The Limited Efficacy of "School Reform:" Drugs

I don’t know about anyone else; but I often find myself thinking that “school reform” fails for the most basic reason. 

It fails because school isn’t the place where many problems in schools take root.

(See also: absenteeism.)

Today the focus is drugs, on the catastrophic damage done to hundreds of thousands of children every day in homes.

I learned a bitter lesson back in 1976, as a new teacher. One day, Carolyn (all names changed), a young lady in my second bell class, was missing. I had been working with her, as best I could, but wasn’t having much success. She was chronically absent, exhausted if she made it to school, and repeatedly caused trouble for me and for her peers. On this particular morning she wasn’t in history at all.

During third bell a colleague filled in the outlines of a tragic tale. Carolyn had ingested some illegal substance on the way to school. In first period Language Arts her speech slurred. Her teacher grew alarmed, but before she could act, Carolyn began wobbling in her seat. Suddenly, her bodily functions failed. She soiled herself and toppled from her chair. The school nurse was summoned, then the Life Squad, and a terribly troubled 14-year-old left school strapped to a stretcher.

Carolyn survived that day—only to die four years later—but even then I had to wonder. What could we, as educators, do to help such young people? 

Like most educators, I never came up with a satisfactory answer.

Of course, I did everything I could. I gave any student who was doing poorly as many chances as possible to raise their grades. I sacrificed a thousand lunches to talk to teens in dire need of counseling of any kind. I provided my home phone number to parents and students who wanted to call. 

After spending a good part of one evening talking to parents I recorded these results in a diary I keep:

Spent 1½ hours on phone tonight with five parents. Bill -----’s mom has him in AA three nights a week and says he’s rated chemically dependent. (Cheryl, his sister, is also in the program on a limited basis.) Bill’s dad started him drinking at six—Bill got into his father’s cocaine. She says Walt and Rick [two other eighth graders] are dealing.

I retired in 2008. But last summer, waiting a turn at the barbershop, I had another one of those flashes when it seemed obvious the foundation of the argument for “school reform” rested in quicksand. A front page story in the Cincinnati Enquirer caught my eye. A pretty young woman, Samantha Gibson, 26, had just had her day in court. Her offense was minor, this time, so Gibson was going home. But she outlined her problems for a reporter. “I can’t get through the day without heroin,” she admitted.

Then, the detail that really hit hard: Gibson was the mother of three young kids.

According to the Enquirer, “more than 13,000 heroin users spent time in Greater Cincinnati jails [in 2014].” Not all were parents, but far too many were. Some had been arrested after leaving their children “alone at home or in cars because they were out trying to buy heroin.” The Enquirer went on to explain that there were medication-assisted treatment programs available. Unfortunately, all were costly and under optimal conditions only 50% to 65% of users got clean. 

Despite a stunning rise in overdose deaths, county governments in Ohio and other states had been cutting budget since 2008. Treatment was expensive and counties “rarely have millions of dollars available to pay for it.” In-patient programs, most expensive and successful of all, were prohibitively costly. Treatment, one expert told reporters, “is medical first;” but there weren’t enough doctors willing to help. Gibson tried to find care in 2014 but all the programs had long waiting lists.

Now a reporter watched the young mother as she was released. He followed as Gibson left the building—saw her light a cigarette—dig in a purse—pull out $25.

“That’s all I have to my name,” she admitted. She might just as well have added: “So, my poor children are doomed.”

I was fortunate to teach for thirty-three years and loved working with kids. Still, I saw how drugs ruined young lives. I remember asking Joey what his father was like. Joey and I had a good relationship; but he struggled a little in school. “My dad is a useless meth head,” he replied with a smile; and then I understood why Joey might not always focus on history. I remember Sam, too, who turned it around in seventh grade, partly with help from Julie Cohen,a dedicated student teacher. Only Sam didn’t stay turned around. He died three years later of a drug overdose, choking in his own vomit.

Yet, in those same years, Congress was promising every child would be proficient in reading and math. I kept reading stories about “dropout factories” and listening to cable news talk about “failing American schools.”

Across the nation, by 2015, one baby was born every hour, suffering from opiate withdrawal. That’s 8,760 newborns per year, with average cost of a hospital stay $53,400. USA Today referred to children “born into suffering,” but school reformers and politicians never blinked. They kept faulting educators for not undoing the damage done by too many parents, to too many kids, in too many homes.

