Product Description
“Kozol’s love for his students is as joyful and genuine as his critiques
of the system are severe. He doesn’t pull punches.”
—Washington Post

Jonathan Kozol’s most delightfully personal and revealing work to date takes the form of warm and friendly letters to Francesca, a young classroom teacher, offering encouragement and guidance and survival strategies for teachers of all ages in our nation’s public schools.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 10 reviews)

different book, same problem

This is it for me, I am tired of these types of books that do such a "marvelous" job at depicting EVERYTHING that is wrong with the educational system. I would like for all the people that are such experts at pointing out all the problems to come up with ONE effective solution, just ONE. Be about it and stop talking about it already.....Enough with this issue.
yuk
November 17, 2008

A thoughtful gift for a new teacher

At this writing, this book is averaging four stars in terms of reviews, and I think that's about right. As a high school English teacher, I found some sections--especially those regarding standardized testing and how public education does not address the needs of poor children--quite compelling and validating. However, as another reviewer mentioned, I had difficulty with Kozol's tone at times, which seems just a bit condescending and does not match the acceptance and warmth he alleges to share with children. Well, I suppose there are those of us who get on much better with young people than we do adults. I do appreciate Kozol's wisdom and especially his willingness to toss aside what administrators dictate and teach in a manner that is in the best interest of the children. That is perhaps the most abiding lesson in this book.
September 07, 2008

Enjoyed By TCNJ'S 2008 Urban Teacher Academy

Forty-six high school juniors who aspire to become teachers read Letters To A Young Teacher during the 2008 Urban Teacher Academy (UTA) at The College of New Jersey. Our students found many of Jonathan Kozol's insights and experiences very helpful to their understanding of how teachers impact the lives of children. They were inpsired by several heartfelt sentiments and suggestions that Mr. Kozol gave to Francesca, a new teacher confronted by the challenges of the urban classroom. Some of our students reacted that Mr. Kozol rambled in some of his descriptions while others found some of the terminologies in this book complex. On the whole, however, our UTA students enjoyed and highly recommended this book. They plan to read other books by Mr. Kozol who is clearly one of our nation's most accomplished educational authors.

Laurence R. Fieber
Program Coordinator
The Urban Teacher Academy
The College of New Jersey

July 12, 2008

Tells it like it is

As one who works with teachers and visits inner city school classrooms on a regular basis, I can say that Jonathan Kozol accurately describes the problems in our schools today. He convincingly demonstrates that "No Child Left Behind" not only fails to promote real, sustainable school reform, but actually supports the forces driving schools (and society) back to segregation and inequality not so different from the time before Brown vs. the Board of Education. At the same time, his letters celebrate the many ways that innovative teachers instill hope and a love of learning in their young charges, despite these conditions. Every teacher would find some value in this book, because practices like the ones Kozol describes are not taught in many schools of education today.
June 27, 2008

The Joy of Looking

Kozol has tapped into the narcissism of modern teachers and their weird regard for themselves. Down at the "Teach for America" farm, the young Ivy Leaguers get the straight talk missing from the likes of Kozol. Teaching is a degraded profession, to be compared to bus driving and custodial work both in pay and in status. In fact, smart administrators now call teachers "education workers," just to take them down a notch or two. They are sick of the uppity types who think their jobs are important. Nobody respects them. Counselors tell it like it is: Get in, treat it like the Peace Corps, don't stay long enough for it to destroy your reputation. Put it on your resume and apply for law school. Spend the rest of your life telling people you miss the kids. Kozol has got all sorts of words of wisdom for the sad sacks who follow him into the playgrounds of the inner cities, but the bottom line is that his words support the status quo, where kids do as they like, while parents and administrators work together to make sure the teachers and not the kids get blamed for every failure. The only schools in America that have ever worked are those that kick out the brats who won't follow directions. Those are the schools to which the Roosevelts, the Bushes and the Clintons send their kids.
June 02, 2008

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America
by Jonathan Kozol

The Great Expectations School: A Rookie Year in the New Blackboard Jungle
by Dan Brown
by Randi Weingarten

Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools
by Jonathan Kozol

Many Children Left Behind: How the No Child Left Behind Act Is Damaging Our Children and Our Schools
by Deborah Meier, George Wood

On Being a Teacher
by Jonathan Kozol