Escape from Gangsta Island: A School's Progressive Decline. [Paperback]

Bernard Chapin (Author)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bernard Paul Chapin has been a school psychologist for eleven years and has worked in both mainstream education and special education. Chapin also taught graduate courses at Chicago universities.

Product Details

• Paperback: 396 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse, Inc. (February 20, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595376738
• ISBN-13: 978-0595376735
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,467,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and Important book, July 27, 2006

By 

NA Miles "VDH" (West Rising Sun, IN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Escape from Gangsta Island: A School's Progressive Decline. (Paperback)

As a former teacher who resigned from the profession for similar reasons, Chapin's book hit home with me, bringing out many of the same issues that education must remedy in order to overcome its current downtrodden state.

Chapin's book is wonderfully crafted and exquisitely worded, mixing eye opening anecdotes and clever background details on major characters, so as to augment his theme and stances.

Any parent who wants to understand why public education is in shambles needs to first learn what those in charge are doing and saying, and Chapin elucidates those horrors in a clear, concise way.

As someone who also just finished co-writing a book on educational reform, I highly recommend Chapin's book. You don't find many teachers who can write and relay their thoughts so coherently, much less take a stand against their profession in order to improve it in the long run.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Public School woe's in the ghetto., March 3, 2006

By 

whitesock5 (chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Escape from Gangsta Island: A School's Progressive Decline. (Paperback)

If you are an educator this is a great book to read. It depicts what it is like to work in a poorly funded school that has an insane administration. It also shows the troubles teacher face when they work in a area where the students come from ghetto neighborhoods and worship the "gansta" lifestyle. None of the students care what happens during their time spent at school but more amazingly the administration doesn't care about educational enhancement either. Which leads this once nice alternative school down a path of destruction.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A school's progressive decline..., June 20, 2007

By 

Nick Saldate (Maiden, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Escape from Gangsta Island: A School's Progressive Decline. (Paperback)

... and it's progressive in more ways than one, as Bernard Chapin's book is one part withering polemic against Newthink in public schools and one part twisted and often hilarious memoir of the downfall of a Chicago alternative high school. A personality-disordered modern day pedagogical Caligula takes the reins of psychologist Chapin's school and he bears incredulous witness as a flammable combination of ill-conceived ideals and plain old simple madness plunges the institution into chaos. If you've ever worked in the public education system, if you've ever had a brush with bureaucratic idiocy, if you've ever doubted your boss's sanity, or if you've ever felt like the one-eyed man in the country of the blind, this book is essential.