Time and again, I could only shake my head. I read of a Pennsylvania mother, 22-year-old Sarah Kessler, who died of an overdose in her apartment. Before she was found her 9-month-old son starved to death.

I read about gang violence in Chicago, tied to the drug trade. I read about Tyshawn Lee, a 9-year-old boy, lured into an alley and gunned down during a battle over turf. I read that dozens of young people in that city were shot and killed every year. 

Then, in January 2016, I read that MaryAnn and Wesley Landers brought an infant daughter to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for care. They left an older child at home. What they didn’t leave was their heroin stash. Shortly after their daughter was operated on mom and dad decided to shoot up in the hospital room. A nurse discovered them sprawled on the linoleum at 11:34 a. m., but by then MaryAnn was dead.

I read these stories and switched on the news and heard experts insist “school reform”  was key to curing our nation’s ills. Listening to experts, I almost imagined educators wielded magic wands. But I taught for years. 

I knew they didn’t.

I certainly don’t claim to have the answers. I know what I’d be saying if I were U. S. Secretary of Education, however. I’d be arguing we’d should take the money wasted on standardized tests and pour it into expanded drug counseling and treatment for adult users and kids.

I’d argue that every school should have more counseling and psychological services for parents and children.

I’d make the case that every school should have a nurse practitioner on site and a clinic where young people could get quality care.

I’d urge lawmakers to push for reform and stop jailing non-violent drug offenders. The annual cost of keeping one inmate in federal prison comes to $30.619.85 per year. I’d let non-violent prisoners out.

I’d use the money saved to target problems that effect youth, including the fact 2.7 million kids  have one or both parents behind bars.

I’d tell school reformers to stop blaming society’s ills on educators and schools. I’d make it clear that America’s schools aren’t failing at all. 

Too often they’re overwhelmed.

There's no school reform there there.

The Limited Efficacy of "School Reform:" Absenteeism

As a veteran classroom teacher, I often find myself thinking that “school reform” fails for the most basic of reasons. 

That is: school isn’t the place where many problems in school begin. Consider the question of student attendance.

(And remember: teachers lack telepathic powers; they cannot educate a child who is not present for class.)

Over the years, as a teacher dealing with struggling seventh or eighth grade students, I often found it was my first task to convince them to stop making excuses. All too often, that also meant dealing with parents who were purveyors of the same kinds of excuses. As a teacher, then, I came to believe in many cases my job was to force people, young and old, to give up on all their alibis. No student (or parent) was going to make progress if they kept evading responsibility.

On my end, I tried to make sure no student willing to work would ever fail my class. If a young man failed a test, I told him to study again, come in after school and take the test again. If he got an “A” the second time around, I gave him the “A” and wiped out the “F.” I always wanted kids to succeed. As for missing homework, if a girl needed a second, third, fourth or fifth chance, I gave it. If a child fell behind, I offered ten chances if ten were required. I gave out my home phone number if students or parents needed to call and ask for help. I called home, too, when kids fell behind—my record for one student, fourteen calls during a year. And what I found was this: a student might have a good excuse for one missed assignment—or two—or even five—but eventually the stack of excuses grew too tall and tipped over with a crash.

Then most teens would look in the mirror.

Unfortunately, parents were often the problem—and in many cases “school reform” had a very hollow ring.

I was a team leader for more than a decade, and I remember one occasion when our team of teachers proved incapable of knocking over a mother’s giant pile of excuse. Nicole, a seventh grade girl, was missing entirely too much school. Repeated absences were killing her grades.

I called mom—more than once—and finally convinced her in April to come in for a morning meeting to talk. 

Of course, as teachers, you have to guard against your own tendency to make excuse. So I began with this: Maybe the problem was our team. Maybe Nicole was unhappy with how we were treating her. Maybe attendance had never been an issue before. Maybe the problem was us.

In fact, it might be me! Perhaps I had offended Nicole and now she shut down. So I checked her records for clues. 

It turned out Nicole missed 45 days in fifth grade, when her family lived in a different district. 

Records for sixth grade records were incomplete; but in three quarters of the year, after moving to Loveland, she missed another 42 days. 

Okay.

It wasn’t just me or my team. 

