Many moons ago (checks copywrite dates… Whoa, a whole lot of moons ago!), I read a book called My Teacher is an Alien by Bruce Coville. So long ago, in fact, that I was actually the target age group for the book.
Earlier this year, I learned that it was, in fact, only the first book in a series of four books. After My Teacher is an Alien, we got My Teacher Fried My Brain, My Teacher Glows in the Dark and My Teacher Flunked the Planet
And, boy, did the series not go where I was expecting it to go. In fact, if I had kept on reading it, I probably would have been strongly affected by it at that age.
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Seriously, I’m going to even talk about the resolution for the whole series
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The first book has three kids, discover that one of their teachers is, yeah, you guessed it, an alien from outer space. He is there to abduct a group of children. Fortunately, he has a great sensitivity to music, and the school band is able to drive him away, although one child is so unhappy here on earth that he goes with him.
So we have an alien invasion/abduction theme with a definite Scooby Doo vibe. And honestly, at the time, it didn’t make that big an impression on me. Particularly because the alien teacher didn’t seem that scary. And I assumed that the rest of the series would continue with the whole Scooby-Doo, meddling kids thwart alien invasion theme.
Instead, the series tackles, a different, science-fiction, trope, one that’s actually more interesting. The aliens are actually trying to figure out what to do with us. Because the series taps into two ideas that show up a lot in science-fiction. One, humans are dangerous. Two, humans are special.
In fact, it pushes both ideas further than a lot of science fictions works. It doesn’t just talk about how the human race commits war. It also talks about environmental abuse and other forms of abuse and negligence. The Ethiopian famine of 1983 - 85 was specifically mentioned and the political elements of it were even alluded to (but not spelled out because this was a series for middle schoolers)
And the series takes up the old (and disproven) saw that we use only 10% of our brains. So the human brain is the most potentially brilliant brain in the universe, which actually kind of annoys the aliens.
So, instead of an alien invasion plot, the kids find out that what is really going on is that the aliens are trying to figure out if they have to wipe out the human race before we get off the planet and really start breaking stuff. Coville actually does a really good job of both showing that the aliens really don’t like the idea of genocide but also how we aren’t giving them much choice.
The explanation for everything turns out to be that the human race is actually a hive mind, but one that fractured because feeling everyone was just too painful. So we do have magical brains, but the fact that we are incomplete makes us unhappy and lash out. (And this was when I checked to make sure Bruce Coville wasn’t a pseudonym for Spider Robinson)
Not going to lie, I found that to be a cop out. Coville actually does a very interesting job discussing human flaws but then comes up with a fantastic solution. He talks about real problems, but then gives us a magical solution that I’m confident isn’t actually real.
I did like how aliens gave us television to make us more stupid. And then were upset because it worked too well.
While I wasn’t pleased with the destination, I did enjoy the journey. The series definitely encourages you to think and it would have made me think pretty hard if I had read it back when I was in middle school or high school.
I also like the character development. In particular, Duncan’s arc is good. A thoughtless bully, he goes through a Flowers for Algernon brain enhancement. However, instead of it being a tragedy because it isn’t permanent, he gets to keep the emotional growth that he got from it.
My Teacher is an Alien series starts off as a juvenile thriller but segue ways into a young adult examination of human nature. And perhaps Coville’s goal wasn’t to tie everything up with a happy ending but make his readers think about all the problems along the way.
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