The Battle for Room 314: My Year of Hope and Despair in a New York City High School

by Ed Boland

In a fit of idealism, Ed Boland left a twenty-year career as a non-profit executive to teach in a tough New York City public high school. But his hopes quickly collided headlong with the appalling reality of his students' lives and a hobbled education system unable to help them: Freddy runs a drug ring for his incarcerated brother; Nee-cole is homeschooled on the subway by her brilliant homeless mother; and Byron's Ivy League dream is dashed because he is undocumented.

In the end, Boland isn't hoisted on his students' shoulders and no one passes AP anything. This is no urban fairy tale of at-risk kids saved by a Hollywood hero, but a searing indictment of schools that claim to be progressive but still fail their students. Told with compassion, humor, and a keen eye, Boland's story is sure to ignite debate about the future of American education and attempts to reform it.

Genres: Nonfiction, Education, Memoir, Adult, Biography Memoir, Teaching, Biography

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2015

Reviews

[Diane Yannick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This author earned my respect for writing his memoir--one without the ending he yearned for. Ed Boland was a second career teacher in a lower Manhattan progressive school for one year. His ideals collided with the reality of ninth graders who had more interest in disrupting his lessons than learning. Their lack of respect for him was never-ending and forced him to the boiling point more than once.

I think the kids' behavior had little to do with the fact that their inexperienced teacher was a gay white man and much to with the poverty of their families---both financially and experientially. It also was the result of an ineffective administration that is described by one student as "three hundred strikes and your (sic) out." Mr. Boland saw one of his students, who was being punished for egregious behavior, in the principal's office lying on a couch, listening to his iPod, eating candy. I did feel that mister (as the kids called him) should shoulder a chunk of the "blame". As a first year teacher he didn't have enough tools in his box and needed regular meetings with his selected mentors rather than just crisis meetings. He wasn't consistent about which discipline battles to fight. He also handed out far too many worksheets which 90% of the kids refused to do or did very poorly.

His partner Sam seemed like a huge asset as Ed struggled to come up with motivating lesson plans. He was always there to celebrate small student victories with Ed. As a reader, I was celebrating too. His salary was a huge a financial stressor on their lifestyle as Ed had worked for a prestigious educational non- profit both before and after his year of teaching.

This author's description of his first hand experiences were clearly recounted and thought-provoking. HOWEVER, the ending solutions that he listed should not be part of this book. Stupid shit Iike blaming Obama and putting an end to poverty, like that's easy. He wrote a humble memoir about his lack of success turning young lives around and then he arrogantly acts like he has all the solutions. This was a major disconnect for me. He could have stuck with his updates about the kids who were in his class for that one year. My rating was based on his memoir, not that inexcusable ending.

I plan to have my book club read this memoir in 2017 as I think it has a lot of good meat for discussion. I will try to approach the discussion with an open mind, even about the ending.

[Mg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just heartwrenching. I can feel your despair, Mr. Boland. I too was a NYC teacher who felt the same despair at the lack of respect I got since Day 1. Somehow I managed to survive 8 years of hell. This is the book I could never bring myself to write because I too wanted the success story you desired as well. Like you I had a middle-class upbringing and I so wanted to help students learn. Unlike you though, I am Puerto Rican but I didn't grow up in the kind of neighborhoods my students grew up in. I can say that being Puerto Rican just like them didn't help me win the respect of my most disruptive students.

I see some reviewers have said the author belittled some students and read with that in my mind looking for confirmation of this. I saw instances where the author lost his cool and I as a teacher recalled some things I myself said out of anger. None but a teacher can understand how these kids can push anyone's buttons. I don't think this author was necessarily proud of those instances and neither was I when they happened to me.

It's a sobering book for anyone who wants to enter the teaching profession. I myself had no clue public schools were that bad when I was getting my Master's degree as a Reading Specialist at Teachers College, Columbia University. I was really naive. Too bad I didn't come across this book before I decided on teaching as a profession.

One part of the book particularly resonated with me is that time that the author asks himself while observing how well his students pay attention to a elder Jewish lady. He took them to a synagogue where they sat quietly listening to her for about 30 minutes. He wondered how she was able to do that. I know that feeling well when I compared myself to other teachers who seem to have control over their students. This reflection made me feel ten times worse than I already felt. I had always been successful at my studies with hard work but try as hard as I could, I couldn't seem to master this.

