JohnOwens

First, let's be clear: John Owens seems to be a very good teacher. The problem he addresses in Confessions of a Bad Teacher: The Shocking Truth About the Front Lines of American Public Education (Sourcebooks, $13.99) is that individual teachers often instruct with their hands tied. Owens left a high-profile publishing job to teach in South Bronx, where he discovered that his students had problems (understanding English, learning disabilities, troubled homes, poverty) that made it impossible show more for them to work at the level expected. He documents—in enraging detail—the way that the institutional emphasis on checking off “skill sets” actually keeps students from gaining any actual skills. (Review 9-5-13 in the Sacramento News & Review, http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/school-for-thought/content?oid=11291055) show less

A harsh but fair critique of the education system. It addresses the multiple flaws that plague education today. It is a well-targeted assault on knot-headed state bureaucrats trying to regulate something they don't understand to equally knot-headed administrators, including self-serving principals who flourish in the modern data driven edu-culture. An indictment of the absurd testing models that have been implemented to evaluate student and teacher competence. Such number crunching has show more little to commend it unless one likes to chant the battle cry of " Blame the teachers", or " Privatize education."
The author offers an inside view as he worked in a Bronx school and observed the pathos and corruption first-hand. His article in Salon received such an overwhelming response, he decided to recount his experiences in book form. If have an interest in the education system and how it has become just another outpost of inane bureaucracy in America, it is highly recommended. show less

Okay, so in my opinion, the author's note needs to be at the beginning. Once I read that this wordless picture book was a homage to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (where visitors can paddle and portage a unique wilderness area) I fell in love with the beauty of this book. It would be great for asking children what adventures await....and it makes me want to get out and kayak.

But it's winter and I can't.

Owens (according to himself) quit a good job in publishing to make a difference as a schoolteacher, but was driven out in less than a year by an impossible (and in the end even criminal) principal. Of course everything in the book is from Owen's own viewpoint. Anyway, two main points are that too many demands and responsibilities are placed on teachers (individualized teaching; keeping order; contact parents; please principal, etc), and that the culture of blaming the teacher for all wrongs show more must stop. That sounds sensible enough, but he is way too unnuanced in the discussion of data and measurement, of which there are supposedly no advantages. Paradoxically, one of his own recommendations is even more comprehensive tests, which of course would raise all the same issues. Overall, the book is an easily accessible viewpoint in the school debate, but should hardly be taken as a final word. show less