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The Great Expectations School: A Rookie Year in the New Blackboard Jungle
At the age of twenty-two, Dan Brown came to P.S. 85 as an eager, fresh-faced teacher. He was even as-signed his own class: 4-217. Unbeknownst to him, 4-217 was the designated “dumping ground” for all fourth-grade problem cases, and his students would prove to be more challenging than he could have ever anticipated.
Intent on being a caring, dedicated teacher but confronted with unruly children, absent parents, and a failing administration, Dan was pushed to the limit time and again: he found himself screaming with rage, punching his fist through a blackboard out of sheer frustration, often just wanting to give up and walk away. Yet, in this seeming chaos, he slowly learned—from the more seasoned teachers at the school and from his own mistakes—how to discipline, teach, and make a difference. The Great Expectations School is the touching story of Class 4-217 and their teacher, Mr. Brown. But more than that, it is the revealing story of a broken educational system and all those struggling within and fighting against it.
Intent on being a caring, dedicated teacher but confronted with unruly children, absent parents, and a failing administration, Dan was pushed to the limit time and again: he found himself screaming with rage, punching his fist through a blackboard out of sheer frustration, often just wanting to give up and walk away. Yet, in this seeming chaos, he slowly learned—from the more seasoned teachers at the school and from his own mistakes—how to discipline, teach, and make a difference. The Great Expectations School is the touching story of Class 4-217 and their teacher, Mr. Brown. But more than that, it is the revealing story of a broken educational system and all those struggling within and fighting against it.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
19 people are currently reading
608 people want to read
About the author
Dan Brown
34 books5 followersLibrarian Note: This profile contains more than one author. Those listed below have multiple books listed on GoodReads.
Dan Brown (4 spaces): Bestselling author of the Robert Langdon series
Dan Brown (2^): British photographer who chronicles the city of Bath
Dan Brown (3^): comic book artist & illustrator in general; see also Daniel Brown (13^)
Dan Brown (4 spaces): Bestselling author of the Robert Langdon series
Dan Brown (2^): British photographer who chronicles the city of Bath
Dan Brown (3^): comic book artist & illustrator in general; see also Daniel Brown (13^)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
April 9, 2009
I'm surprised at all the great reviews this book has gotten. It made me soooo angry! I think the epilogue was the absolute worst. Maybe I wouldn't have hated it so much if the plight of the fourth-graders wasn't contrasted with the author's: 1) quitting after one tough year, 2) starting his Very Important Book on vacation on the Croatian Riviera, 3) starting a prestigious master's program at Columbia, 4) perfect, romantic proposal, 5) new job at a snooty Upper West Side private school where they charge $27k for tuition and the 4th graders ask how to spell "Tuscany" while writing about their summer vacations.
Teach For America, NY Teaching Fellows, and all the other related programs are seriously flawed, as is the public school system. This is obvious. Basically, privileged college grads with guilt get thrown into a situation where they are destined to fail. After they fail, they spend some time reflecting on the important lessons they learned while a new crop of college grads enters the fray. The majority of these teaching fellows are so disgusted by their experience that they never return to teaching. The ones who do stick with it often move on to swanky private schools where the kids are privileged and cooperative. And, in the background, the poor kids of the inner city continue to struggle. New teachers every year who abandon them just as they develop a bond. No continuity. No resources. No light at the end of the tunnel.
Teach For America, NY Teaching Fellows, and all the other related programs are seriously flawed, as is the public school system. This is obvious. Basically, privileged college grads with guilt get thrown into a situation where they are destined to fail. After they fail, they spend some time reflecting on the important lessons they learned while a new crop of college grads enters the fray. The majority of these teaching fellows are so disgusted by their experience that they never return to teaching. The ones who do stick with it often move on to swanky private schools where the kids are privileged and cooperative. And, in the background, the poor kids of the inner city continue to struggle. New teachers every year who abandon them just as they develop a bond. No continuity. No resources. No light at the end of the tunnel.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 16, 2009
This is a memoir of a guy who graduated from NYU's film school, and then signed up to be a Teaching Fellow in the NYC public schools. It's a program kind of like Teach for America, in which uncertified teachers can help fill the shortages in hard-to-staff schools. He winds up at what he calls the poorest classroom in the poorest school in the poorest district in America.
