while Parker feels inadequate because of his dyslexia. Both find self-worth through reading. Aldo discovers empathy through characters in a book, which shows him that anger isn’t the only emotion he can access. Once Parker starts working with anagrams and has a teacher interested in getting to the bottom of his reading challenges, newfound belief in his ability to learn morphs into belief in himself.

In contrast, Dr. Thaddeus symbolizes what happens when a person allows self-loathing to overtake them. Dr. Thaddeus holds a grudge about the cheating scandal, and nothing anyone does or shows him about Mr. Kermit changes his mind. Dr. Thaddeus is angry about the scandal making him, and by extension, Greenwich, look, and he cannot let go of his sense that his reputation still hangs by an incident from 27 years ago. At the end of the book, Dr. Thaddeus only allows Mr. Kermit to keep his job because the people of Greenwich pressure him. He doesn’t change his need for external validation, putting the responsibility for his actions on other people.

Our Decisions Affect Those Around Us

Many characters make decisions only for themselves, without considering how those decisions might affect others. Often, they are surprised when their choices have repercussions beyond themselves. Choices intertwine, though the results are not always immediately obvious—the causal path of a decision can be difficult or impossible to trace.

These self-focused choices tend to have bad outcomes. Kiana chooses not to formally register at Greenwich, assuming this slapdash approach to education will affect no one but her, with the worst consequence being that she feels guilty about her dishonesty. However, following the science test, Kiana’s inaction has very negative unintended consequences: Her score doesn’t count as part of the class average, so Dr. Thaddeus can fudge the numbers to fire Mr. Kermit. Similarly, after the cheating scandal, Mr. Kermit sank into a state of apathy. Though his depression was understandable, its ramifications derailed his whole life: His relationship fractured, and his dream job became a matter of mindlessly running out the clock until early retirement.

On the other hand, the novel stresses that it’s never too late to become a more thoughtful decision maker. Once Kiana and Mr. Kermit see the negative outcomes of their decisions, they regret the pain they have caused. Neither intended to hurt others, but even unintentional injuries create problems. As soon as Mr. Kermit allows himself to start taking other people like Ms. Fountain, Jake, and the room 117 kids into his decision-making, he sees that he can still become the teacher he’d always wanted to be. Rather than choosing early retirement for himself, he opts to stay at Greenwich to help shape the lives of others for the better.