Relentless Pursuit

Zusatztext Richly detailed. . . . Her book is the most interesting account of inner-city high school life in many years and only whets my appetite for more. The Washington Post Book World A vivid parallel account of the challenges these new teachers face and the challenges of building a movement for change within education. . . . This could be the book that moves Teach for America firmly into the broader national consciousness. New York Post Here is skilled! attentive documentary work become an instrument for the reader's moral and social reflection educational idealism! its achievements and its tribulations as they envelop the lives of schoolchildren! and their longtime teachers! their newly arrived ones: the effort to 'teach for America' become a social! psychological lesson all its own.Robert Coles! author of Children of Crisis This important book is also a gripping read. From the first page! when Locke High School is locked down! Foote's compelling and inspiring characters draw us into the dizzying challenge of trying save the next generation and redeem the promise of America. Relentless Pursuit is not just for anyone who cares about poor kids and education. It's for anyone who cares about the future of the country."Jonathan Alter! author of The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope "This book beautifully conveys the spirit! dedication and heroism of Teach For America and shows why it is such a valuable experience both for its corps members and their students."Walter Isaacson! author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life I will put this simply this is one of the most profound books I have ever read. Donna Foote's Relentless Pursuit will make you cringe. It will make you cry. It will make you cheer. Most important! it gives proof that education! under conditions that should make every American ashamed! can work with a beauty beyond all imagination. Just magnificent and inspiring.Buzz Bissinger! author of Friday Night Lights and A Prayer for the City Foote's account couldn't be better-timed. Her inside view of TFA's self-reinventiondemonstrates what relentless reflection on! and revision of! a mission and its methods can accomplish. The lessons on display are especially important for an era in which a ruthless focus on student outcomes risks overlooking a key ingredient of that enterprise: inputs for teachers! who need all the help they can get as they face an educational culture of new pressures and expectations! along with age-old challenges.Foote's fine-grained account of Locke supplies the larger context and a corrective.Sara Mosle! Slate Informationen zum Autor Donna Foote Klappentext When Locke High School opened its doors in 1967! the residents of Watts celebrated it as a sign of the changes promised by Los Angeles. But four decades later! first-year Teach for America recruits Rachelle! Phillip! Hrag! and Taylor are greeted by a school that looks more like a prison! with bars! padlocks! and chains all over. With little training and experience! these four will be asked to produce academic gains in students who are among the most disadvantaged in the country. Relentless Pursuit lays bare the experiences of these four teachers to evaluate the strengths and peculiarities of Teach for America and a social reality that has become inescapable. Lockdown When the lights went off in room 241 during her fourth-period special ed biology class, Rachelle didn't think anything of it. The bells seemed to ring constantly at Locke High School. Why should she expect the lights to work? This Monday was the first day of the first full week of the first year of the first job of her professional life. Never mind that she had had only five weeks of training. Over the summer, Rachelle Snyder, psychology major and former captain of the University o...

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Donna Foote

Texte du rabat

When Locke High School opened its doors in 1967, the residents of Watts celebrated it as a sign of the changes promised by Los Angeles. But four decades later, first-year Teach for America recruits Rachelle, Phillip, Hrag, and Taylor are greeted by a school that looks more like a prison, with bars, padlocks, and chains all over.

With little training and experience, these four will be asked to produce academic gains in students who are among the most disadvantaged in the country. Relentless Pursuit lays bare the experiences of these four teachers to evaluate the strengths and peculiarities of Teach for America and a social reality that has become inescapable.

Échantillon de lecture
Lockdown

When the lights went off in room 241 during her fourth-period special ed biology class, Rachelle didn’t think anything of it. The bells seemed to ring constantly at Locke High School. Why should she expect the lights to work?

This Monday was the first day of the first full week of the first year of the first job of her professional life. Never mind that she had had only five weeks of training. Over the summer, Rachelle Snyder, psychology major and former captain of the University of Pennsylvania soccer team, had become Miss Snyder—or sometimes just Miss—special education teacher at Locke High School in Watts. The transition had been surprisingly easy to make. Except for the fifteen pounds she gained, Teach For America’s “institute,” aka boot camp, didn’t bother her. It was like soccer training: she woke up early, worked hard, got the job done. She was exhausted—they all were. But during breaks, when other teachers-in-training were having panic attacks, Rachelle would catnap on the concrete benches that line the walkway along Locke’s inner quad, her long blond hair bunched up beneath her head like a pillow, trousers rolled up, her pale skin bathed in the harsh white light of the L.A. sun.

The day had started well. She’d gotten to school early, reviewed her lesson plan, and made sure that the desks were still arranged in clusters of four, exactly the way she’d left them on Friday. The morning had flown by. The kids in the early periods were attentive, eager to please. She particularly liked her girl-heavy third period. Three fourteen-year-olds had children of their own at home, and a fourth was pregnant. She found that out after she had the kids make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as a way to introduce the idea of steps and procedures in science. “You think I don’t know how to make peanut butter sandwiches?” retorted one girl. “I got a baby at home and he always be screamin’ for them.”

Maybe it was Rachelle’s blond hair and light blue eyes—the girls seemed drawn to her. Some even brought their friends to the classroom to get a look. “See!” they squealed. “She looks just like a Barbie doll!” Rachelle couldn’t access their computerized Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), the government-mandated plans of instruction and services specially tailored to meet the specific needs of each student with a diagnosed learning disability. So she had no way of knowing how these smart, streetwise girls had come to be sitting there, hanging on her every word.

She had a pretty good idea how the twenty boys in her fourth-period class got there. They were in special ed because their behavior interfered with their ability to learn. It was certainly interfering with her ability to teach. These boys were rude, crude, and disrespectful. She didn’t think it had anything to do with her gender, her race, or her youth. She was reasonably certain that they behaved badly with every authority figure.

It was only five days into the school year, and she felt she was already losing control of period four. She had been wrestling with how to handle all her special ed kids, but these boys were especially troubling. Her instinct was to try to win them over with kindness. They&#82…