I enjoyed the writing; he's very honest about the incredible challenges of the job, as well as the rewards. Sadly, the rewards don't seem to compensate for the hardships, and he leaves the school after just a year, to go teach at an expensive private school. I don't blame him; his portrayal of the stubbornly idiotic administration reminds me of Dilbert and his pointy-haired boss - just so much counter-productive stupidity; what an agonizingly frustrating situation. This passionate, enthusiastic, smart, young teacher spent all year banging his head against the wall (and occasionally his fist - which went right through the blackboard one day. Whoops.) The book made me despair for the kids trapped in these types of schools. What can we do?
We need more good quality teachers, but how do we attract (and retain) them to the public schools, especially to those schools in greatest need? The lack of respect and support, the inordinate focus on standardized testing, the lack of autonomy to formulate the best learning experiences they can for your students, the red-tape, the long hours, the low pay, the feeling that you're trying to bail out a sinking ship with a teaspoon - I think these are all pretty big deterrents. I wish I had some big-picture solutions.
I don't know a lot about it, but I think that Geoffrey Canada, of the Harlem Children's Zone, is trying to solve these problems in a big, comprehensive way. His approach is not just to reform the school, but the entire community. He starts with parenting classes for parents of newborns, runs a charter school for K-8 students, and continues providing support services all the way through college. He recognizes that the entire culture needs to change, in order for these kids to succeed. That's a pretty daunting task, but it sounds like he's had some success. (None of this is covered in the book; just something I thought that was relevant to the topic).
I enjoyed the writing; he's very honest about the incredible challenges of the job, as well as the rewards. Sadly, the rewards don't seem to compensate for the hardships, and he leaves the school after just a year, to go teach at an expensive private school. I don't blame him; his portrayal of the stubbornly idiotic administration reminds me of Dilbert and his pointy-haired boss - just so much counter-productive stupidity; what an agonizingly frustrating situation. This passionate, enthusiastic, smart, young teacher spent all year banging his head against the wall (and occasionally his fist - which went right through the blackboard one day. Whoops.) The book made me despair for the kids trapped in these types of schools. What can we do?
We need more good quality teachers, but how do we attract (and retain) them to the public schools, especially to those schools in greatest need? The lack of respect and support, the inordinate focus on standardized testing, the lack of autonomy to formulate the best learning experiences they can for your students, the red-tape, the long hours, the low pay, the feeling that you're trying to bail out a sinking ship with a teaspoon - I think these are all pretty big deterrents. I wish I had some big-picture solutions.
I don't know a lot about it, but I think that Geoffrey Canada, of the Harlem Children's Zone, is trying to solve these problems in a big, comprehensive way. His approach is not just to reform the school, but the entire community. He starts with parenting classes for parents of newborns, runs a charter school for K-8 students, and continues providing support services all the way through college. He recognizes that the entire culture needs to change, in order for these kids to succeed. That's a pretty daunting task, but it sounds like he's had some success. (None of this is covered in the book; just something I thought that was relevant to the topic).
January 12, 2013
Great book. I have a real hatred for a few of those higher UPS now, I'll admit. Mr Brown sounds a lot like my fifth grade teacher, but if course our class was a private school full of suburb kids; not a lot of misbehaviors there. Go Mr Brown!
May 16, 2016
But for the minor fact that Brown wasn't actually working through Teach for America, this is effectively a Teach for America memoir: kid just out of university whose qualifications boil down to 'degree and willingness' gets a job teaching underprivileged, inner-city kids. They learn something, and so does he.
