Work Hard. Be Nice.: How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America

Work Hard. Be Nice.: How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America Review

I am a public school teacher who frequently gets frustrated at the bureaucracy of public education. It is a very long process to get rid of bad teachers and to get approval to do anything innovative. I had heard about KIPP in the news and was interested to learn more about it so picked this book up. I was surprised in how hard it was to put it down as I was glued to the back-story that Jay Mathews painted so clearly.

It is a shame so many people, unions, administrators and bureaucrats (most of which tend to be center-left in thinking) are so against charter schools. Yes, as with anything, there are good and bad charter schools but I would have to guess there are a whole lot less bad charter schools than there are regular, bad district-based schools.

Even if you are not a fan of the charter movement, I would highly recommend this book. Sometimes when your only goal is what is best to educate students, the answers have to be found outside of the system. I am not saying what they have done is perfect and I found some areas that I really did not agree with but the results are pretty impressive!

Work Hard. Be Nice.: How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America Feature

• ISBN13: 9781565125162
• Condition: New
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Work Hard. Be Nice.: How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America Overview

When Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin signed up for Teach for America right after college and found themselves utter failures in the classroom, they vowed to remake themselves into superior educators. They did that—and more. In their early twenties, by sheer force of talent and determination never to take no for an answer, they created a wildly successful fifth-grade experience that would grow into the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), which today includes sixty-six schools in nineteen states and the District of Columbia.

KIPP schools incorporate what Feinberg and Levin learned from America's best, most charismatic teachers: lessons need to be lively; school days need to be longer (the KIPP day is nine and a half hours); the completion of homework has to be sacrosanct (KIPP teachers are available by telephone day and night). Chants, songs, and slogans such as "Work hard, be nice" energize the program. Illuminating the ups and downs of the KIPP founders and their students, Mathews gives us something quite rare: a hopeful book about education.

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