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Racist Book About a White Teacher and Black Students


Troy

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...of course we have all heard this story before.  It was recently covered in my hometown newspaper, the New York Post with a title reflecting the sensibilities of New Yorkers, "My year of terror and abuse teaching at a NYC high school."

81lczdami0l.jpg.4454b784834da9964590575aThe article goes on to relate;

In 2008, in a fit of idealism, Ed Boland, a well-off New Yorker who had spent 20 years as an executive at a nonprofit, had a midlife epiphany: He should leave his white-glove world, the galas at the Waldorf and drinks at the Yale Club, and go work with the city’s neediest children.

In the end, Boland isn't hoisted on his students' shoulders and no one passes AP anything. This is no urban fairy tale of at-risk kids saved by a Hollywood hero, but a searing indictment of schools that claim to be progressive but still fail their students. Told with compassion, humor, and a keen eye, Boland's story is sure to ignite debate about the future of American education and attempts to reform it.

The article, and I presume the book, goes on to describe case after case of dysfunction, presented our amusement.  The school of course is not a regular school; the students all seem to have profound problems.

At the end of the day, the rich white guy was obviously unqualified to instruct these students.  After a few months of failure he then secures a book deal, plenty of media coverage, and make even more money.  

I wonder if he ever considers how the school year he spend with those students was wasted. I'm sure this guy was raised reading books like, A Birthday Cake for George Washington.

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I will take the blame for this since I've taken on "difficult" teaching assignments in bad areas and I more than succeeded, but I didn't write a book about it... and I probably wouldn't get published if I did write a book. No one wants to hear the good story. People want gloom and doom to justify their charity.

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To be fair mainstream publishers have published a bunch of books where Black folks have been the ones to turn around a school.  But lately the focus is profiting off dysfunction.  So I agree your story would probably not get published today.

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