As far as things go, Brown seems to have made an okay run at it, with a relatively high pass rate for his class on standardised tests; moreover, he's stayed in the education world, which is not always the case for TfA (etc.) teachers. There's some interesting stuff here, too; the further along in the year Brown gets, the more confident and competent he is in his class. Yet one willing teacher who's learning to muddle along isn't really enough, is it? Brown says it himself more than once: many of the kids in his class have the brains to be successful, but the odds are stacked deep against them; kids are more likely to do well in school if, for example, their parents read to them at home, and so many of these kids have parents who can't or don't do that. At nine or ten years old, poverty is making a mark on these kids that they can't yet understand.
The school stands in the center of the Fordham neighborhood in New York's 16th congressional district, which the 2000 Census reported to have a median household income of $19,311, ranking 436th out of 436 districts in the fifty states. And P.S. 85's district was deep in last place. Residents of the districts in 434th and 435th place respectively earn on average over $6,300 (32,6 percent more) and $2,600) (13.4 percent more) over the average 16th district resident. Also, those two districts are in West Virginia and Kentucky, where the cost of living is lower than in New York City. The P.S. 85 community lives in the very bottom of the economic barrel in America. (20–21)
An interesting read but not one that stands out all that much from other memoirs I've read on the topic (mostly before I joined GR). I do wonder how his experience might have been different if he'd taken the job originally offered to him—teaching batches of students rather than a permanent class—and whether he might have had a better relationship with the administrators as a result. Hard to say. I'm also interested in what he has to say about corporal punishment: Corporal punishment, as I understood it, encompassed touching a child, forcing one to stand, making a student face the corner, and dishing out punitive assignments of no academic value (48). I didn't realise that things like 'punitive assignments' (e.g., copying out pages of the dictionary) fell under that category. What exactly are teachers meant to do as punishment? I'm not advocating for a return of in-school whippings, but I'm a little perplexed.
(As an aside: my mother tells me that when I was maybe seven or eight, I forgot my homework one day and called home in 'floods of tears' to ask her to bring it in for me. She says—I don't remember any of this—that the teacher, a substitute, gave me a lecture on responsibility and only reluctantly let me call home. This story tends to make me rather indignant (I was seven or eight, and already in tears—wasn't it clear that I felt terrible enough already?), but reading Brown's story I had a lapse of indignation, replaced by sympathy. Surely the teacher was tired of students not having their homework. But then, again, indignation: could he or she really not tell the difference between a child who routinely missed homework and a chronically anxious, desperate-to-please-teacher kid who was distraught at having left the (completed!) homework at home?*)
*I have a strong suspicion that my indignation here is outsize and perhaps misplaced, but there you go.
As far as things go, Brown seems to have made an okay run at it, with a relatively high pass rate for his class on standardised tests; moreover, he's stayed in the education world, which is not always the case for TfA (etc.) teachers. There's some interesting stuff here, too; the further along in the year Brown gets, the more confident and competent he is in his class. Yet one willing teacher who's learning to muddle along isn't really enough, is it? Brown says it himself more than once: many of the kids in his class have the brains to be successful, but the odds are stacked deep against them; kids are more likely to do well in school if, for example, their parents read to them at home, and so many of these kids have parents who can't or don't do that. At nine or ten years old, poverty is making a mark on these kids that they can't yet understand.
The school stands in the center of the Fordham neighborhood in New York's 16th congressional district, which the 2000 Census reported to have a median household income of $19,311, ranking 436th out of 436 districts in the fifty states. And P.S. 85's district was deep in last place. Residents of the districts in 434th and 435th place respectively earn on average over $6,300 (32,6 percent more) and $2,600) (13.4 percent more) over the average 16th district resident. Also, those two districts are in West Virginia and Kentucky, where the cost of living is lower than in New York City. The P.S. 85 community lives in the very bottom of the economic barrel in America. (20–21)
An interesting read but not one that stands out all that much from other memoirs I've read on the topic (mostly before I joined GR). I do wonder how his experience might have been different if he'd taken the job originally offered to him—teaching batches of students rather than a permanent class—and whether he might have had a better relationship with the administrators as a result. Hard to say. I'm also interested in what he has to say about corporal punishment: Corporal punishment, as I understood it, encompassed touching a child, forcing one to stand, making a student face the corner, and dishing out punitive assignments of no academic value (48). I didn't realise that things like 'punitive assignments' (e.g., copying out pages of the dictionary) fell under that category. What exactly are teachers meant to do as punishment? I'm not advocating for a return of in-school whippings, but I'm a little perplexed.
