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, What'd you do in school today? and they mumble, Nothin', they're telling the truth. i>teve Perry is like no other educator you've ever met. He gets it. He understands why some parents are downright panicked about what's 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 - he'll show it to be false. ictatorial teacher's 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. That's okay, say Perry. That means he's making a difference