In our meeting with mom, a few days later, it was readily apparent Nicole’s mother had an excuse for every situation. Nicole was unlucky, she claimed. That’s why the girl missed so much school. Nicole was a “carrier for strep.” Members of our team put on a polite façade. Behind that façade, however, I was wondering: What about the previous week, when Nicole missed an entire day for a dental appointment?

Michelle Miranda, a dynamic young teacher on our team, tried to pin mom down. It was like mud-wrestling with eels and mom wriggled away. Steve Ball, a veteran and a great educator, tried next. Nicole, he explained, was on target to miss forty or fifty days of class during the current year. Absenteeism was killing her academically, making it hard to keep up in math, where concepts built one upon another. Nicole’s mother squirmed out of danger again, making another excuse, this time in her own defense. Mom wasn’t failing in her duties. Nope. “Nicole doesn’t like all the snobby kids in Loveland,” she explained. “That’s why she stays home.”

In other words: mom was innocent. She wasn’t failing as a mom. It was all those other snobby kids!

I explained to mom that Nicole could always come in and complete makeup work for my class. Honestly, my door was always open.

I had already explained this in calls home several times before.

Mr. Ball and others on our team made the same kind of offers—but Nicole had to come to school to get help.

By now, time was running short and first bell classes were about to begin. Always obsessive about missing time for instruction, I motioned my team to get going to first period. Steve hung back a moment and the three of us, mom included, walked out in the hall, where I tried one last shot. I told mom we liked Nicole and said Nicole had plenty of talent. But mom had to get her to school. 

Mom replied, “I just didn’t realize she had missed so many days.”

I saw a shadow of resignation cross Mr. Ball’s face. He thanked her politely for coming, pivoted, and headed for class.

I had first period conference. So I talked to mom a few more minutes, gave her my home phone number once more, and assured her I’d be happy to stay in at lunch or stay after school anytime Nicole wanted help.

To be honest, however, the only excuse I could think of for a mother like this, who allowed her daughter to miss more than 120 days of instruction in just three years, was that perhaps no one had taught her how to count. 

That meeting was on a Monday.

I stayed after school three afternoons that week and let students who had fallen behind come in and catch up on work. I offered the same option every day during lunch and even offered to come in early every morning before school.

Nicole missed two more days of class that same week and never bothered to try to stay and catch up.

Yeah: not a question of school reform.

***

I saved my best stories for my book.

I cover this topic at greater length in my book, Two Legs Suffice (Chapter 15: The Poison Ivy Dilemma) now available at Amazon.com.

For sample reviews of my book, check out this post.

***

For a recent look at this problem, nationwide, read: More Than Six Million Students Nationwide Are “Chronically Absent.”

A chart I once prepared for our school board,
showing students with serious attendance issues.
Mary, an eighth grader, was pregnant. Karen had a drug addiction.

The Opening Pages of Two Legs Suffice: Lessons Learned by Teaching.

Author’s Note

(December 12, 2019)

When I retired from teaching almost eleven years ago, I was already deeply concerned with the damage a monomaniacal focus on standardized testing was doing to students, first, but also teachers, administrators and true education.

In May 2008, I told my principal I considered teaching to the test to be “educational malpractice.”

At the time, however, it seemed I might be wrong. Almost all the experts were insisting that if we tested enough—basically, if we held educators accountable for test scores—student proficiency in math, science and reading would soar. After a generation of testing, what successes have we seen?

So, far, on almost all national and international tests, gains have been minimal, or American students have regressed. SAT scores, for example, declined year after year, until the test was simply revised. National Assessment of Educational Progress scores in reading and math at the fourth and eight grade levels rose slightly. But scores for seniors, the end “product” of school reform, never budged. 

When scores on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) were released recently, our students were actually scoring lower in 2018 than on the first tests given nearly twenty years ago.

In 2018, the average U.S. student scored 505 in reading. The average score in science was 502; and the average in mathematics was 478.

In 2000, on the first PISA tests ever administered, with students from 41 nations participating, our kids averaged 504 in reading, 499 in science, and 493 in math. It was those scores, meaning that U.S. students finished sixteenth in reading, fifteenth in science, and twentieth in math out of 41 countries, that caused school reformers to freak out and politicians to clamor for change. No child, lawmakers promised, would be left behind. The result was educational upheaval. Billions of dollars went to testing programs. And here we are. Up a measly point in reading, up three in science, and down fifteen in math.

I stand by my thinking from a decade ago. I believed then and still believe that standardized testing is educational malpractice.