(As an aside: my mother tells me that when I was maybe seven or eight, I forgot my homework one day and called home in 'floods of tears' to ask her to bring it in for me. She says—I don't remember any of this—that the teacher, a substitute, gave me a lecture on responsibility and only reluctantly let me call home. This story tends to make me rather indignant (I was seven or eight, and already in tears—wasn't it clear that I felt terrible enough already?), but reading Brown's story I had a lapse of indignation, replaced by sympathy. Surely the teacher was tired of students not having their homework. But then, again, indignation: could he or she really not tell the difference between a child who routinely missed homework and a chronically anxious, desperate-to-please-teacher kid who was distraught at having left the (completed!) homework at home?*)
*I have a strong suspicion that my indignation here is outsize and perhaps misplaced, but there you go.
April 14, 2009
After Dan Brown graduated from NYU’s film school in 2003, he decided to apply to become New York City Teaching Fellow. The Teaching Fellow program was designed after Teach For America and was started to help cope with the chronic teacher shortage in the toughest schools in the city. After some summer training, Dan was assigned to teach fourth grade at P. S. 85 , which had a sign over it’s door proclaiming it to be “The Great Expectations School.” This school is located in the poorest Congressional district in the United States. Equipped with a quick wit and love of children, Dan went into the job full of hope and enthusiasm. He ended up with lots of frustration because the administration was not supportive and parents were not involved. His classroom was made up of several bright, eager learners, plus students with problems such as:
* failing three times
* couldn’t read their own name
* being raised by grandparents who couldn’t speak English
* being locked in a refrigerator for punishment
* having a twin who had a breakdown because he was molested by their 20 year old brother
* having parents who are drug users
* only attending school 1 or 2 days a week
The beginning of the school year was very difficult and when it began to affect Dan’s health, his parents urged him to quit. He stuck it out even though must of the students came to class unprepared - without needed supplies or homework - and ended up having some of the highest test scores in the school. After his year at P. S. 85, Dan taught at an exclusive prep school located in another part of the city and the contrasts between the two are striking.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Great Expectations School by Dan Brown. His compassion and enthusiasm are so apparent. He is just the type of teacher everyone hopes their child has. This book gave me a clearer understanding of the problems schools face today and why governmental mandates aren’t working. The stories of some of these children just broke my heart. I also found the school’s politics and the governmental regulations frustrating. This is a book that parents and educators will want to read.
* failing three times
* couldn’t read their own name
* being raised by grandparents who couldn’t speak English
* being locked in a refrigerator for punishment
* having a twin who had a breakdown because he was molested by their 20 year old brother
* having parents who are drug users
* only attending school 1 or 2 days a week
The beginning of the school year was very difficult and when it began to affect Dan’s health, his parents urged him to quit. He stuck it out even though must of the students came to class unprepared - without needed supplies or homework - and ended up having some of the highest test scores in the school. After his year at P. S. 85, Dan taught at an exclusive prep school located in another part of the city and the contrasts between the two are striking.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Great Expectations School by Dan Brown. His compassion and enthusiasm are so apparent. He is just the type of teacher everyone hopes their child has. This book gave me a clearer understanding of the problems schools face today and why governmental mandates aren’t working. The stories of some of these children just broke my heart. I also found the school’s politics and the governmental regulations frustrating. This is a book that parents and educators will want to read.
September 26, 2014
I picked up this memoir with some reluctance, since I expected it to be a bit rah-rah-rah and overly sentimental about the life-changing experience of teaching in one of NYC's worst schools.
I was pleasantly surprised by the raw honesty in this book. Brown puts the curriculum, the administration, standardized tests, poverty culture, and his own behavior under a close lens, and none are spared. His experiences highlight the problems with programs like Teach For America (or Teach For A Day, as many teachers call it) that throw rookies into tough classrooms with little or no training. It's terrible for the students, who are, in political terms, throw aways since they tend to come from marginalized populations. It's also traumatic for the teachers, and contributes significantly to high turnover rates in the teaching profession.
