Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way: Lessons from an Urban Classroom (Teaching for Social Justice) (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: spectacular things, Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way, Cabrini Green, Problem That Needs Solving (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

''Brian Schultz offers an important account of a social action project that includes both a vision and concrete strategies for teachers to consider... Most surely, the story can help teachers realize the value of placing student needs and interests at the center of the curriculum.... Even teachers who enter the field committed to teaching for social justice can struggle to envision how their progressive values should impact their teaching. Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way might help. Schultz and the students successfully navigated an accountability driven system so to develop an empowering, as opposed to oppressive, school experience. ... Schultz's narrative shows how students can simultaneously develop activist and subject-specific academic skills prioritized in most educational systems today. His work with his students can stand as a model of the social reconstructionist curriculum orientation, as he shows us how children can be taught to believe in and build a better world. ... Schultz offers an important contribution to literature on the civic engagement of youth.'' -- Schools: Studies in Education

''This book is more than just a recounting of a very interesting year in the classroom. ... Schultz realized that in order to engage his students in their own learning, he also needed to find ways to empower them. [Schultz] demonstrated that project-based learning can be an effective way of students learning important skills. ... This book from Schultz has a lot to offer us all as we consider how to make the educational experience we offer our children truly productive. Read the book, then ponder it.'' -- DailyKos

''A compelling narrative of multicultural uplift that prospective teachers will embrace and find deeply engaging as they ponder their own trajectory into the classroom.'' Educational Studies

''Schultz emphasizes how his young students, forgotten by many, were learning how to produce change and were creating their own education in the process. ... Schultz does describe the way that teachers can utilize ideas that are based in democracy and progressivism, even if their entire curriculum cannot become like his. ... The gap between theory and practice remains, yet Schultz is able to show how these two parts of education do not necessarily need to be adversaries, and how inclusion of student voices can work to connect broad ideas and concrete action.'' --Education and Urban Society

''Sometimes we need an outside voice to tap us on the shoulder and say: 'Snap out of it!' Brian Schultz's ''Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way'' does just that. It also sheds valuable light on the necessity for teachers, administrators, parents and policy-makers to tear themselves free from acquiescing to the often suffocating inertia of standardized education. Not every class or every teacher is capable of such a complete break from standard classroom experiences. However, there is much to be gained from Schultz's example of the possibilities of student-directed (rather than textbook-directed) learning, assessment via portfolio building (rather than high-stakes test scores) and collaborative project work (rather than teaching to the test).'' --The Huffington Post

''Education books such as Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way: Lessons from an Urban Classroom are 'rare.' Writings that trouble prevailing non-critical constructions, that give a true sense of what it is like to teach in an urban school, and that portray African Americans as achievers (other than on athletic fields) are rare. Finding a book where readers can almost feel what it is like to be there as a witness and where the theoretical and methodological approaches to intellectual inquiry are connected to the cultural, political and personal is indeed unusual. Schultz's book attempts to get to the root of the is" -- Journal of Educational Controversy, Winter 2008, Vol. 3, No. 1

"Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way follows Brian Schultz as he teaches an inner city class something far more valuable than academics -- determination and a feeling of self worth. An inspired and inspiring tale sure to give hope in the next generation ensues."
--The Midwest Book Review

Product Description

''Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way renewed my belief that it is possible to write authentic narratives about urban schools.... I plan to make this book required reading for my teacher education students...''
--From the Foreword by Carl A. Grant, University of Wisconsin, Madison

''Once I began reading, I couldn't put it down. The power here is in the details. It s a marvelous, important book and is badly needed at a moment when the values it upholds are under an unrelenting assault from forces of reactionary ignorance.''
--Jonathan Kozol, author of Amazing Grace.

''In a time of ever more testing and standardization, Brian Schultz demonstrates in powerful ways what the critically democratic alternative looks like. Anyone who wants to make a difference in urban education needs to read this book.''
--Michael W. Apple, author of Educating the ''Right'' Way

''An amazing tale of incredible fifth-grade citizen activists that reveals what education in America's inner cities could and should be.''
--Jeannie Oakes, Presidential Professor in Education Equity, UCLA

''The lessons about curriculum and teaching are powerful and the story is absolutely inspiring.''
--James A. Beane, author of A Reason to Teach: Creating Classrooms of Dignity and Hope

''Carr Community Academy is a crumbling elementary school in Chicago next to one of the largest and most perilous public housing projects-Cabrini Green. It also is the location of one of the more spectacular fifth-grade classes in the country.''
--Ralph Nader, consumer advocate, author, and founder, Public Citizen research group

''This fifth-grade class illustrates some important lessons about America: The neglect of the inner-city poor, the virtues of creative public service, of teaching to educate-not just to pass a test-and of perseverance.''
--Robert Siegel, All Things Considered, National Public Radio