*

Below you have Chapter 1, from Two Legs Suffice: Lessons Learned by Teaching, based on my 33 years in the classroom. (Two years in the Marine Corps also helped.)

Werre = war. 

Woot = knows.

Grunts = in the Vietnam War, the foot soldiers; in education, those who do all the fighting, students, parents and administrators.

*

I believe school reformers who talk about fixing schools know almost nothing about the real war to save children. 

I will soon put my entire book online, free, for anyone interested.

What would be the most obvious way to improve outcomes in any classroom or school?

1.

Talk to the Grunts

“Ther is many a man that creith ‘Werre! werre!

that woot ful litel what werre amounteth.”

Geoffrey Chaucer

I don’t drink much. Besides, it’s seven a.m. and I’m hardly awake. “Not again,” I mutter, rubbing my eyes and adding a string of expletives.

I hold in my hands another stinging editorial directed at teachers. This one, from The New York Times, carries the headline:

TEACHERS: WILL WE EVER LEARN?

The author is assistant professor in the Harvard Graduate School of Education. So you might assume he knows what he’s talking about.

            (You’d be wrong.)

He starts by outlining a “tidal wave” of school reforms since 1983. I taught for decades. So I remember them all. The professor lists vouchers, charter schools, state standardized tests, No Child Left Behind and “Race to the Top.” With implementation of Common Core in the offing a fresh round of reforms is about to commence.

He leaves out a laundry list of changes veteran educators might include but sums up results. U. S. K-12 education remains “stubbornly mediocre.”

I feel myself wavering. Is it too early for bourbon?

***

What is it we keep failing to learn? Apparently, the problem with education in this country is teachers.

According to the professor we have too many dumb ones manning the classrooms. Only 23% come from the top third of their college classes. What about Finland, a country whose schools are almost too good to be true? Finland has smart teachers. America needs to find smart teachers, under some rocks or something, and pronto.

As a former teacher, suddenly I feel like such a dolt.

“Well,” I wonder, “will we ever learn?” 

I set the editorial aside and gather my wits. I don’t think I’m deluding myself when I say I was a good teacher. I don’t think I’m hallucinating when I say I worked with a number of excellent educators and all kinds of good ones during my career. Call me stupid, I guess, but I would argue that teachers come in the same varieties, excellent, good, fair, and poor, as lumberjacks, car mechanics, congresspersons and Harvard professors.

I tell myself: “You can do your bit to answer the professor’s question if you do it right.”

The dilemma is how? How write a book about education that might offer useful insights? How capture the interest of some fraction of the general reading public? And is there some way to poke all the self-styled “education experts” where it hurts most?

I mean—in the ego.

Perhaps some sleazy sex and the right title might help: Fifty Shades of Grade Book? Nope. No way that’s going to sell.

All I did was spend my career in a large rectangular room in close company with teens. All I offer is a memoir about life in the classroom, a love story about working with thousands of kids.

Still, I’m compelled to try.

First, I mean this book as a defense of good educators—an explanation of what they do—and a look at the daunting problems they confront. There are plenty of bad books to choose from if you want to read about what teachers do wrong.

I also believe my book has value because of what it’s not. I won’t be offering the latest plan to fix the schools. I’m not an authority in the fixing field. I’m not Steven Brill or Arne Duncan or Michelle Rhee. U.S. Secretary of Education Duncan and former Washington D.C. School Chancellor Rhee we shall meet again. Brill is the prototypical critic and school fixer—a lawyer—who wrote a book about education, lambasting teachers: Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America’s Schools. Brill never bothered to teach. He studied “war” at a safe remove and didn’t have to worry about getting killed or maimed.

What do I know? Part of what I know I know because I sat in class as if in a coma during my own misspent youth. Another chunk I know because I dropped out of college in 1968 and joined the Marines. I know what I know, in part, because I’ve pedaled a bike across the United States.

Most of what I know I learned by teaching: American and Ancient World History, for thirty-three years, at the seventh and eighth grade levels, for Loveland City Schools, near Cincinnati, Ohio. That’s not an especially long tenure in the classroom. Nevertheless, it represents more time spent working with kids than Rhee and Brill and all nine U. S. Secretaries of Education combined. That fact alone ought to tell us something.