Brown also doesn't downplay the moments of joy he finds in the classroom, and what keeps him coming back for more. This book is not a steady stream of negativity, as some reviews make it sound. Rather, it felt very balanced to me.
What made this a 4-star rather than a 5-star review is that I feel like Brown doesn't fully acknowledge the socio/economic class divide that separates his later teaching experiences at private/charter schools from his earliest experiences in rough-and-tumble public school. To me, the real question is how do we provide rich classroom experiences, excellent teachers, small class sizes, etc for ALL children, not those with the money to pay for private education or the luck to end up via lottery into an excellent but unsustainable charter school.
I was pleasantly surprised by the raw honesty in this book. Brown puts the curriculum, the administration, standardized tests, poverty culture, and his own behavior under a close lens, and none are spared. His experiences highlight the problems with programs like Teach For America (or Teach For A Day, as many teachers call it) that throw rookies into tough classrooms with little or no training. It's terrible for the students, who are, in political terms, throw aways since they tend to come from marginalized populations. It's also traumatic for the teachers, and contributes significantly to high turnover rates in the teaching profession.
Brown also doesn't downplay the moments of joy he finds in the classroom, and what keeps him coming back for more. This book is not a steady stream of negativity, as some reviews make it sound. Rather, it felt very balanced to me.
What made this a 4-star rather than a 5-star review is that I feel like Brown doesn't fully acknowledge the socio/economic class divide that separates his later teaching experiences at private/charter schools from his earliest experiences in rough-and-tumble public school. To me, the real question is how do we provide rich classroom experiences, excellent teachers, small class sizes, etc for ALL children, not those with the money to pay for private education or the luck to end up via lottery into an excellent but unsustainable charter school.
December 14, 2015
fantastic book. very insightful for anyone going into teaching or going into inner city teaching.
December 8, 2019
This book grabbed me from the natural writing. And as a career changing teacher, doing my US certification (teach-now) I was so happy to hear a real experience. Most of the training material are heavily edited, unrealistic advertisements, never factoring in crazy, unpredictable real life.
I’ve read low reviews of this book learned from them too. Is Dan from a very privileged background? Probably. Does he quit after one year? Yup. But he wasn’t a good fit and not because he wasn’t a great teacher. I think he was. He just didn’t conform to a broken system. Don’t stay in an abusive relationship (I.e. administration + employees). Use your talents as beat you can, but yes, I know those students will continue to experience more adults abandoning them.
I’m in China teaching, so very little of this applies directly, but I’m an American and this really tore at my conscious. I wonder if he was really so reserved in his meetings with admin (just taking such cold hearted, close minded critique).
I think he should have left. But glad he stayed one year and wrote about it. Dan is a funny, warm hearted, charismatic person.
Where’s your movie about it?
I’ve read low reviews of this book learned from them too. Is Dan from a very privileged background? Probably. Does he quit after one year? Yup. But he wasn’t a good fit and not because he wasn’t a great teacher. I think he was. He just didn’t conform to a broken system. Don’t stay in an abusive relationship (I.e. administration + employees). Use your talents as beat you can, but yes, I know those students will continue to experience more adults abandoning them.
I’m in China teaching, so very little of this applies directly, but I’m an American and this really tore at my conscious. I wonder if he was really so reserved in his meetings with admin (just taking such cold hearted, close minded critique).
I think he should have left. But glad he stayed one year and wrote about it. Dan is a funny, warm hearted, charismatic person.
Where’s your movie about it?
