“What a wonderful book! Anyone who cares about rebuilding our public education system should read it. I could not put it down!”
—Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education, Stanford University

“This book cuts to the heart of the matter of what it means to be a teacher today. The truth about testing, vouchers and their impact on public schools–it’s all captured here. But here, too, we also experience the exhilaration of putting together lesson plans, the joys of comforting children, and the anxiety of a teacher’ s first days in school. Francesca’s journey will leave you hopeful for our nation’ s children.”
—Reg Weaver, President, National Education Association

“Jonathan Kozol’ s advice to the teacher Francesca shows all the qualities that make him the nation’ s wisest and boldest and most clear-headed writer on education: his passion for teaching, his respect for students, his refusal to submit to the stifling demands of the educational bureaucrats in and out of government. He tells personal classroom stories with a refreshing honesty, and conveys the excitement and joy of preparing a new generation to remake the world. Teachers, students, parents alike will find this book inspiring.”
—Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States

 
JONATHAN KOZOL is the National Book Award–winning author of Death at an Early Age, The Shame of the Nation, and Savage Inequalities. He has been working with children in their inner-city schools for more than 40 years.