***

Naturally, training in history informs my thinking. More than two thousand years ago, when ancient Greeks named their Seven Wise Men, they placed Thales, scientist and philosopher, at the top of their list. Thales was once asked, “What is hard?” 

“To know thyself,” he replied.
 

“What is easy?”

“To give advice.”
 

America’s teachers know what Thales meant. Since passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2002, the focus of school reform has been almost entirely on those at the front of the classroom. Will we ever learn, the Harvard professor wonders? I’m not sure. But I suspect you might have asked any of four million U.S. educators and they could have told you the utopian law was flawed from the start.

But the promises of politicians and pronouncements of policy makers were unequivocal. By 2014 every child was going to be proficient in reading and math. Not 88%. Not 96%. Every single one.

In the thirteen years since NCLB was enacted into law, countless editorials and TV reports have bolstered one theme. Google: “education crisis in America” and 300,000,000 results pile up. Don’t have time to do all that reading? Here’s the capsule version: America’s schools are failing. Teachers are at fault.

Ms. Rhee became a brand name in school reform, turning up on television during one stretch as frequently as Law and Order reruns. In 2008 she graced the cover of Time, broom in hand, promising to clean out all the lousy teachers in Washington D.C. and fix the biggest problem in education. Sweep! Just like that! Even Oprah gave Rhee, who taught for only three years, some televised love.

Meanwhile, “Fox News and Friends” did an interview with John Legend, the singer, and asked him to comment on school-related issues. The segment, titled “America’s Education Crisis,” was accompanied by tags like: “The Trouble with Schools,” “A Broken System” and “Teachers Behaving Badly,” lest viewers miss the point.

On CNN Campbell Brown hosted a series called “America’s Schools in Crisis,” leading off with talk about “broken” and “failing” schools. When Geoffrey Canada, who runs a charter school in Harlem, insisted that “the people who produce the children are the teachers,” Brown let that stand without batting either of her lovely green eyes. I remember scratching my head, trying to figure out how my teachers produced me or how they produced my four kids.

Well, good job, teachers! All my children turned out fine. 

And so it came to pass.

The “heroes” of school reform sounded the charge, stood back, and let educators storm enemy lines. Tens of billions were spent to implement NCLB. Hundreds of millions of hours were devoted by teachers to preparing for, and by students to taking, standardized tests.

Standards didn’t rise. 

They fell.

President Obama rode into office in 2009, promising to fix flaws in how NCLB was implemented. A “race to the bottom,” he said, had been touched off when states lowered standards to avoid punishment under complex provisions of the law.

Mr. Obama would task Arne Duncan, ninth Secretary of Education, with leading a “Race to the Top.” Fresh billions would be offered to states if they created more charter schools and linked teacher pay to scores on standardized tests.

“It’s all about the talent,” Duncan assured any who would listen. It’s all about teachers.

In 2010 Davis Guggenheim set out to discover what was wrong with U. S. public education. (His view may have been impaired because he sent his children to elite private institutions.) In a critically-acclaimed documentary, Waiting for Superman, Guggenheim put a finger on what he saw as the issue. Rhee featured prominently, sneering at the efforts of D.C. teachers. While viewers watched in disbelief the film seemed to strip away the last fig leaf of doubt, “revealing” teachers in all their sloth and shame. The message of the movie, focusing narrowly on five children trying to escape “awful” public schools and get into charters, boiled down to this: If families could pick their schools problems in education would fade away.

I remember watching with disgust as Guggenheim painted a simplistic picture.

Yet, Brent Staples, critiquing the film for The New York Times, could come away from a viewing stunned and impressed. Readers who planned to see the movie, he warned, should take along handkerchiefs. Staples left no doubt who filled the villain’s role: “Public schools generally do a horrendous job of screening and evaluating teachers, which means that they typically end up hiring and granting tenure to any warm body that comes along.”

(Hmm…maybe I should title my book: 98.6°. Or: I Was a Teacher! I Had a Pulse!)

If assessments in the Times were harsh, educators had to take two steps back to avoid fire and brimstone from the right. Ann Coulter, in Godless, slammed teachers’ unions, labeled public schools “the Left’s madrassas,” and compared the U.S. education system to Soviet era factories, staying open even though products were hopelessly defective.

At best public schools were:

…nothing but expensive babysitting arrangements, helpfully keeping hoodlums off the streets during daylight hours. At worst, they are criminal training labs, where teachers sexually abuse the children between drinking binges and acts of grand larceny.