December 27, 2025
This book is a memoir by Dan Brown (NOT the same author who wrote The DaVinci Code), who wrote about his first year teaching in the Bronx. Brown attended NYU and was recruited by the NYC Teaching Fellows to teach in a high needs school upon graduation. He was placed at PS 85 and assigned a 4th grade class that he later learned was the dumping ground for all of students who struggled with severe home issues and behavioral challenges. He had absolutely no support from administration. In fact, all they did was complain about his bulletin boards and lack of classroom management, but no one stepped up to help him. He left the school after one year to reconsider his teaching career. What did NYCPSD do? They sent him a bill, claiming they over paid him! Fortunately, Brown decided to return to college and get his teaching credential to become a high school English teacher. I wish Dan Brown would write a second book, a book that would help support new teachers. I'm sure has some hard-won advice to offer that I would love to read, even though this is my 20th year teaching. I would love to hear what he has learned.
September 24, 2025
I read this book by mistake. I purchased it thinking it was written by Dan Brown, the author of the Robert Langdon series who also happens to be an educator given the influence of his father who was also a teacher. However, the cadence of the book was not in the famous Dan Brown's page turning style. Once I heard the background of the teacher in this book differed from the Dan Brown from NH, I questioned the author. Sure enough. It's not the same author yet AUDIBLE ERRONEOUSLY LINKS THIS BOOK TO DA VINCI CODE DAN BROWN SO I THOUGHT I WAS BUYING FROM THE SAME AUTHOR. WARNING: DON'T BE DECEIVED BY AMAZON'S MISREPRESENTATION OF THIS AUTHOR!
January 11, 2023
An honest account of Dan Brown’s first year teaching, in PS 85 in the Bronx. The author was brutally honest about the struggles his kids faced, the incompetent administration at his school, and how it impacted him and his health.
I think I would’ve appreciated it more if he didn’t come across quite so uppity. He took 11 days off to attend the Cannes Festival, vacationed in Croatia… need I go on?
An important read but the author has some humbling to do.
I think I would’ve appreciated it more if he didn’t come across quite so uppity. He took 11 days off to attend the Cannes Festival, vacationed in Croatia… need I go on?
An important read but the author has some humbling to do.
December 5, 2021
I would think every teacher will find strength in this book. Whether a rookie or seasoned teacher, we share these moments. His eloquent and truthful writing validates your darkest moments and smallest victories. From a seasoned teacher-teacher credentialing program through finally retired after two jobs past retirement- 32 years.
April 25, 2024
I taught my first year in an Inner city school. It was such an amazing year - lots of learning by me, lots of interesting students from the inner city, lots of interesting antidotes about my principal, --old old school - so fun. This brought it all back to me.
May 5, 2019
Bit archaic English.
September 7, 2010
Being a teacher myself, I didn't know what to expect when I picked up this book. Would I find myself commiserating with Brown (I also teach at a low-income school among many at-risk student) or would I judge his methods? Ultimately, I experienced a bit of both reactions.
I know firsthand how difficult it can be to teach, especially when dealing with students who have not received the support and educational infrastructure they need to truly be successful. My students are teenagers - I can't imagine seeing that kind of hopelessness in an elementary school student. Over and over again as I read I appreciated Brown's obvious caring for his students, as well as his ambition to truly make a difference in their education. I often didn't agree with his behavior; he shouted entirely too much and often scolded his students with higher-level concepts that they were bound to misunderstand. But I get it. And in the end, even though I often hate it when teachers "move on" from teaching at-risk kids (after writing best-selling books about them, of course) because it's too much work, I understood and empathized in Brown's case - mostly because I suspect his decision had far more to do with a lame-duck administration than the students themselves.
I know firsthand how difficult it can be to teach, especially when dealing with students who have not received the support and educational infrastructure they need to truly be successful. My students are teenagers - I can't imagine seeing that kind of hopelessness in an elementary school student. Over and over again as I read I appreciated Brown's obvious caring for his students, as well as his ambition to truly make a difference in their education. I often didn't agree with his behavior; he shouted entirely too much and often scolded his students with higher-level concepts that they were bound to misunderstand. But I get it. And in the end, even though I often hate it when teachers "move on" from teaching at-risk kids (after writing best-selling books about them, of course) because it's too much work, I understood and empathized in Brown's case - mostly because I suspect his decision had far more to do with a lame-duck administration than the students themselves.
