Download Why Do Only White People Get Abducted by Aliens?: Teaching Lessons from the Bronx AudioBook Free
The true story of a teacher attempting to change lives in a stressed educational system. Matching to Ilana Garon, popular books and videos are inundated with the myth of the "hero instructor" - the main one who charges headfirst into dysfunctional inner-city academic institutions just like a firefighter into an inferno, delivering the student victims to safety through a mixture of charisma and innate righteousness. The students are then "saved" by the teacher's idealism, empathy, and trust. This isn't that type of e book. Here, Garon uncovers the sometimes funny, oftentimes irritating, and occasionally horrifying truths that come with the knowledge of teaching at a general public high school in the Bronx. The overcrowded classrooms, lack of textbooks, and plethora of mice, cockroaches, and drugs weren't the sole challenges Garon faced during her first four years as a instructor. Each day, she'd connect to students coping with addiction, miscarriages, stints in "juvie", abusive interactions, and gang violence. These students brought with them big dreams and unusual insight - and challenged everything Garon thought she realized about education. In response, Garon - a naive, suburban young lady with a curly ponytail, freckles, and Harry Potter eyeglasses - exposed her eye, rolled up her sleeves, and learned to distinguish between mitigated failure and competent success. In this particular book, Garon clarifies how she understood that being a new instructor was about trial by fire, making flaws, learning from the very students she was educating, and occasionally admitting that she might not have answers with their thought-provoking (and amusing) questions.