The book is not in the least depressing. It manages to stay upbeat despite his not continuing to teach. There are some funny moments and some moments when he seems to make a dent in their lives. I also had plenty of those moments and I guess they helped me to continue for 8 years.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am giving this book three stars for entertainment value, but its author is just another disingenuous lefty who keeps trying to force a square peg in to a round hole. He misquotes statistics to suit his purposes, can't see his own hypocrisy and offers the same old failed ideas-bussing black kids into white schools and throwing more money at failing student bodies. He ought to do a study on wealthy Monmouth county, NJ, where the white schools spend $13,000 per year per student and have their tax money diverted to 97% black Asbury Park, where the district spends $53,000 per year per child, giving all kids laptops and IPADs and yet they average a ten percent pass rate. It disproves his solutions right there.

The problem with lefties is that their policies are bad for everyone, as you can see from the author's extensive explanation on how Ivy League schools admit prospective students and the frightening Project Advance, which grooms average minority students to take those places. So white males can't get in to the Ivy Leagues anymore unless they are connected and yet they can't apply to low end programs like county vocational schools, because that financial aid is also earmarked for women and minorities.

And yet our author still isn't satisfied. He really believes that his sixteen year old students who can't read or write and most likely have IQs hovering in the 70s could do more if we just throw more money at them. It is dishonest and frankly, it is cruel. It is cruel to try to force people to be something they can't. Admitting that would be the first step to helping these kids, not forcing these lefty fantasies on them. In NC, they have an abundance of these kids. When they IQ test them and see how low their mental capabilities are, they put them in a certificate track program and help them into jobs and careers they can handle. Interestingly enough, many more of those kids graduate and don't end up in prison. NYC could learn a lot from NC.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me start by telling you the ending....

*****SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!*****

...he quits.

Yes, he gives it a year, one year, and he tosses in the towel.

But I will tell you that after I read chapter one I doubted he'd make it through the first semester. Those kids are difficult. Exhausting. (Almost?) impossible.

This book just left me with lots of questions for the Powers That Be. What could have been done to keep this teacher in the classroom? What support did he need that he didn't get? Is this what goes on in lots of schools? Should we just give up on some schools? Are there teachers who are doing well in schools like these?

The author, in the final chapter, runs across a fellow who has been given an exceptional education and now has opportunities to either go into a lucrative career or teaching. The author writes up a wonderful letter to this fellow, sharing thoughts about ways his teaching could have been better. It's quite wise for a man who gave it a year in the trenches.

It's a downer, but it's a story you need to hear, whether you are a teacher in a similar situation or just a member of our American society. It's a story you need to hear and think about. We have to do better. We just do.

[Ronald · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was looking forward to this book because I enjoy books of cultural settings. I am also interested in educational settings. However, this book was a whiney, self-indulgent, self-pitying read. How anyone, who is emotionally dysfunctional think he could help a class room full of kids from totally dysfunctional families and neighborhoods. The author thinks that because he was functional in an arrogant protective bubble life he would certainly be able to help the poor getto kids. Don't bother reading it, I took one for the team on this one.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not get much out of this, but there are probably lots of readers who have never been to a failing school and don't know about urban poverty in America; if so, then this might be a good intro. It's a relatively light memoir about a guy who believes that any educated person can just go be a teacher and turn around the lives of poor high school kids. Lots of people believe that because of Hollywood movies and related propaganda. By the end of the book, the author gets why that was silly.

He could have saved himself a lot of trouble by doing some research first on what actually works to improve urban school districts.

[Rachel B · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was hoping this book would be more student-centered, but Boland focuses primarily on himself. While I suppose most memoirs are, after all, for that purpose, I still think he could have done so much more with the stories of the kids.

His tone was very whiny, and it seemed he went into this one year of teaching solely to try and land a book deal. He had a savior complex (teachers with this complex will never likely do much good for their students), and while he admits it, he also never seemed to change it! It seems he quit after a year of teaching to go back to his job working with inner-city kids who are "easier" to "save." (He helps "exceptional" kids from the inner-city get into Ivy League schools. And yet, perhaps if he had stayed, he would have learned a thing or two about teaching and could have made an actual difference in the lives of all his students, not just the ones who are exceptionally brilliant or who have dramatically better home lives.

I feel it's worth mentioning that Boland only seems to recognize one path to success - those Ivy League schools he loves so much. As another reviewer has already pointed out, graduating from a trade school, attending a less-prestigious college, or even "just" getting and keeping a job can all be ways of achieving success.

In addition, the book was written very unprofessionally. There is a ton of profanity and vulgar, sexual language in this book - and no, it's not all from the students in his class!

I normally like to include a quote or two in my reviews, but there is literally nothing worth quoting here.

[Pete Wood · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short and quick read that seemed compulsory given my current change in vocation. In many regards this is the story of my life - however, starkly different in the way in which I've handled the change in vocation. Ed had all of the right information and intentions but learned (as many have) the hard way, that students don't care AT ALL about your motivations, only whether you will care about theirs. I can see many of my students in the anecdotes he presents from NYC public schools, but I share absolutely none of his anger and animosity. I respond to the inevitable outbursts with unconditional acceptance and consistent expectations - they will respond, they want to be able to trust their teachers.