January 7, 2008
I really enjoyed this book. This is the memoir of a brand new rookie teacher fresh from college and his first year in an inner city school in the Bronx PS #85. I have always had much respect for the job that teachers do and the responsibility that they have, this book took it up another notch. The author Dan Brown is able to convey the best and worst of what is like to be a new teacher in frankly some of the worst teaching circumstances I could imagine. Many times during the telling of his tale I would laugh out loud at the way he could find humor in his sometimes dismal situation, and want to cry for some of the kids that no matter what he did life circumstances would keep them from being successful. I think the best thing about the book was that even though this book is sometimes about how hard it can be to be a teacher it left me feeling good knowing that there are teachers out there like him. I am curious to hear what any of you fellow readers who are teachers or have been teachers think of the book. tena
February 11, 2017
Well written, but a very sad commentary on society and bureaucracy.
October 15, 2009
This wonderfully written memoir about Dan Brown's year teaching in the public school system in New York city is a must read for people considering becoming a teacher, for people who are already teachers and for any parents of school aged children or people interested in our educational system... that should be a very large group.
Dan's writing was engaging as he spoke with brutal honesty about the huge obstacles he was up against, both put there for him... and by him. It was obviously a very tough year, and while there were some successes, I was fascinated by how messed up the system is. While NYC has one of the largest school systems in the country, I can imagine that this lunacy goes on all over the place.
However messed up and futile this system seems, Dan still manages to leave us with hope. It was a very interesting read and I would recommend it to any, and everyone.
Dan's writing was engaging as he spoke with brutal honesty about the huge obstacles he was up against, both put there for him... and by him. It was obviously a very tough year, and while there were some successes, I was fascinated by how messed up the system is. While NYC has one of the largest school systems in the country, I can imagine that this lunacy goes on all over the place.
However messed up and futile this system seems, Dan still manages to leave us with hope. It was a very interesting read and I would recommend it to any, and everyone.
October 28, 2008
Having been a teacher in special education, Title I( had various names for this tutoring program) these classes topped any I ever encountered. The " add-misery-ation" only made everything worse. Were these people a product of such a school?
I can only hope Bloomburg's intervention has helped.
More teachers of Mr. Brown's caliber are greatly needed in all schools.
This brought back so many memories of incidents in my own career: parents, students, principals, dept. heads, superintendents, colleagues - and not all are good. Little wonder education is in trouble. I also know Home-schooling is Not the answer for many... Charter schools are subject to those who provide the money and thus the policies...
I can only hope Bloomburg's intervention has helped.
More teachers of Mr. Brown's caliber are greatly needed in all schools.
This brought back so many memories of incidents in my own career: parents, students, principals, dept. heads, superintendents, colleagues - and not all are good. Little wonder education is in trouble. I also know Home-schooling is Not the answer for many... Charter schools are subject to those who provide the money and thus the policies...
August 14, 2008
this book started off with a bang, very much like the Kozol books I hve read in the past about poverty, siparity in education and circumstances that a white bread girl like me never would have to think about, but I was sorely disappointed at the end
*SPOILER ALERT*
I was diappointed that it was solely a journal, not a launching point for sweeping change and permanent fixes. While I don't blame him under the circumstances, he still quit, left, and ended up in a swank school. this is NOT the RON CLARK story I thought it was, and Matthew Perry DID NOT ever play him in a movie. I could not have lasted the year, but was sad that it was just a year...
*SPOILER ALERT*
I was diappointed that it was solely a journal, not a launching point for sweeping change and permanent fixes. While I don't blame him under the circumstances, he still quit, left, and ended up in a swank school. this is NOT the RON CLARK story I thought it was, and Matthew Perry DID NOT ever play him in a movie. I could not have lasted the year, but was sad that it was just a year...
November 27, 2010
It was ok. I was really excited to read a memoir about a school in the Bronx but something was lacking for me. I almost felt like I wanted to feel MORE while reading it, that I didn't feel like I could really get a glimpse of the hardships of these children. I hope I'm not desensitized... I also wasn't impressed with Dan Brown's comments about No Child Left Behind in the last few pages. I'm just tired of hearing about how standardized tests are bad and progression is good... because our students (mine included) are still failing. We need better answers and I would hope that one like Dan Brown could have given a better suggestion so that people could get more excited about it.
