Confessions of a Bad Teacher

May 27, 2013
Owens took quite a pay cut when, determined to make a difference in the lives of children, he left a high-level publishing job to teach English at a public school in New York’s South Bronx. His dreams were quickly dashed after he began working at “Latinate,” his fictional name for the school. He was shocked to discover a cultural climate focused on appearances rather than lasting results, instead of an infrastructure designed to support and encourage learning. He expected distracted and disruptive students, but found that there was little to no backup from the rest of the school when it came to discipline. He also wasn’t prepared for an insane principal more obsessed with spreadsheets than students, in addition to racially biased tests and the public school system’s notorious lack of funding. Admirably, Owens portrays himself as an enthusiastic teacher with good intentions rather than a martyr—no small feat given the subject matter. His inclusion of case studies in the form of anecdotes from other public school teacher furthers his argument. To say that Owens’s book makes for a disheartening read is an understatement (though some of the villains get their due in the epilogue), but it will be useful for anyone considering a teaching career. Agent: Nena Madonia, Dupree/Miller & Associates.

June 15, 2013
A publishing professional's account of his detour teaching in a Bronx public high school and of the scapegoating he experienced at the hands of its administrator. Owens, whose 2011 Salon article "Confessions of a Bad Teacher" inspired this book, taught for less than one year at a school he renames Latinate Institute. Spearheaded by "Mrs. P," an ambitious principal who emphasized data and visionary statements (and who was later discovered to be inflating graduation numbers), the school suffered from an emphasis on "pageantry." Often blaming staff for situations beyond their control--including students with behavioral problems and disabilities--Mrs. P exemplified (for the author) problems with contemporary school reform, which often insist on teachers bearing responsibility for "classroom management" even when they are plagued with obvious problems, from minimal parental involvement to a lack of administrative support and special education resources. Owens' optimism toward teaching diminished once he realized he was "at the bottom of an organizational chart that had more arrows than Custer's last stand." With a mix of genuine frustration and occasional weary humor, the author reveals his views on the school's goal-oriented expectations, which often masked the fact that many students lacked basic skills, and on the unfairness of the teacher-evaluation system, among related topics. Though Mrs. P emerges as a tyrannical personage, most of Owens' anecdotes, such as those involving fellow teachers, underscore his point: In the wake of No Child Left Behind, education is failing, and the American public cannot ignore some of the fundamental reasons, including wealth disparity. Less a revelatory exploration of policy gone wrong than a heartfelt call to action, Owens' account of a lower-income school does not tread surprising ground for readers familiar with the topic. Still, he offers a worthy perspective on the need to change the ways in which teachers are viewed and concludes with useful suggestions to get started.

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September 15, 2013

Owens changed careers at midlife to follow his heart and become a teacher. It took him less than one year in a South Bronx high school to be branded as "unsatisfactory" by the "crazed" and "delusional" principal as well as other administrators of the "charter style" high school. Owens describes the teaching certification process as covering theoretical aspects of teaching, but once he was hired, he struggled with issues of hands-on classroom management. Owens purports that rather than providing support and mentoring, administrators offered empty buzzwords and window dressing and pasted over problems throughout the school. Between in-the-trenches accounts of his frustrating days, Owens includes bigger-picture comments on the "witch hunt" that holds teachers to immeasurable standards, the drawbacks of standardized testing, and the detrimental effects of poverty on learning. VERDICT While little "shocking truth" on education policy is offered here, Owens gives a readable, personal account of one man's experience in one school. The book concludes with chapters on "What I Learned" and "What We Can Do" as well as a select bibliography for readers interested in work reflective of the current thinking on the state of American schools in general.--Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley Sch., Fort Worth, TX

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2013
Owens' book began as an article on Salon.com, documenting his first and last year teaching literature in a high-needs South Bronx public school. It went viral, and the outpouring of affirmation inspired Owens to tell his full story. A publishing executive turned high-school teacher, he delivers an intelligent, readable, and occasionally eye-opening analysis of the deep flaws in today's educational system, now driven by massive amounts of easily manipulated statistics, inadequate and poorly allocated financing, and administrators charged with meeting virtually impossible top-down demands. Owens was soon labeled a bad teacher by his principal (who is portrayed as having crazy boss syndrome on steroids) for not conforming to restrictive, often ridiculous protocols and failing to meet unrealistic expectations. Owens' narrative is punctuated with the voices of teachers from across the country who echo his plight and expose the absurdity of relying on data-driven business principles to try to fix American education. The true solution, says Owens, is a massive system overhaul, involving core reforms that embrace and support teachers in honing their craft to benefit students.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)