A good book to reflect upon if you are in the business - a vapid waste of time if you aren't.

[Margaret Mechinus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't how I feel about this book. He only lasted a year before giving up his ideal of making a difference as a teacher in an inner city school in NYC. Could he have made a difference if he stayed? He got out with his life, went back to his high paying fulfilling career and got a book deal out of writing about the horror of it. I can't fault him however, I wouldn't have lasted even a week.

[Megan ✨🥂 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Y'all, I'm tired of this narrative.

I'm a white woman, and I'm tired. I can't even imagine how PoC feel.

No, Cushy White Man who was not certified to teach (let me repeat that: not certified to do the job that he's doing. You know what that means? Would never ever ever be hired to teach rich white kids), who had no teaching experience, who left a well-paying job in a nonprofit to go Save Some Poor Kids (TM), you should not have been in this classroom. Anyone with half a brain could have told you that. But no. You got a book deal to tell us exactly what we already know.

What you NEEDED was education. What you needed was a complete history on urban education, on the history and sidestepping of integration, on pedagogy and empathy and basic classroom management. What you needed was a few lessons on empathy, and on seeing people who don't look like you as people with equal, inherent value, whose ways are not wrong and who do not need to be "saved" from their lifestyle and culture.

Let's get one thing straight: this middle-aged white man was never the victim in his classroom, filled with Black and Latinx TEENAGERS. (Side-note: imagine Cushy White Man trying to pull this crap in a class full of cruel daughters of corrupt politicians and sons of coke-snorting wealthy parents? Imagine him going "woe is me" at the taunts and teasings of rich white kids? He'd be laughed out of the schoolhouse.) These are kids we're talking about here. These are kids, acting like kids. They are jaded and bitter and cynical, some of them, but they are KIDS. Part of teaching is understanding, meeting your students where they are. Sometimes, as in this case, the gap between teacher and student is more of an abyss. But it is the teacher's job to try. Sincerely try.

But Cushy White Man never saw these kids as kids -- he saw them as props he could fix, pawns in his feel-good success story. That's the problem. He did not try to meet them where they are, because he saw no value in where they are. He tried to knock their foundation out from under them, strip them of their life experience, and transform them into little clones that he could flaunt and take pride in.

Then, when he couldn't do that, he quit. He quit, and wrote this memoir, filled with White Saviorism and tired stereotypes that animalize the students of color, that show exactly 0 pieces of humanity except where it met the teacher's approval. And he's lauded. This man, who should never have been in the classroom to start with -- who is an UNCERTIFIED TEACHER when what lower-income schools need more than your white savior bs is teachers who actually know their stuff -- is lauded.

It was a valiant attempt, they say. Here's five stars and a pat on the back for upholding the status quo, for doing your part in furthering systemic racism and the cycle of poverty with a shrug and an "oh well."

No. Hell no.

[Peacegal · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars -- This is a book that will stick with you long after you've closed it. I've found myself thinking about the various individual students and their situations, as well as the school that serves as the backdrop in this drama.

This is no To Sir, with Love or Dangerous Minds. Instead, it's the story of a teacher who was filled with those idealistic visions when he applied to teach at a NYC high school--and had those hopes dashed to the ground when he came upon reality. Interacting with these students from the poorest and most desperate situations imaginable, Boland is forced to confront just how easy he's had it as a privileged white male--and how difficult it could be at times to relate to kids facing issues that most people will never have to struggle with at any point in their lives.

As he described his lesson plans and multimedia-infused teaching style, I thought that in any other situation, Boland would be considered the "cool teacher" in school. He really was a good educator, it seems, tailoring his lessons to not only keep kids engaged, but help those who were having trouble catch up. But all of the trivia-show style learning games and real world-tie ins couldn't save most of the kids in his classroom.

So, whose fault is it? Is it the teachers (Boland describes the burned-out teachers at another NY school who are practically sleeping in class)? The school administration, which seem more focused on trying one trendy "learning system" after another, which never seem to work? The parents, for not being more invested in their kids' lives? The kids themselves (Boland does have a few "good apples," who, despite being raised in the same poverty-stricken and desperate situations as the other kids, still manage to treat others with civility and try their best in class)? Society, for its institutionalized racism and complete lack of concern for the poor and struggling? Or the government, for its lack of investment in helping inner-city schools and inhumane policies? Maybe it's all of these things, that's what I think. They combine into the perfect storm and more kids end up incarcerated, addicted, homeless or dead.

[Lucas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the book has a very authentic feel to it, I couldn't help feeling like the book was written more for Mr. Boland than for the readers.