Neil Boortz, in Somebody’s Gotta Say It, argued that the danger went deeper. Teachers weren’t just incompetent. They were a threat to the Republic.

“Our government schools are killing the spirit of our children and, in the process, our country,” he groaned. “Our wonderful government educational system produces graduating classes of young Neanderthals with no sense of individuality, no sense of self-worth, and no understanding of what it means to live in a truly free society.”

Somebody had to say it—even if what Boortz had to say was incredibly stupid. So he spewed. “Teachers’ unions pose a graver long-term threat to freedom, prosperity and the future of this country than do Islamic terrorists.”

           (If he was right it would indicate a need to scan teachers’ baggage more carefully at airports.)

The author closes in on retirement: Spring 2008.
(He still loves teaching, though.)

IF ANYONE WANTS A DIGITAL COPY OF THE BOOK, SEND ME AN EMAIL, AND I’LL GIVE IT TO YOU FOR FREE:

vilejjv@yahoo.com

Sample Reviews for Two Legs Suffice: Lessons Learned by Teaching

When I set out to write a book about education, I was driven by three purposes. First, I wanted to explain what it is all good teachers try to do and explain some of the challenges that make it hard to save every child. Second, I wanted to pinpoint the one best way to improve schools—an obvious path everyone can follow, but a path that is hard and steep. Finally, I wanted to make it clear that standardized testing was a growing cancer in our schools.

(As a bonus, I wanted to reveal the arrogance of the school reformers who never teach.)

Check out the opening pages of the book.

***

A sampling of reviews follows:

Avery Foster, retired teacher, Loveland High School, Loveland, Ohio

Ms. Foster continued: Should be required reading for all teachers, students, administrators and citizens. 

Carla Conti Leach, teacher, Greensburg High School, Indiana: This is a great book. Mr. Viall totally understands the problems we face today in teaching.

Lori Chisman Barber, former Loveland student and mother: Near the end I was in tears over one sad story about a boy and then a half hour later I was laughing so hard at the ending paragraph that I was in tears again. I think every parent of school age children should read this book.

Julie Huddleston, former teacher, Fulton County, Georgia: Incredibly inspiring and spot-on when it comes to the issues teachers face today.

 Brad Henderson, former Loveland student, Rhodes Scholar: Just finished a memoir by one of the best teachers I ever had—John Viall (my middle school history teacher). I recommend it for anyone passionate about education. What a great read.

Sharon Hammond Nordstrom, teacher, Stockton City Schools: Author John Viall is direct and to the point in his assessment of what’s wrong with education in America. I found his knowledge coupled with wit, humor and sarcasm an enjoyable read…Everyone working with and for students should read this book. (For those who don’t have a clue what is going on in today’s classroom, this book will definitely enlighten beyond belief.)

 Ray Bailey, U. S. Army, Vietnam War veteran: I got the book last night and read half-through non-stop. I’ll finish tonight. It’s great! Your write up of me is right on and just enough. Last night I finished the book. I alternated between laughter and tears through the second half. You did a great job.

Alisha Taul, LEARN—Loveland Education Action Right Now, anti- testing group: I love your book! It should be required reading for politicians and local school boards. 

Martin Garneret, former Loveland student and businessman: I’ve burned through it in four sittings. Incredibly good book.

Vicky Leroy Busby, former Loveland student and mother: Two Legs Suffice made me laugh, cry, shake my head, cry some more, and laugh again. 

Emily Viall, daughter of the author: (Okay, you kind of figure my daughter would give me a good review; but I think her reactions say a great deal about the book): I gasped and laughed and cried out loud, multiple times. 

Monty Lobb (thirty-seven years, mostly with the Princeton City Schools): Upon reading John’s captivating story it became apparent to me, having been an administrator in education for over three decades, that John’s highly evolved communication skills serve as a bridge of rapport that engage not only his readers but I’m sure all of his students who have walked through the doors of his classroom as well. A highly enjoyable, informative, intriguing read as well.

 Terri Woods, retired school psychologist, Princeton City Schools: Current teachers and administrators will recognize the rhythm of typical school days in Viall’s book. It should be required reading for all legislators voting on “school reform” and unfunded mandates. Viall describes the issues teachers face daily and begs the question: “Why aren’t teachers at the table discussing school reform with lawmakers?” 

