This Year's Class Picture
by Dan Simmons
On This Page
Description
"Ms. Geiss is the most dedicated fourth-grade teacher imaginable. She goes to extraordinary lengths to make sure her students are presented with every opportunity|showing them slides from her summer vacations during Geography, reading to them from the classics of children|s literature after lunch, and providing them with the kinds of learning rewards that they will truly respond to|bite-sized nuggets of human flesh. Because Ms. Geiss| students are pint-sized zombies, and the main tool of her show more peculiar version of the teaching trade is her trusty Remington .30-06 rifle. Ms. Geiss is firm but fair, and keeps a disciplined classroom. She has far more trouble from the adults shambling through what|s left of town than she does from her students, though a well-bulldozed killing field and the gasoline-filled moat encircling the school usually keeps the worst of the undead marauders at bay. But even the hardest working educators let their guard down sometimes, and after the Tribulations, just one mistake can mean school|s out forever."--Publisher description. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
(the following review is from when I read the short story in [b:The Living Dead|3302568|The Living Dead (The Living Dead, #1)|John Joseph Adams|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1391343270s/3302568.jpg|3339382] back in 2008)
A long time teacher doesn't let something as small as a Zombie Apocalypse stop her from giving her students an education. This is a creepy, rather horrifying story that I love so much I felt I needed to buy this anthology just for it. On the one hand Ms. Geiss does a remarkably good job at keeping herself alive and fortifying her surroundings. If I ever got caught in a Zombie Apocalypse I can only hope to be half as resourceful as she is honestly. On the other she's bat shit crazy and doesn't seem to think there's an show more issue there. Her class is made up of previous students who have all been zombified. She neutralizes whatever threat they can be to her, shackles them to their desks and proceeds to teach them, acting as if she tries hard enough they may respond.
Its rather heart breaking. In between watching her lament her class' vacant expressions, we see her bulldoze the surrounding area to get better view of the terrain, remember vacations and times past, Ms. Geiss really tried to reach out for these kids. She wanted to protect them, just as she tried to protect them when they were alive. Yes she's off her rocker, but the ending makes it possible to think that if someone tries hard enough maybe bad behaviors can be curbed. show less
A long time teacher doesn't let something as small as a Zombie Apocalypse stop her from giving her students an education. This is a creepy, rather horrifying story that I love so much I felt I needed to buy this anthology just for it. On the one hand Ms. Geiss does a remarkably good job at keeping herself alive and fortifying her surroundings. If I ever got caught in a Zombie Apocalypse I can only hope to be half as resourceful as she is honestly. On the other she's bat shit crazy and doesn't seem to think there's an show more issue there. Her class is made up of previous students who have all been zombified. She neutralizes whatever threat they can be to her, shackles them to their desks and proceeds to teach them, acting as if she tries hard enough they may respond.
Its rather heart breaking. In between watching her lament her class' vacant expressions, we see her bulldoze the surrounding area to get better view of the terrain, remember vacations and times past, Ms. Geiss really tried to reach out for these kids. She wanted to protect them, just as she tried to protect them when they were alive. Yes she's off her rocker, but the ending makes it possible to think that if someone tries hard enough maybe bad behaviors can be curbed. show less
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
Bram Stoker Award
238 works; 5 members
Author Information
133+ Works 69,528 Members
Science fiction writer Dan Simmons was born in East Peoria, Illinois in 1948. He graduated from Wabash College in 1970 and received an M. A. from Washington University the following year. Simmons was an elementary school teacher and worked in the education field for a decade, including working to develop a gifted education program. His first show more successful short story was won a contest and was published in 1982. His first novel, Song of Kali, won a World Fantasy Award, and Simmons has also won a Theodore Sturgeon Award for short fiction, four Bram Stoker Awards, and eight Locus Awards. He is also the author of the Hyperion series, and Simmons and his work have been compared to Herbert's Dune and Asimov's Foundation series. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- This Year's Class Picture
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 30
- Popularity
- 924,747
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.92)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 2
- ASINs
- 1
