The Girls In the Back of the Class: They're High School Girls With Secrets, Trouble, And Two Choices-Dropping Out...Or Trusting Her. [Mass Market Paperback]

LouAnne Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 1996

Her classroom was the last stop for a group of troubled kids. Teacher LouAnne Johnson, the petite ex-Marine of Dangerous Minds, was their last chance. The boys, like handsome Latino Julio Escovar, expected to end up in jail. The girls, like regal, golden-skinned Simoa, often mysteriously disappeared. But not in LouAnne Johnson's class.

Risking her life, and her heart, LouAnne cajoled, bribed, and loved these teens. She went out on tough urban streets to track down Simoa, she faced a dangerously angry father to get pretty, talented Araceli into art school, and she fought drug pushers, trouble-making dropouts, and burned-out teachers to leave her kids alone. Her goal was to get her kids to graduation. Her method? Believe in them...until they believed in themselves.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a sequel to My Posse Don't Do Homework, Johnson writes again of her experiences teaching "problem" students, this time focusing primarily on the concerns and experiences of her girl students.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This is a sequel to My Posse Don't Do Homework (LJ 8/92), Johnson's account of life in the trenches as an English teacher in a New Mexico high school. Formerly with the Marine Corp, Johnson portrays herself as a tough teacher who strives to help her potential dropouts. She takes them out for coffee and fights their fights for them; it's a 24-hour job, and often thankless. Each chapter of The Girls focuses on a particular student and the crisis of the week. Despite the title, most of the students described are young men. Johnson, by her own account, treats them to red roses and elaborate cakes, throws temper tantrums when they refuse to cooperate, and even goes on double dates with them. She offers an unorthodox approach to student failure at the high school level. A film version of My Posse starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Andy Garcia is scheduled for release later this year, so this may circulate well in public libraries.?Nancy E. Zuwiyya, Binghamton City Sch. Dist., N.Y.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 291 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks; Reprint edition (March 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312958803
• ISBN-13: 978-0312958800
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #729,251 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Biography LouAnne Johnson

LouAnne Johnson is a former U.S. Navy journalist, Marine Corps officer, high school teacher, and the author of The New York Times bestseller Dangerous Minds. A native of rural northwestern Pennsylvania, LouAnne served nine years on active military duty first as an enlisted journalist in the Navy and later as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Marine Corps where she earned awards for her work as a journalist and radio-tv broadcaster. 

While on active duty, LouAnne earned a B.S. in Psychology. Following her honorable discharge, she attended graduate school to earn a Master of Arts in teaching English. In 1989, LouAnne began teaching reading and writing to non-English speakers as an intern at a high school in California. Two years later, she was appointed department chair of a special program for at-risk teens. During the government evaluation of 10 similar pilot programs, LouAnne's group was rated first in academic achievement, increased self-esteem, and student retention.


In 1992, she wrote a memoir My Posse Don't Do Homework, about her experiences working with at-risk teens. The book was published in eight languages and was adapted for the 1995 box office hit "Dangerous Minds" starring Michelle Pfeiffer.


Since then LouAnne has continued to teach. She has taught high school English, adult ESL and Developmental Reading and is presently a full-time professor of teacher education at Santa Fe Community College in New Mexico.

LouAnne also continues to write. She is the author of seven nonfiction books, most recently Teaching Outside the Box: How to Grab Your Students by Their Brains.

Muchacho, LouAnne's first novel, was published by Knopf in September 2009. The narrator of Muchacho, Eddie Corazon, is a 16-year-old juvenile delinquent and "secret reader" who attends an alternative high school in New Mexico.

LouAnne has presented keynote addresses to the National School Boards Association, the American School Counselors Association, the National Staff Development Council, and the European Council of International Schools, among others. She has appeared on several TV shows, including Oprah, CBS Eye to Eye, and NBC Weekend Today.

LouAnne maintains a website that has direct links to many of the topics she discusses during her presentations.

www.louannejohnson.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How can she bear such a heart pain?, February 21, 2001

By 

Yoshiko Fukuda - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Girls In the Back of the Class: They're High School Girls With Secrets, Trouble, And Two Choices-Dropping Out...Or Trusting Her. (Mass Market Paperback)

I'm also an English teacher who have been teaching teen-agers for 10 years. Teaching teenagers is hard work, very stressful, depressed by themselves and the surrounding of them. I don't have such energy of love to my students as Louanne Johnson. But I can feel her pain in heart because I myself love my students. They are devils and angels at the same time. If they were devils, I could ignore them. If they were angels, I could just smile, do nothing, and just ignore them. But they are irresistable.

I agree with Hal, her master teacher. He said to her, "Teenagers are supposed to be ungrateful little brutes. They're supposed to trample your tender feelings, break your heart. It's their job." He is always right. I wish he would be with me!!!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I can relate!, December 9, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Girls In the Back of the Class: They're High School Girls With Secrets, Trouble, And Two Choices-Dropping Out...Or Trusting Her. (Mass Market Paperback)

This should be required reading for every education major. I teach in an urban school; Ms. Johnson had something some of my young colleagues who quit teaching after a year do not have--resolve, persistance, and determination. There are no "bad" kids, there are kids who do "bad" things or come from "bad" environments, but as Ms. Johnson writes, it is possible to save the kids by giving a lot of ourselves.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read it in one night!!, October 29, 2000

By 

Elizabeth M. Deese "old movie lover" (Washougal, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Girls In the Back of the Class: They're High School Girls With Secrets, Trouble, And Two Choices-Dropping Out...Or Trusting Her. (Mass Market Paperback)

I had to read this book for my Classroom Management class, and I must say, it was very very good! I read it in one day, I couldn't put it down! This is a must read for anyone who has the gumption to teach high schoolers. Read it. You won't be disappointed!