13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sad How Bad Schools Can Get, October 8, 2003
This review is from: A Disgrace to the Profession (Paperback)
In "A Disgrace to the Profession", Charles Newton and Gretchen Kauffman provide the reader with an insider's view of a public school in DeMoines, Iowa across the period of one school year.
The book is at times "laugh-out-loud" funny. The all too real and much hated principal (the one point of consensus that the faculty seem to share) is so relentlessly power hungry, authoritarian and ego-driven that he seems to be a sitcom character. The saddest part of this tale is that it is based on an actual school and thus, is a truly tragic story.
It is a sad fact in education -- and in most organizations -- for that matter, that where there is bad leadership, those below become demoralized and they fail to do their best work. In "A Disgrace to the Profession", the authors provide a vivid and wholly believable story of a school where a faculty collectively feels offended, diminished and unappreciated by a principal who seems to be untouchable as a result of his political connections.
While there is humor in this story, and a great deal of humanness, the saddest part of the story as I came to its end was the realization that when teacher morale is poor, the education of kids suffers. There is no way that angry, disgusted teachers can give kids their very best efforts when they dread walking into school from the first day of the year forward.
There is no excuse for administrative totalitarianism of the kind exhibited in this book. Teachers need to be heard by board members, parents and others who have authentic voice in the governance of schools.
While I sympathize with the teachers, in "A Disgrace to the Profession", I do feel that they failed to recognize their own power and responsibility to change how they felt about their work. In allowing one man to so totally infect the school spirit that it became crippling, they gave up and behaved as victims. When a group of determined and intelligent people come together and decide that they will rise above the negativity that they feel about any individual administrative leader, they truly empower themselves. I felt somewhat let down by the teachers in this school in that they failed to adjust their own attitudes toward one of positive collective empowerment in the best interest of kids.
This is a book that should receive some wider attention and can serve as a wonderful starting point for discussion among anyone interested in education on what contributes to or inhibits the development of excellent schools. So too, "A Disgrace to the Profession" should be used as a case study for school leaders (and those so aspiring) to read carefully. "A Disgrace to the Profession" is one very alarming example of most things that leaders can do to fail miserably.
If we want to make sure that we do foster excellent environments in which children can learn, we need to prevent the kind of tragic chemistry that occurred in this school -- and in many schools across the country. Excellent schools need excellent teachers and excellent leaders.
There is no more important point to remind both groups than the fact that "It's About the Kids". Let's make sure that's where our energy and efforts are directed -- toward the kids and not toward petty power trips and infighting.
A worthy read. A sad story. An intolerable situation!
Highly recommended.
James J. Maloney
Saint Paul, Minnesota USA
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18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Disgrace to the Profession, May 8, 2003
This review is from: A Disgrace to the Profession (Paperback)
This is hands down the best book written by teachers for teachers! I am recommending it to every teacher I know! As a teacher, I could definately relate to many of the frustrations caused by the gov. and administration. The new programs, more work less pay, mentoring (not all bad, but too much is too much), and so on. Read this book and if nothing else you will know you are not alone in this world we call education.
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4 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Whine, whine, whine, May 26, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: A Disgrace to the Profession (Paperback)
This book is nothing but another version of the all too familiar "teacher as victim" story routinely seen in today's popular press. The book is noteworthy not for what it reveals, but for what it conveniently omits. The book laments the drain federal programs are on teacher time; the book does not note the guiding role teachers' unions have played in the development of such programs. The book complains about administrators and their meddling; the book does not note the lucrative career path into administration that many teachers neglect their primary duties to pursue. Neither does the book allow teachers, who spend far more time with students than students spend with administrators, and sometimes even parents, to take responsibility for declining test scores and student achievements. Instead, everyone else is blamed. This book is accurately classed as "fiction", because it is. Readers are cautioned against taking anything in this novel of whining and complaining too seriously; instead, they are directed to the excellent work "The Worm In The Apple: How the Teacher Unions Are Destroying American Education", by Peter Brimelow. Brimelow's book is filled with discussion and citations, both absent in "A Disgrace To The Profession".
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