So much of the book is filled with negative stories from his one year in teaching, with an almost accidental mention of one of a few students that were actually "good" thrown in for good measure, that I kept hoping Mr. Boland would say he quit halfway through the year. Even with the picture he has painted with extreme detail - the language, the way the students looked, talked, acted, etc. - I find it difficult to believe that there wasn't at least one positive story a week he could have written about. Maybe this is because I've been a teacher for the last 9 years in schools of inclusion and title I and have had my own share of "Nemesis" students in my class and yet I can think of just as many if not more good stories as bad.

I commend Mr. Boland for giving teaching a try, and for being very honest with what he feels were his downfalls right up to the point of going back to his old job, but the way he has been able to stay in touch with his former students only goes to show the stories in this book were only the first chapter. The book would have been better if another 150-200 pages were filled with the same detailed descriptions of what live was like for the students after he taught them, with a focus on the good decisions/results instead of the negative.

The 'battle' for room 314 is still going on whether Mr. Boland realizes it or not.

[Elliot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Closer to 2.5. I found the author and his writing a little irritating. Petty complaints aside, I do feel this is an important book as it offers a look at a part of society many of us don't realize exists. If you read this book, go into it focused on the things the author is bringing to light, rather than the author himself. At the very end, he does offer an analysis of what's wrong with education/society and what we need to do about it, which is very important.

[Katie Schwartz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly, I couldn't even finish reading it. The author lacks self-awareness, insight, and I got the impression that the only reason he took on the challenge of teaching was to turn it into this book.

[Karen Chung · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really thank the author for his honesty and informativeness in writing this book – it certainly took uncommon courage to do this.

This book is an excellent starting point for drawing up a new agenda for at-risk schools and students, and in fact all other students as well.

First, we must start from whatever point in their learning each student currently finds him- or herself, and not expect them to be able to process and learn content that is pre-decided on based on age or previous curricula taught mainly out of tradition and habit to more privileged kids. That starting point may well be learning how to care enough about oneself to show respect for other people, and to treat property and things with respect as well.

Second, kids need to learn about the workings of power. The currency they trade in is power, such as it is among school kids. If they better understand how it works, they'll be less thrown off when others are simply playing power games with them – and they can also learn how to deal with people beyond judging and manipulating a tangle of power equations. This is something *everybody* needs training in. Anybody who remembers high school cliques would be greatly helped by such training.

We have so much talent from around the world focused on creating things like an Internet-connected appliance that can determine the freshness of packaged juice before you open it. Imagine what we could do if we put just a fraction of that brainpower into figuring out how we can help every single child love him- or herself, have respect for others, and build up a solid foundation of knowledge and skills for success in work and life. I believe we can do it. Ed Boland sets out very clearly many of the obstacles we need to overcome in this process.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic way to get people involved in the discussion about education reformation. It is an extremely necessary change, and one that is fundamentally tied to poverty and the eradication of it.

There's a page on Facebook called Humans of New York. Most people around my age have heard of it. There's a photographer, Brandon, who goes around and takes photos of random people in New York. He asks them questions. Sometimes he'll get a fun tidbit, sometimes he'll get something profound. Recently, he has been focusing on inmates throughout prisons in New York. When he posts those pictures and the corresponding stories, the responses are astounding.

Frankly, and this may be going a little too in-depth for a book review, I think most people who blame poor people are idiots. When a kid's mother is working three jobs to support her kids and barely has enough for food, clothes and shelter, he's desperate. When he finds out he can make a couple hundred dollars in a week by selling some weed, and that money can go toward feeding his younger siblings and himself, is he really such a hooligan for choosing that option? For choosing to do what he can to support them?

A girl who has never had a positive male role model acts out against a male teacher. Is she just doing it because she's psycho? Probably not; more than likely she has been abused in some way. Physically, emotionally, sexually--it doesn't matter. It happens far more often than it should. Does that mean she deserves to be kicked out of school when she acts out?

It is a truly hard thing to discuss. Boland did an admirably strong job of reflecting both sides. He was candid, and I think that's what I appreciated the most. He admitted when he thought a kid's inappropriate comment was funny; he admitted when he wanted to shout profanities at a difficult student; he admitted to having a white savior complex on top of having a gay savior complex. He seems to be very aware of himself and of his own actions, and that comes across beautifully here.

Fact is, we need reform. And I think this book provides an entertaining, funny, and heartbreaking way to bridge the gap between legislative policies and every day people. Because realistically, most people don't follow politics. Most don't understand the verbiage, or don't want to take the time to. It is a real thing that needs to change. So I loved Boland's stories for being both fascinating and informational. The outline in the end about what actions should be taken were well thought out and concise.