August 24, 2007
I bought the book because Dan was a great classmate, and I finished it within hours because he's a ridiculously talented writer. The book is brave and gloriously honest. No glib prattle about "earning their respect," no sappy pseudo-inspirational horseshit. Just a frank, touching, and often funny record of what it was like to be a 22-year-old ex-film student who finds himself teaching fourth grade at an elementary school in the poorest neighborhood in America. Read it if you want to teach. Period.
June 20, 2008
A thoroughly depressing look at the NYC public school system. Do you think the administration is really as horrendous as depicted?? Very very sad. I do give the author credit for not going for the cheery happy ending, much as part of me wished for it. But I also wish this book had been better edited; so many tangents just kind of got thrown in out of nowhere and were never brought up again, and I couldn't keep the characters straight because he didn't refer to them by first or last name consistently.
December 31, 2008
Reading this book just made me sad and tired all over. I am glad I did not become a teacher. I remember my parents telling me some of these kinds of things from when they were teachers, and it's just horrible. Maybe I just have really high expectations of what a teacher should be, but the author really didn't seem at all ready to handle a classroom of students. Too much yelling and violence, and that's just the things happening inside the classroom. I think everyone can relate to the horrible administrators; I got flashbacks to my worst job ever.
April 9, 2011
This is precisely the kind of book that annoys me for so many reasons..Why in this country do we not treat teachers as professionals? Would we let a nurse, a lawyer, a doctor take responsibility for another person without sufficient training.
1. Why do we throw unprepared/untrained people into a classroom and expect them to be successful?
2. Don't even get me started on the way this book makes administration look?
3. Why do we expect schools to even out social disadvantages?
4. Why do we pay people to write books about this crap?
1. Why do we throw unprepared/untrained people into a classroom and expect them to be successful?
2. Don't even get me started on the way this book makes administration look?
3. Why do we expect schools to even out social disadvantages?
4. Why do we pay people to write books about this crap?
August 1, 2007
(Obviously, I'm biased.) For teachers and people everywhere, this book opens a window on a world completely unknown to 95% of the country. As a teacher you will recognize yourself and your students on every page. As a person you can't stop the range of emotions you feel for every child and teacher in the book.
Now available on Amazon.com.
First book signing - August 16th at the Corner Bookstore.
Now available on Amazon.com.
First book signing - August 16th at the Corner Bookstore.
January 3, 2008
I had the chance to meet Dan when the UFT held a reading and signing for new teachers. I'm a second year teaching fellow, and I swear so much of what he writes of (the bureaucracy of bulletin boards in particular) could be my story. If you want a true picture of what life is really like for the novice teacher working in inner-city schools as opposed to the bright shiny versio Hollywood always shows us read this book. It is fantastic!!
June 30, 2008
I liked it but I didn't love it. It's what you would expect. Dan Brown tells you about his year as a rookie in a inner-city school. It's sad, but it's what you, well, at least what I, would expect from a school in the Bronx. I certainly respect people who at least try and hack it out in these challenging schools. Just reiterated what I already knew- public schools need help- especially ones in the Bronx and places alike.
December 7, 2008
I recommend this book to anyone considering the transition to urban education. Dan's desire to educate urban kids (he has transitioned from 4th grade to high school) is apparent as is his love for his studnets. There is no progress without a struggle. Everyday Dan models behavior of constant improvement--a skill we should all pursue so doggedly. I am proud to have Dan as a colleague, and am glad I finally read his book.
February 16, 2010
Although an interesting read, I don't know how much we can learn from another memoir about overtaxed and underprepared rookie teachers put into untenable situations. Nothing chases young, idealistic teachers away more quickly than thrusting them into a situation they cannot solve without adequate support. Do our most impoverished schools...and some of our most idealistic young teachers...have a chance when these two worlds collide?
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