School Is Not a Four-Letter Word: How to Help Your Child Make the Grade [Paperback]

Louanne Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1998

Out of print.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Attend your child's school's open house, writes Louanne Johnson, and your child will do well in school. Her suggestion is not as simplistic as it sounds; studies show that parental interest and involvement in education are key to student success. In School Is Not a Four-Letter Word, Johnson, author of Dangerous Minds, teaches parents both why they should be interested and how to be involved.

Johnson has a background in the military as well as in education, but though she is tough-talking and firm, she is never cruel or rigid. She can think like a kid, understands kids, and believes in kids, and she has a tremendous amount of insight into their motivations. Johnson's suggestions in this down-to-earth and practical book will work. Kids will do whatever is necessary in order to get what they need, Johnson asserts, and defining those needs is integral to changing behavior. Tricking parents (such as lying about homework and report cards) is a strategy children employ not because they are purposefully being bad, but because they are scared of not doing well. By providing both clues to their children's behavior and suggestions for changing it, Johnson will have parents breathing a sigh of relief. --Ericka Lutz

From Booklist

For parents, as for teachers, Johnson says, effectively monitoring children's educational progress is a matter of believing that education is important, reviewing homework assignments, charting academic progress, enforcing rules, and rewarding good work. Useful supporting tactics, she adds, include improving reading ability, responding to preferred learning styles, motivating for success, identifying and accommodating learning disabilities, and discouraging sex, drugs, smoking, and drinking. Johnson potently blends psychology, educational theory, and parenting skills and then attractively presents the mixture in savvy, street-smart, no-nonsense style, with case studies and examples that are engrossing, realistic, and illustrative of her many tips, techniques, and strategies for improving children's educational performance supportively and sensibly. Kathryn Carpenter --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion Books (Adult Trd Pap) (June 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078688312X
• ISBN-13: 978-0786883127
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,989,475 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