I have nothing but praise for this book. Boland owned up to all his flaws and to his errors. Even if he's not in the streets dealing with the nitty gritty anymore, at least he's still doing some good with Project Advance. I had no idea what the project was before this, and all I can say is that I'm ecstatic such a program exists. It's a step in the right direction, and people like Boland have got it right.

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's really brave to write about your career failures. And especially to write with humor, humility, and sensitivity. Teaching is hard. If you haven't done it, you'd be surprised how much of it has nothing to do with the teaching part. I think every teacher goes into the profession hoping to be the type who can reach the neediest, most unreachable student, and then you get in there and reality hits. Teachers who persist, thrive even, in the toughest schools should be making $1 million per year. I knew I was not cut out for that setting, but boy do I admire those who are. Boland is doing important work with his foundation. And being in the classroom gave him a much greater understanding of the issues that schools and students face. I wish others who are forming opinion and policy on education would have the guts to get in a damn classroom!

I think he did a better job than he gave himself credit for. It's a testament to him that he stayed in touch with many of his students. They held his feet to the fire, but I do think he earned their respect. He ends the book with some very good, practical ideas about what needs to happen to improve our education system. Guess what? None of it involves giving more standardized tests.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a tough one to rate. On the one hand, I read it really fast because it was very fascinating and readable. On the other hand, I really just skimmed/ rolled my eyes at the last chapter which was basically a PSA for what schools need. That didn't interest me, and honestly, I think the author is better than that. My other problem was that this is a book with many, many engaging scenes and chapters, but it doesn't quite add up as well as I'd hoped. So, the parts were greater than the sum, I suppose.

What it does do is paint a heartbreaking portrait of education. Boland is as well-meaning, caring, and enthusiastic as any teacher could hope to be. He is exactly the kind of teacher we should want teaching young people. Yet, the system chewed him up and spit him out. It was disheartening to see that he might have survived longer, even been more successful if he'd only cared less, if he'd been willing to harden himself to the fate of the children he taught, if he'd stopped trying to help the outcasts and simply worried about himself. Anyway, it's definitely worth your time if you care about education and want a fast, engaging read.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boland tells it like it is, with much more success than the typical education commentary. I have lived nearly every experience he had in his first year (unlucky that it all happened to Boland at once). This book will not surprise current inner-city teachers but does share an important viewpoint of what many teachers experience on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, it seems like things haven't changed too much since Frank McCourt's Teacher Man.

Typical of the NYTimes for the lame write-up "Myth of the Hero Teacher" and typical of the Ivy tower, Christopher Emdin, for not actually reading the book before promoting his own.

Give this book a chance if you want the real story in a non-judgmental or self-promoting way.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

(From the new release shelf in the library)
I'm having a really difficult time deciding how I felt about this book. On several occasions I lamented how much I disliked the author/ protagonist but simultaneously I couldn't stop reading it. Much of the book felt like the author trying to justify his actions, and he seems aware of this throughout.
A single tumultuous year of teaching before retreating to a previous job doesn't justify writing a book, but at least there were some nice points made about his self-proclaimed savior complex and a few insights from someone who has seen a few sides of education.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a horrific book that continues the racist narrative that kids of color are bad people.

[Christina · Rating 2 out of 5]

It could have used a little less whiny liberal snobbery from the author.

