Publisher Description
In these affectionate letters to Francesca, a first grade teacher at an inner-city school in Boston, Jonathan Kozol vividly describes his repeated visits to her classroom while, under Francesca’s likably irreverent questioning, also revealing his own most personal stories of the years that he has spent in public schools.
Letters to a Young Teacher reignites a number of the controversial issues that Kozol has powerfully addressed in recent years: the mania of high-stakes testing that turns many classrooms into test-prep factories where spontaneity and critical intelligence are no longer valued, the invasion of our public schools by predatory private corporations, and the inequalities of urban schools that are once again almost as segregated as they were a century ago.
But most of all, these letters are rich with the happiness of teaching children, the curiosity and jubilant excitement children bring into the classroom at an early age, and their ability to overcome their insecurities when they are in the hands of an adoring and hard-working teacher.
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“I am currently reading this book for my freshmen sem. class for college. It has opened my eyes to so many things wrong with our school system today and how the people who this is effecting have no idea how to fight back aganist the goverment who is doing it to them. It has made me realize how lucky I am to have attended school where I did. It has also made me wonder if I am prepared for this next step in my life”
—
Kimberly (5 out of 5 stars)
