Badass Teachers Unite!: Writing on Education, History, and Youth Activism

(Paperback)

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This collection of important and much-needed essays on education and youth activism draws from Naison's research on Bronx History and his experiences defending teachers and students from school reform policies which undermine their power and creativity. Naison's focus is identifying teaching and organising strategies that have worked effectively in New York, and could be implemented in impoverished communities elsewhere.

Reviews

Mark Naison has woven a series of provocative essays into a powerful book. No traditional scholarly treatise, Badass Teachers Unite! is an education manifesto for the peoples school reform movement. With clarity, verve, and passion, Naison outlines the challenges we face in transforming public schools and he forges a guide to our actions. This book is must reading for anyone concerned about the plight of public schools in the USA today. Henry Louis Taylor Jr., director, UB Center for Urban Studies, University at Buffalo Mark Naison is a badassand it took one to write this rousing pronouncement to the militancy emerging among todays schoolteachers. There was an era when educators were feared by the corporate establishment. As Time magazine wrote in 1963, The U.S. teacher used to be afraid to smoke, chew, cuss or ask for a raise. Now he denounces crowded classrooms, upbraids lawmakers, and goes on strike almost as readily as a dockworker. Mark Naisons Badass Teachers Unite! brings back the attitude we need to confront the corporate reform bullies and reclaim our schools. Jesse Hagopian, history teacher, Garfield High School, Seattle, Washington, and associate editor for Rethinking Schools magazine
Mark Naison has woven a series of provocative essays into a powerful book. No traditional scholarly treatise, Badass Teachers Unite! is an education manifesto for the peoples school reform movement. With clarity, verve, and passion, Naison outlines the challenges we face in transforming public schools and he forges a guide to our actions. This book is must reading for anyone concerned about the plight of public schools in the USA today. Henry Louis Taylor Jr., director, UB Center for Urban Studies, University at Buffalo Mark Naison is a badassand it took one to write this rousing pronouncement to the militancy emerging among todays schoolteachers. There was an era when educators were feared by the corporate establishment. As Time magazine wrote in 1963, The U.S. teacher used to be afraid to smoke, chew, cuss or ask for a raise. Now he denounces crowded classrooms, upbraids lawmakers, and goes on strike almost as readily as a dockworker. Mark Naisons Badass Teachers Unite! brings back the attitude we need to confront the corporate reform bullies and reclaim our schools. Jesse Hagopian, history teacher, Garfield High School, Seattle, Washington, and associate editor for Rethinking Schools magazine

Author Bio

Mark Naison is professor of African American studies and history at Fordham University. He is author of many books and articles including Communists in Harlem During the Depression and White Boy: A Memoir. The founder of the Bronx African American History project, Naison has emerged in the last five years as a passionate defender of America's public school teachers and students, founding groups like Dump Duncan, the Teachers Talk Back Project, and most recently, the Badass Teachers Association.