[Phil Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

I normally let books sit in my mind for a while after finishing them. I just finished this book, and what it presented me forces me to write this right away.
I've been teaching kids similar to those that Boland taught for almost 13 years now. I am quitting at the end of this year. Despite making a good living that provides me a comfortable existence; having financial responsibilities, including a son, that entry at this point in my life and career into today's stagnant job market will threaten; loving teaching and working with children; and loving my subject, English, I'm done.
When I first came across this book, I figured I didn't want to read it because as a teacher who chose to become a teacher when I was 18 years old, devoured everything about my subject in college, entered the classroom having hopes and dreams of teaching English in a way that could turn a lower middle-class kid unsatisfied with his surroundings and the thinking and expectations that went along with it into someone who saw more in this woeful world than I ever imagined, and ultimately realized those hopes and dreams' fulfillment isn't possible because teaching as I envisioned it doesn't exist except in small enclaves (if at all), I'm sick to the point of anger of people hopping on board the teacher train for a stop or two. Sick of those people who think they can join a program or go back to school or take whatever shortcut shortsighted people have made available and enter a classroom and successfully teach. I have no time for these people or these programs. They are leeches on the good name of Teacher, sucking away the respect the calling deserves. I realize this is a prejudice just as much as I realize the good name of Teacher isn't so good. But in my case, despite how personal horn-tooting this sounds, but because of what I have and continue to invest in the profession, I retain the demand for respect for the good name of Teacher.
I read the book anyway. I'm glad I did.
When I finished it, I was left with what I'm left with after every day of teaching: a blank wall of sadness. I imagine it like what I imagine a sandstorm in the desert is like. There's nothing specific in the swirling sand, and though specifics can be found, the effort to do so is prevented by the compounding effect of blast upon blast. Teaching brings me blast upon blast of unspecified sadness. I've tried to specify the sadness, and I've had some success. But every new school day brings more sadness and the search for answers or even simple explanations only intensifies the shitstorm I'm already in. That, and because feeling like this makes me part of the problem of the system that students labor under, is why I'm quitting.
But that has nothing to do with Boland's book. I still think he's unqualified to write this book. One year in a bad school does not earn you the stripes to cry wolf and offer remedies. Just as I have no right to criticize the police officer or the social worker whose shoes I've made no attempt to fill. But he wrote a good book.
He wrote a good book because he seems to tell his anecdotes honestly. That's difficult and I'm guessing the space leaving the profession offered is what allowed him to do that. I'm sure if he wrote this book while teaching, his description of his students would be more harsh, possibly downright wrong. 180 days of asshole behavior makes even the best intentioned adult think that a child is an asshole. That might be true, but teachers shouldn't think that. It's a death blow to their effectiveness. I appreciated his candor, both with his students' behavior and how it affected him. Even when his students' circumstances were worse than mine, I recognized the situation, both from his and the students' point of view. That clarity and honesty is refreshing and absolutely necessary for people not in the profession to understand what occurs within the walls of American schools every day.
And that's the second reason this is a good book. We have a system of public education in this country. That means every member of the public is responsible for it. From politicians to parents to residents to the students themselves, every single American is responsible for the education of our children. With what we know about what happens to those children who grow up without receiving an adequate education, it's stupid to argue otherwise. Do you want safe streets? Do you want a robust economy? Do you want opportunities for your children and their children to achieve more than you did? These are just some of the most obvious ways in which a public education system affects everyone. Not just teachers. Not just politicians. Every single human being in this country. The point of Boland's book is to inform the public about what's going on. We need more of this. We need a million Ed Boland's, regardless of how or why they've entered a classroom. We need storytellers to fill the media with stories of what happens in schools. Not complaints, which is a beaten-down teachers default setting, but simple story-telling like Boland's.
Education is a contested battlefield. Boland's book is also one for me, but like any battle worth fighting, there will be loses and there will be victories. American education is losing. There are millions of kids and teachers being eaten alive by the system. Think about that in real human terms (Boland's book will help you do that, as long as you don't shirk off your responsibility and see his former students as something beneath you worthy of your and our society's collective disdain). But it should be a contested battlefield for those who have a stake in it: every single American. Not those who we've abdicated our power to, to those who use our public education system as a pawn towards their own ends.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

An honest and heartfelt account of the year Ed Boland spent teaching in a New York public school. Full of idealism and a desire to do some good in the world, he thought he would be able to make a difference, but in the end he had to admit defeat. And I can see why. The stories and incidents he relates are not for the faint-hearted and it must take a very special sort of person to cope in such schools. I think I admire him for giving up more than for trying in the first place. He makes suggestions about how the educational system could be improved to help these children, but his ideas seem as idealistic as his first impulse to teach. A deeply depressing book.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best current book about the choices behind, the consequences of and lessons learned from, deciding to become an urban (NYC) school teacher in a mid-career move. Well-written, with humor, hope, anger, self-reflection, doubt, anger at system(s) that make teaching hard on multiple levels and recommendations for personal and institutional change.

[Lua · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book quickly, as I wanted to get back to the author's stories of teaching in a NYCity high school with lots of problems. I felt a lot of sympathy for Boland, who wanted to do his best for his students, but landed in this school in which it's only "cool" to ignore the teacher at best, or seemingly more often to actually start fights, curse, and harass the other students and teachers. He sticks with the job a lot longer than I could have, trying, but in the end is dismayed at the lack of learning that took place for the year.

His stories were heartbreaking. In the end, very few of the students were able to go on to a four-year college. Some went to community colleges, and others were sucked into one of those for-profit colleges that give out worthless degrees along with too much debt. Some of the kids married and found jobs. Others became unwed mothers or ended up in prison.

Boland makes some good points at the end of the book about some things that can be changed to make things better. For instance, he points out that he and his fellow teachers attended a wide range of teacher training programs (including Masters programs) - "yet almost no one thought the education courses we took were helpful or relevant." "As one coworker opined, "If I could have had even a fraction of those grad school hours back in sleep, I would have been a better teacher by far."

Ironically, I believe the high school students probably felt very similarly about the many hours they had to spend in school -- always doing what the teacher wanted them to do, and very rarely studying anything that they personally really wanted to learn.