Karen Streng Tiffany, Cedarburg High School, Wisconsin: I just finished reading and I’m already debating when I will start to re-read it. I know, without a doubt, that I will keep it out on my desk this year. It will be a security blanket, a touchstone, to help me hold my head up, take a deep breath, and fearlessly (OK—maybe not so fearlessly) immerse myself in this calling I hold so dear. It is read, some passages two or three times, and sitting on my desk at school so it will continue to inspire me on a daily basis.

Bruce Maegly, retired teacher, Loveland Middle School: Two Legs Suffice: Lessons Learned by Teaching is incredibly well written…a fabulous read for parents, teachers, administrators and students alike.

Cheri King, teacher, Loveland, Ohio: I just finished an outstanding book in support of schools, teachers, and especially students…August is not a great month for a teacher to start a new book as any spare time is spent preparing for the new school year. It turns out reading this book was the best preparation possible…I highly recommend this book to anyone who cares about education.

 Lauren Turley, former Loveland student and current Texan: Hello Mr. Viall, I hope you are well! I was chatting with Sarah Mosby yesterday on the phone and she told me that you recently wrote a book on teaching and it is available for purchase. I am quite excited to read it, especially after her recommendation. I am a special education resource teacher to some brilliant third graders in San Antonio, Texas…You were always one of my favorite teachers, which is especially significant as your teaching graced my middle school years! I remember absolutely loving reading all about history in your packets and happily pouring over any and all writing assignments. This attitude has served me well in college and beyond. Thank you and take care.

Steven (former student, appears in book, didn’t know it):  Thank you very much John for helping me through history with my reading you made an impression in my life I’m very thankful how good of a man you are. With my schooling much better thank you; you made me feel much better about taking tests in your class when I should not of been there. I’m just thankful for having a real man at the right time in a classroom if you need any help on your house on your car leave it to me...I know too much I can fix too much and I’ll take care you because you were very good to me.

Calvin Schmieg, teacher, Montgomery County Schools, Kentucky: Such a great story of one teacher’s journey through a career as a middle school teacher. 

Melissa Popham, former Loveland student and legal assistant: I just wanted to let you know that I am really enjoying your book. I didn’t have the pleasure of having you for history, my brother Gary did, but as I read your book I really wish I had gotten to sit through your class. I never had a good attitude about history, I had the attitude it happened I couldn’t change it so why do I need to know it. I got by in school, but reading how you taught and how you strived to change kids with an attitude such as mine I wish I could of had that. (Facebook; 9-23-2015)

Tess Elking, former Loveland student and lab technician: I just finished reading your book. I must say it was highly addictive. I finished it in less than two days. I thought it was well-balanced with humor and information, very reminiscent of your classes!

Joe Bischoff, former Loveland student and businessman: I purchased you book, and read it over four days. Fantastic! ...I am a fan of the book and will be forwarding it on to others who may also find value in it. If you decide to bike across the U. S. again, and find yourself coming through/around NYC, you are most welcome to stay with us…And here's to hoping that you do end up as the Secretary of Education, and can accomplish progress.

Lisa Sullivan, former Loveland student and photographer: This book is informative, charming, intelligent, entertaining, thought provoking, an important and necessary look at the shambles of education in the United States today. A must read for parents and educators.

Deana Callahan Wilisch, former Loveland student and mother: In my opinion, this book should be mandatory reading for anyone thinking about a career in teaching, and for any bureaucrat who has a say in education policies. 

Chris H. in one of 23 (out of 24) five-star reviews on Amazon.com.: The author discusses the challenges posed to teachers, students, and student's parents. What separates this book from other educational texts is that it's written by an actual teacher that served over thirty years in the classroom. He details the lessons he's learned from experiences in his life, including time as a marine.

He doesn't pretend to know everything about kids and education, but he does highlight the shortfalls of the big fixes that administrators and many individuals put forth as ways to "fix" the US educational system. A student's own attitude toward learning and bettering themselves is the quintessential element that appears to determine success in the classroom. Additionally, teaching should involve thinking rather than fact memorization.

Overall, this book was a fantastic read! The reader doesn't need to know the in's and out's of the educational system in order to comprehend this book, which makes it ideal for a general audience.

To summarize, read this book if you want to learn about the personal experiences and lessons acquired from a teacher over a long career. You'll also get some good laughs along the way!

Now available on Amazon.com