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Work Hard Be Nice How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America Jay Mathews Books

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Work Hard Be Nice How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America Jay Mathews Books

The book is very readable and anyone interested in the history of education in the US should read it. However, it's more of a love letter to KIPP than it is an analysis of their place in education reform. It mostly turns the KIPP story into Feinberg and Levin vs. bureaucrats, public schools and apathy, with Feinberg and Levin triumphing. He does make some mention of KIPP possibly receiving better prepared students than other schools, and of them benefitting from higher attrition rates, but then quickly brushes those concerns aside with some vague mention of how KIPP is working on making improvements. He does the same with KIPP's high teacher turnover rate. The problem with books like these is that they promote the idea that the way to improve education in the US is to put a Levin, Ball or Esquith in every classroom. While that would certainly be wonderful, it's completely absurd. Imagine a sports team saying their plan to improve was to put a Michael-Jordan calibre player at every position. Education in the US will not improve on a wide scale until it becomes possible for ordinary teachers to succeed in classrooms. Of course that entails reducing our appalling rates of child poverty and incarceration, among other things, reforms that would be mindbendingly complex and fraught with potential for failure and corruption. Far better to tell the simple narrative of the brave teachers slaying the dragons of public school mediocrity. One last complaint: why the anecdotes about their love lives? Reading those destroyed the paper-thin illusion that the book was by a journalist, and not a PR hack.


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Work Hard Be Nice How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America Jay Mathews Books Reviews

Recommended to teachers wanting to know more about good teaching practices and understand the KIPP charter schools in depth. I found that this book corrected a lot of the misinformation I had about KIPP and charter schools in general. I especially liked that the book was not simply applauding founders, Dave Levin and Mike Feinberg, but rather showing their journey through the lens of who they were warts and all, and who they eve olives to become in their creation of the KIPP network. They learned from mistakes and devoted time to reflection - doing more of what worked well and willing to change what did not work or prove to be motivating. One of my takeaways about the KIPP schools is the willingness of the educators and administrators to keep examining what is working and not working and act quickly to change it for the purpose of supporting the children. It's evident that the success of kids is paramount in the minds and hearts of the leaders, educators, and mentors at KIPP. I highly recommend this book!
KIPP (KNowledge is Power Program) schools have recieved a lot of press recently. Malcolm Gladwell's best-selling book "Outliers," devotes a whole chapter to prais of KIPP's methods. A few years ago, the book "No Excuses" offered KIPP schools as a prime eample of how poor and minority students can excel as well as those in the status quo. As a teacher, I have been long curious about KIPP schools, their backstory, and how they educate.

This is that story. In Work Hard, Be Nice, a journalist tells the story of two Teach for America teachers, Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin, who were dissatisfied with the public schools in which they taught. They created a small program (not a school, but a program within a school) based on the methods of some of their mentors. Students had longer days, more homework, "thinking skills," class, etc. AS the program experienced overwhelming success, a program became a school, which became two schools, which became a charter, which became a nationally recognized name in charter schools.

As a teacher, I cannot reccomend this book highly enough. Not only does it tell a very inspiring story, but it also offers some great advice to teachers, as seeing KIPP's methods gives us clues on how to harness some of these methods in our schools. We see Feinberg, Levin, and the host of teachers who joined them, experiment with different methods of discipline, instruction and motivation and get to see what worked and did not.

I reccomend this book not only to teachers, but those concerned with the difference between how education is and how it can be. There is even a discussion towards the end of the book (after KIPP's story has been well told) about the merits and demerits of KIPP methods and whether such methods could work in any but a charter school. Thus, this book would appeal not only to teachers, but those concerned with education policy.

It may even restore some faith in the possibility of education!
First., I want to say I am not in the field of education. I got the book just based on the title. It is a winner. What an interesting book, written in a most entertaining style, regarding the field of intermediate school charter schools. Back in the day, when I was in school, there were no charter schools, and I was not in the least informed about them, and the promise that they hold. When I was in school, we were expected to behave in a very regimented way in school, never dreaming of talking in class, or even slouching in our seats! I realize that today, kids can behave in a much more casual way, i.e. texting in class, and talking back to teachers with impunity. These two teachers brought their enthusiasm and keen business sense into their classrooms, setting up a highly structured environment where inner city kids thrived. Not satisfied with the dismal prognosis of the poorest children in public school, they developed a program which succeeded in raising the level of their students to equal that of the best schools in their area. They then proceeded to multiply this success all around the country, until their KIPP schools are found in all corners of the land. If this is interesting to you, read it. You will enjoy it.
The book is very readable and anyone interested in the history of education in the US should read it. However, it's more of a love letter to KIPP than it is an analysis of their place in education reform. It mostly turns the KIPP story into Feinberg and Levin vs. bureaucrats, public schools and apathy, with Feinberg and Levin triumphing. He does make some mention of KIPP possibly receiving better prepared students than other schools, and of them benefitting from higher attrition rates, but then quickly brushes those concerns aside with some vague mention of how KIPP is working on making improvements. He does the same with KIPP's high teacher turnover rate. The problem with books like these is that they promote the idea that the way to improve education in the US is to put a Levin, Ball or Esquith in every classroom. While that would certainly be wonderful, it's completely absurd. Imagine a sports team saying their plan to improve was to put a Michael-Jordan calibre player at every position. Education in the US will not improve on a wide scale until it becomes possible for ordinary teachers to succeed in classrooms. Of course that entails reducing our appalling rates of child poverty and incarceration, among other things, reforms that would be mindbendingly complex and fraught with potential for failure and corruption. Far better to tell the simple narrative of the brave teachers slaying the dragons of public school mediocrity. One last complaint why the anecdotes about their love lives? Reading those destroyed the paper-thin illusion that the book was by a journalist, and not a PR hack.