''When city kids are thought to be nothing more than a tangle of pathologies and deficits who must be 'saved' by crusading, missionary teachers the result is always some form of colonization. In this extraordinary book, Brian Schultz, a courageous teacher writing here with clarity and passion, performs a radical reversal and provides an alternative.''
--William Ayers, Distinguished Professor of Education, University of Illinois at Chicago, and author of To Teach

''Through their compelling school improvement efforts, Schultz and his fifth graders clearly counter the colonizing policy that says only the privileged can be educated through freedom to pursue personal interests and collective commitments.''
--William H. Schubert, University Scholar, University of Illinois at Chicago

What happens when a teacher resists the pressures of ''teaching to the test'' and creates a curriculum based on student needs, wants, and desires? Brian Schultz did just that when he challenged his students from a housing project in Chicago to name a problem in their community that they wanted to solve. When the students unanimously focus on replacing their dilapidated school building, an unforgettable journey is put into motion. As his students examine the conditions of their blighted school and research the deeper causes of decay, they set off on a mission of remedy and repair. It is finally their own questions and activities that power their profound self-transformations. This moving story is a tribute to what determined teachers are able to achieve in the current stifling environment of high-stakes testing and standardization. Anyone who has faith in creativity, commitment, and the deep potential of inner-city children and youth will want to read this book.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Teachers College Press (March 14, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807748579
• ISBN-13: 978-0807748572
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #81,780 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone should read this book!!, April 11, 2008

By	Iris Addams (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

Truly one of the most inspiring and thought-provoking reads I've encountered in a long time. This book speaks to the very heart of what teaching and learning should be. Schultz takes you deep into the heart of room 405 where he and his 5th grade students are transformed into community activists fighting for justice in the form of a new school. This is a powerful story of students motivated to lead, and a teacher courageous enough to follow that lead. The hope, will, and tenacity of these students demonstrate what's possible in education when kids are engaged in authentic purposes for learning. This book is a must-read for anyone who cares about children, education, or the role of schools in creating an active citizenry. Rarely has a book made me feel so inspired. The journey of these students and their teacher, as the title suggests, is truly spectacular.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real look at education..., July 7, 2008

By	Jen McSurley "Believer of all students." (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

Brian D. Schultz's "Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way: Lessons from an Urban Classroom" is a beautifully written, well-researched, and heartfelt account of one classroom's journey from stereotyped and ignored to empowered, challenged and brilliant. Schultz's narrative intelligently interweaves the students thoughts, hopes, disappointments, work, and words with his own reservations, thoughts, struggles, and triumphs. Furthermore, he manages to connect, explain, and reinforce their story with some of the greatest educational philosophy and research available (e.g. Dewey. Kozol, Freire, etc.).

What is this read about?
It's about Room 405. In 2004, Schultz was a 5th grade teacher at Chicago's Carr Community Academy. And in short, Schultz participates in a workshop called Project Citizen, which in turn inspires Schultz to do something new with Room 405. He asks the students to identify a problem that they care about/want to solve, and from there, a year-long curriculum was created by the students and for the students of Room 405.
What do the students decide upon?
Room 405 decides that they need a new school because their school is obviously falling apart, so they set-up an Action Plan that consists of the ways in which they are going to go about this undertaking (e.g. writing letters to legislators, interviewing the principal, emailing newspapers, etc.).
What happens after they decide on their problem and what they are going to do?
Are you serious? Just read the book!

As an educator myself, I want to point out that Schultz's Social Justice teaching, as exemplified in this book, should have all of the skeptics and naysayers believing because the proof was and is in the students and the results of what they learned, shared, achieved, and experienced together.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Authentic learning at its best!, May 13, 2008

By	Joe Teacher (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way: Lessons from an Urban Classroom (Teaching for Social Justice) (Teaching for Social Justice) (Hardcover)

I have had the honor to not only know Dr. Schultz, but also his students from room 405. I was a fifth grade teacher at the time, and I tried to get my students involved with what his students were fighting for by them serving as pen pals and by personally making a visit to the school to witness their fight. Brian is a gifted educator who inspires the reader to reflect upon how they teach and learn. Whether or not the reader is a teacher is irrelevant. Humans constantly teach and learn throughout their lifetime. Brian demonstrates that when given some choice in what is deemed important to the student, authentic and meaningful learning can and will occur. This is true in both children and adults. This journey was important for the students of room 405 as well as for Brian. The students were given choice in what they would learn and how, and the teacher learned while taking the journey with them. Teaching and learning embrace each other, and Brian shows us that through his experiences with his students. This is a must-read not only for teachers and administrators, but for parents and those who are lifelong learners.