Push Has Come to Shove: Getting Our Kids the Education They Deserve--Even If It Means Picking a Fight

Have you been to a school lately? Have you sat through the six hours and forty-five minutes of excruciating tedium we send our kids to every day? When we ask our kids, Whatd you do in school today? and they mumble, Nothin, theyre telling the truth.

Steve Perry is like no other educator youve ever met. He gets it. He understands why some parents are downright panicked about whats going on in their kids classrooms, and how other parents, whose kids supposedly attend the good schools, still fear that their children are falling behind. As Principal of one of the best performing schools in America -- one that sends 100% of its mostly minority students to four-year colleges -- Perry delights in poking the system. Present him with a truth about how education is supposed to work and count on it hell show it to be false.

Dictatorial teachers unions despise Steve Perry. So do lazy teachers. So do entrenched, unimaginative school boards. So do reactionary curriculum guardians who as a lure to get kids reading cling to the same old stodgy texts.

Thats okay, say Perry. That means hes making a difference. In this book, his priority is to help kids who dont have the advantage of going to his school, Capital Prep. He wants to save your kid, and the kid next door, and the kid down the street from getting a typical third-rate American education.

If youre a parent who has worried recently about how depressed your child seems when he dresses for school in the morningor how little of what happens during the school day seems to sink into her brain or how much of your childs homework is busywork, you need this book.

If youre a teacher who is putting your heart and soul into the job but are surrounded by colleagues who are phoning it in, you need this book.

If youre a committed, forward-thinking principal who wants to get rid of the faculty bad apples, but are continually stymied by Mafia-style teachers-unions, you need this book.

*If youre a citizen who worries about the $1 trillion-plus GDP loss that America suffers every year because our system of education doesnt measure up, you need this book.

In this solution-oriented manifesto, Steve Perry covers the full range of issues holding back todays students. He shows parents how to find great teachers (and get rid of the bad ones)how to make readers out of kids who hate to readhow to make the school curriculum thrilling rather than sleep-inducinghow to conduct an all-important education home audit how to e-organize if school boards and administrators arent getting the messagehow to build a school of the future, and much more.

The era of third-rate education is over. Steve Perry isnt going to let the fools and scoundrels get away with it any longer. Push has come to shove!