R&L Education
Pages: 290
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Trim: 6½ x 9½
978-1-61048-414-5 • Hardback • December 2011 • $119.00 • (£92.00)
978-1-61048-416-9 • eBook • October 2011 • $54.00 • (£42.00)
Bruce J. Gevirtzman taught high school English and coached baseball for nearly forty years. He is the author of three other books: Shaking Hands With Aliens: An Intimate Understanding of America’s Teenagers; Straight Talk to Teachers: Twenty Insane Ideas for a Better Classroom; and Love and Death in Dallas.
Introduction: Waiting For Scooper Man: Fall Guys, Scapegoats, and Truths
Chapter 1. Children in Purgatory
Chapter 2. The Devil’s Contract
Chapter 3. Joel Gray’s Anatomy
Chapter 4. Putting Their Money Where Our Mouths Are
Chapter 5. Breathing: The Lost Art
Chapter 6. Solving Suffocation
Chapter 7. Those Who Can’t Do Teach—and Those Who Can’t Teach Shouldn’t Teach
Chapter 8. Giveth Gelt, Taketh Tenure
Chapter 9. They Baby-Sit Our Children, Don’t They?
Chapter 10. Doing What Schools Do
Chapter 11. My God! These Children Are Going to Breed!
Chapter 12. Walking Like a Duck and Quacking Like a Duck No More
Chapter 13. From Nine to Three—Not the Drink For Me
Chapter 14. Bryan’s Bong
Chapter 15. No Child’s Tanned Behind
Chapter 16. Like Dirty Harry
Chapter 17. Gorilla!
Chapter 18. Resting Their Middle Fingers
All of Bruce's books have tickled my "intellectual funny bone." Although his ideas are sometimes outrageous, they are always bold. As an educator myself, a former assistant principal and classroom teacher, I can see that Bruce identifies a lot of the solutions that most people are afraid to even discuss.
— Ron Carroll, Teacher
No one should hesitate to listen to a teacher who has been in the system (with such a tremendous amount of success) as long as Bruce Gevirtzman has. He knows what's wrong; he knows how to fix it. Through his writings, he makes us listen, laugh, and learn.
— Steve Cisneros, founder and producer, Phantom Projects, and former student in Gevirtzman's classroom
Our political leaders should read From the Inside: Audacious Cures for America's Ailing Schools. So should the general public. Perhaps we will be less likely to blame America's teachers and more likely to blame ourselves for this mess.
— Shelley D. Lane, Ph.D., associate professor, University of Texas at Dallas
Bruce J. Gevirtzman is irreverent, sarcastic and on target with what ails the school system. Why? Because he was a superior teacher for four decades and has done his homework on the waste in the system and the fact that the heart of every classroom is a well-respected and well-paid teaching professional who should be held to high standards. One may not agree with everything he argues, but his theme that "more of the same will just mean more failure" rings clear.
— Robert Pacilio, 1998 San Diego County Teacher of the Year and author of Meetings at the Metaphor Cafe
Like Bruce's other books, many of his ideas gave me pause; however, his thoughts wound up being so brutally honest, and so humorously presented, I couldn't help but learn from those ideas. Agree or disagree, this book is a must-read for parents, educators, and politicians.
— Shari Wilson, Communications Specialist, St. Vrain Valley School District