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Sunday, September 12, 2010

Every child can excel: If only the teachers unions would get behind schools that work

Every child can excel: If only the teachers unions would get behind schools that work

Every child can excel: If only the teachers unions would get behind schools that work

Sunday, September 12th 2010, 4:00 AM

A very long time ago, I got a job I didn't deserve: teaching English at one of the best private schools in the country, Harvard School (now Harvard-Westlake) in Los Angeles. I had lucked out and knew it, and I tried to keep my mouth shut and learn as much as I could from my erudite colleagues.

The following year, the school made a second improbable hire. The new English teacher, Mike Piscal, was fresh out of college, a rugby player from New Jersey who couldn't pronounce the names of half the characters in "The Odyssey" and who handed back his first set of sophomore essays printed with red wine stains. During his second week of school he pissed off the chairwoman of the board of trustees (a personage I'd never laid eyes on) so severely he had to go on the lam, spending his free periods in the trainer's office



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/09/12/2010-09-12_every_child_can_excel_if_only_the_teachers_unions_would_get_behind_schools_that_.html#ixzz0zKLEhGb4