Letters to a Young Teacher

From his perspective of over forty years in education, Jonathan Kozol writes a series of warm letters to Francesca, a new first-grade teacher at an inner-city school in Boston. Visiting her class and answering her questions has Kozol reflecting on his experiences with motivating students, eschewing administrative control, and dealing with standardized testing. Several of the personal stories will seem familiar to Kozol fans, but this new presentation makes them live again, and it's always refreshing to hear someone speaking sense about education. David Drummond delivers the material well. At some points his voice and words are gentle, as if trying to calm the new teacher; at others his tone is passionate and tinged with anger at the insanity of current policies. S.W. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

October 15, 2007
Kozol provides another tract on the politics of education, slightly disguised as an ongoing (albeit one-way) dialogue with a young teacher named Francesca from Boston. Each letter provides long, extensive discussions about public education as well as the specifics of Francesca's classroom and his own classes in the past. Drawing upon a lifetime of experience and research, Kozol addresses a wide range of issues, including standardized testing, voucher programs, school segregation, student creativity, objective outcomes and recess. Drummond performs the role of doting and inspiring senior quite well. His elderly voice brims with hope and concern for the next generation of teachers and the battles they will have to face inside and outside the classroom. However, the sound editing for this audiobook is particularly poor, with Drummond's voice shifting abruptly every couple of tracks. Drummond's voice sounds audibly different on these rerecorded tracks, which significantly disrupts the listener's experience. Simultaneous release with the Crown hardcover (Reviews, June 4).

Starred review from June 4, 2007
Forty years ago, Death at an Early Age
catapulted Kozol into national prominence as a compassionate yet clearheaded observer of the rotten state of American education. His latest book reviews many of the basic issues he has spent his life exploring through teaching and writing. Here, he cleverly weaves his observations—as well as a thinly disguised biographical memoir—into a series of 16 letters written to “Francesca,” a first-grade teacher at an inner-city public school in Boston. Overall, the book will delight and encourage first-year (or for that matter, 40th-year) teachers who need Kozol's reminders of the ways that their “beautiful profession” can “bring joy and beauty, mystery and mischievous delight into the hearts of little people in their years of greatest curiosity.” But his encouraging words rarely lapse into treacle. In fact, he offers tough observations on American education addressed to a larger audience. His forceful opinions are convincingly argued—most notably, that educational vouchers will deepen divisions between diverse groups in racially decided cities; that middle schools demoralize students and should be abolished entirely; and that the Gates Foundation made a “damaging mistake” in aggressively funding a “small school craze” that will reinforce “the racial isolation of the students they enroll.”

January 21, 2008
Kozol provides another tract on the politics of education, slightly disguised as an ongoing (albeit one-way) dialogue with a young teacher named Francesca from Boston. Each letter provides long, extensive discussions about public education as well as the specifics of Francesca's classroom and his own classes in the past. Drawing upon a lifetime of experience and research, Kozol addresses a wide range of issues, including standardized testing, voucher programs, school segregation, student creativity, objective outcomes and recess. Drummond performs the role of doting and inspiring senior quite well. His elderly voice brims with hope and concern for the next generation of teachers and the battles they will have to face inside and outside the classroom. However, the sound editing for this audiobook is particularly poor, with Drummond's voice shifting abruptly every couple of tracks. Drummond's voice sounds audibly different on these rerecorded tracks, which significantly disrupts the listener's experience. Simultaneous release with the Crown hardcover (Reviews, June 4).

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.