I was disappointed at the end of the book (as I so often am) in the author's ideas on how to do a better job with educating these kids. Most of his advice dealt with just trying to do the same sorts of things that schools already do, only better. I believe that instead of the status quo, schools should be completely re-imagined. The old model of education is not what we need for the 21st century.

I would be thrilled if more people would look into unschooling, which is a movement that honors a child's own interests, and lets them learn what they want, when they want. No grades, homework, or tests. Granted, this won't work with the old school model. To make it work, kids need to be given both more freedom and more mentoring. We need to let kids learn outside of the school building as much as possible. Let them read what interests them, so that they learn to love reading. Let them learn math that's actually useful to them now. Let each one of them figure out what their own interests, talents, and passions are. Help each of them to make their own dreams come true.

[St. Gerard Expectant Mothers · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who went into the teaching profession during the George W. administration just as the NCLB (No Child Left Behind) bill was being implemented, I can so related to the frustrations of being a first time teacher. Many teachers go in with the ideology of making a difference and influencing lives but end up leaving after the first five years because of difficult students, an unsupportive district, and the constant barrage of not meeting the expected goals and expectations of an ever-changing belief in educational reform.

Ed Boland was one such man. As a former non-profit employee who worked for various high society fund raisers, he thought he had what it took to survive the hardships of the inner city ghetto and positively affect the students in his area. Sadly, he lasted only three years before throwing in the towel. In his defense, the glamorization of the teaching profession as seen in films like Dangerous Minds, Lean On Me, and To Sir, With Love are nothing like the reality of going inside the classroom and facing the sad fact that the majority of these students were destined to fall through the cracks. There are no inspirational teachers to save them. There are no accolades given or respect that is deserved.

For me, I left when the certifications changed and made it even more impossible to constantly jump hoops to keep my certificate so I took a break and never looked back. I watched as my fellow peers have stuck it out but ended up doing something else. The truth is the education system is America is flawed with the bad teachers staying just to reach tenure while the good ones are driven out.

The Battle for Room 314 should be a requirement for all upcoming teachers to read. It gives an opportunity to know what to expect and if this is right profession to go into. Despite the fact that there is a teacher shortage, there are no incentives worth staying to deal with a broken system.

To put it bleakly, you have the fear the future of our children.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

43 year old Ed from Rochester decided in 04 to leave his cushy executive job at a non-profit (assisting brillant kids from disadvantaged backgrounds attend prep schools and then the Ivy, leading to future leaders) to teach at a smaller, "theme' based school on Manhattan's lower east side (think Alphabet City), this school is based on International Relations. After 2 years of grad school, Ed starts the 06/07 year teaching 9th graders History and oh, what a group of 9th graders! You've got your gang members, drama queens, foster child with a heart of gold, illegal savant, tough asses, lover boys, etc! Ed realizes he is over his head and spends a year in the mess that is room 314 just trying to survive. Incompetent administration (in my opinion, I was Godsmacked), violence, investigations galore, a trailer in a Bronx parking lot serving as a suspension break, Six Flags Great Adventure, a field trip to a synagogue, and more profanity than you can shake a stick at. Will Ed make it through? How will the kids relate (or, um...not relate to Ed?), what will become of these so called "monsters" in the future? I read the entire book in less than a day.


My wheelhouse as a teacher of 21 years...everything from 1 year olds in 2002, in a rundown, out of compliance daycare that kept the heat off to save dimes, to a ritzy, affluent public school in one of the richest school districts in the state. I also taught, for ten extraordinarily rough years, in a large residential facility that had clients afflicted with Proteus syndrome (John Merrick), Fragile X, Prader Willi syndrome, Pitt Hopkins, Edwards Syndrome, Angelman syndrome, etc. There were also kids at the school from the inner cities of the east coast who were at the facility as their literal "get out of jail free card", taking bricks to the school windows and putting teachers in the hospital. I taught a wiley class of 8 teens with autism, downs syndrome, cerebral palsy, etc. I also had 8 staff, at times, in my room...often early twenty year olds from the inner city of Philadelphia...Tioga, Kensington, Germantown...

To say it was a culture shock for this admittedly privileged, young woman from a river bordered suburb of artist colonies and neighbors who headed Campbell Soap and Tyco Toys, was an understatement. I grew up on a farm back when the county was rural, only to watch it's startling growth which started in the mid 80s and still continues to amaze and disgust me. I attended admittedly, exclusive private colleges (one a granola, hippy college in the midwest of 400 students that held classes on American communes with 3 other students and had me rolling down a summer green hill with my awesome Brooklyn bred professor at the Zor Community, and joining drum circles in the Arthur and Sarah Jane Lithgow ampitheater, named after the revered former drama team. The other, a relatively plush oasis on the insanely bucolic Eastern Shore of Maryland, home to one of the finest Creative Writing programs, and sailing days.

