Davonte's Inferno: Ten Years in the New York Public School Gulag

by laurel sturt

Overview

A TEACHER'S STORY OF FEAR AND LOATHING IN AMERICAN EDUCATION TODAY.

Calling on policy, research, humor and a generous serving of snark, in this cutting edge story, irreverent Laurel M. Sturt pulls no punches detailing her bizarre life in the trenches teaching in a high-needs elementary school in the Bronx. With the Alice In Wonderland backdrop of a school strangled by poverty, No Child Left Behind's "accountability" and Michael Bloomberg's micromanagement, Sturt trains an unflinching eye on the crisis confronting todayʼs educators, delivering a scathing indictment of pretentious educational reform driven by a mercenary agenda to privatize a system worth billions. The author charges educators and parents to unite and organize at the grassroots level to fight for this civil rights issue of our time--the right to a decent education--coalescing around proven non-negotiables such as universal pre-kindergarten, a rich curriculum free from high-stakes testing, and the socioeconomic integration of schools. By refusing an apartheid in which the one percent and the ninety-nine percent receive vastly different educations, community by community we can drive back the privatizers, restoring the “public” to a system committed to all.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940149041862
Publisher:	Written Warrior Press
Publication date:	11/22/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	346
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

A long-time social activist, in 2002 Laurel M. Sturt left a career in fashion design to become an elementary school teacher in a poor neighborhood of the Bronx. Sturt is a graduate of The Madeira School and received her Bachelor of Arts in Art History from Vassar College. Subsequently, she received an Associate degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology in Design and Illustration, as well as a Master of Arts in Education from City College, New York. Sturt has a son, with whom she lives in Manhattan. Davonte’s Inferno is her first book.

Editorial Reviews

Eloquently, coherently and passionately, the truth about education today from a teacher on the inside. An important read for those concerned with the future of our kids, and our nation.

Education Expert and Activist, Director Emeritus, Coalition of Essential Schools - Deborah Meier

A devastating look at the experience of teaching in a high-poverty school in the years of the Bloomberg mayoralty. "Davonte's Inferno" is the angriest teacher memoir I have ever read, and perhaps the best written.

Chairperson, Department of African and African American Studies, Fordham University - Dr. Mark Naison

This eye-opening tell-all had me gasping with outrage: what teachers endure these days is beyond abuse. Considering America needs two million new teachers in the next decade, who on earth will sign up for this torture?

Co-Founder, Badass Teachers Association - Priscilla Sanstead

A brutally honest, gripping tale of life in the trenches of a high-poverty school, in the framework of today's corporate assault on teachers, unions and public education. A must read!

Parent Advocate and Educator, Long Island Opt-Out of Testing, Parents and Teachers Against Common Core - Marla Kilfoyle

Laurel M. Sturt contextualizes the nightmare that No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top and the Common Core have brought to public schools, offering readers a first row seat to the experience of teaching under such ill-conceived policies. Rarely is there this level of candor in a discussion about education, and it’s a damn good read, to boot.

Veteran Teacher, Charter School Administrator - Catherine Ionata