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It was a recipe for dysfunction: a poet who hates school born to two scientists with six college degrees between them. And sure enough, little Joan Cutuly became a model student and, after finally relinquishing her dream of being a writer, a model teacher. Administrators even gave her an award for the way she taught writing as a problem-solving strategy. But when her students used what she taught them to solve the gang problems plaguing their inner-city school, administrators stifled the student effort and banned Cutuly without cause from the teaching profession. Telling her story with humor and pathos, Cutuly resists the temptation to see herself as one more dedicated teacher victimized by the system. Instead, she confronts questions even more disturbing than what happened to her. Why do teachers implement policies theyknow are harmful to students? Why have no administrators or politicians been held accountable for fifty years of ineffectual school reform? And what’s been lost to our children by eliminating the arts from our schools? In the end, this story of lessons learned too late shows that it’s never too late to learn and suggests that with a little more imagination and fewer bureaucrats, solving the problems in our schools may not be as complicated or expensive as we’ve been led to believe.
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