Teaching at the latter school was a war. A personal war for ten years of (as cliched as it sounds!) finding myself and gathering a tough, pebbled outer shell on what was once a raw, throbbing, pink, exposed nerve. "You're the teacher is going to be stenciled on my tombstone" I'd tell family as I battled both children from the Dominican who had never been in school, threw clunky 90s eras computers at me, toothpaste tubes were used as makeshift guns, had my braids pulled on the daily, dealt with the impossible NYC School District, as well as DC and Philadelphia and states like NJ, MD, and CA. Slapped, smacked, strangled, jumped, bit, chased, hair pulled out by the handful, the tender under tissue of my arm yanked and twisted, leaving an impressive bruise, literally every color of the rainbow. Few preps, no lunch break, and summers worked straight through. Mounds of IEPS, Re-evaluation Reports, behavior plans, lesson plans that would return marked in red, mentoring younger teachers, dealing with cell phone addicted staff that were wont to sleep after grueling double shifts. And being utterly responsible for it all.

It's my fault that i subjected myself to trauma for ten years, but there had to be joy, right? Right?! The feeling of "getting through" had become addictive to me. The rare smiles from staff who despised me as we got the kids ready for bed back in 2014, back when I took on extra hours after teaching in the units. Staying until 11 pm, plying the kids'hair with coconutty pink lotion and listening to John Legand, a blizzard covering my tiny Mazda outside. The play I wrote in 2012 and the kids performed with enthusiasm and vigor, all of us huddling in each others arms after news broke about Sandy Hook. The true friends I made, happy hours and weddings and get to together at houses. Working with a neglected young man whoes progress was so stunning, that today I think about it and have to pinch myself. The warm hugs from students, making connections, and finding common ground far more frequently than I'd ever imagined.

I left, like Ed, but after ten years. Do i wish I left earlier? I'm a stronger believer in fate (had too many occurrences in these 48 years that reek of serendipity, too many...) so for some reason that perhaps I don't even know of yet(yet!) It takes a lot to work with kids who come from backgrounds that a lot of people have a difficult time wrapping their heads around. It's constant behavior management, which apparently Ed never received. As well as pulling from your "bag of tricks" and practicing patience, the rolling of things off the back, and having an organized, legitimate, easy and quick to administer safety plan in case of a crises of harm to self and others. Looking at things objectively and not trying to dig into the underlayers of what they're saying about *you*, and forming honest relationships. Interest in your students...genuine interest, which perhaps is a boon to me. I've always been interested in anything the kids were up to...the hair, the rap, the diction. Sharing stories. Pairing and avoiding the "smothering" in the early stages, every time Ed groveled to a kid who so very tentatively reached out, I lol. Make them work for THAT kind of praise. Know that for as many bad things that happen, you'll have just as many good. I certainly did and working there profoundly changed my view of the world, particularly the world of race relations, urban life, and just the inconveniences of life that would once drive me to tears and overthinking. I'm much stronger.

I did rather enjoy the book, admittedly SMDH through many parts, and feeling an odd mix of sympathy, disbelief, righteousness, and sadness. I'm very interested in reading other teaching memoirs and looking for recs.

[Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

One mans journey to make a difference, to be down in the trenches, toe to toe, and guide students to a better hope, a better dream, through education.
Teaching in a school that almost kids have been left behind, forgotten, given up on.
He persists to try to breakthrough the levels of dialogue and try to break into the many character shells the inner city students have put up, trying to instilling love for learning.
Inspiring tale of the battle of the school room, every student described in a way that the reader has a great sense of their turbulent lives in the street and at home, the hearts at conflict with themselves, ones of today.
The future, the next generation, something so important, and an eye into how things are failing and how students are falling into the cracks from their home battles, to battle within the schools with race and gender equality.
Written in very readable and easy layered out sentences, non-fiction reading like fiction with very real characters, memorable in the readers mind, a joy to read.
review @ http://more2read.com/review/battle-room-314-ed-boland/

[Pamela · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a disappointing book. It is subtitled my year of hope and despair, but it is much more about despair. The author decides to become a teacher in his mid 40's. Apparently he did little or no research about the public school system in New York City and knew nothing about the lives of the students that he would be teaching. Calling them monsters in his book became very disturbing. Thankfully he did not try a second year of teaching. It does point out that one should be aware of what teaching inner city students requires. Previously and now currently, the author dealt with only the "cream of the crop" of disadvantaged students and provided them with scholarships to high schools and colleges. It certainly was a rude awakening for him to see this other life. Perhaps he should have volunteered or shadowed a teacher prior to investing the time and money in becoming a teacher.