An explosive new look at the pressures on today's teachers and the pitfalls of school reform, Confessions of a Bad Teacher presents a passionate appeal to save public schools, before it's too late.
When John Owens left a lucrative job to teach English at a public school in New York City's South Bronx, he thought he could do some good. Faced with a flood of struggling students, Owens devised ingenious ways to engage every last one. But as his students began to thrive under his tutelage, Owens found himself increasingly mired in a broken educational system, driven by broken statistics, finances, and administrations undermining their own support system—the teachers.
The situation has gotten to the point where the phrase "Bad Teacher" is almost interchangeable with "Teacher." And Owens found himself labeled just that when the methods he saw inspiring his students didn't meet the reform mandates. With firsthand accounts from teachers across the country and tips for improving public schools, Confessions of a Bad Teacher is an eye-opening call-to-action to embrace our best educators and create real reform for our children's futures.
"A lucid call to action and a must-read for anyone who cares about America's future...Owens uses his personal journey as a prism to tell an urgent story about America's classrooms. Important, passionate, and timely."—MK Asante, award-winning filmmaker and author of Buck
"John Owens is the real deal. A fine teacher—despite the title of the book—he has the great ability to write movingly about his experiences. This book is a keen insider's view of what is happening in education across the country and a refreshing refutation to those who would 'fix' our schools from afar, without understanding them."—David Berliner, bestselling coauthor of Collateral Damage: How High-Stakes Testing Corrupts America's Schools
"This book should serve as a wake-up call to the general public...Insightful, engaging, and often heart breaking, it will help readers to understanding why so many great teachers are leaving our schools."—Pedro Noguera, Peter L. Professor of Education, New York University and author of City Schools and the American Dream
