Dan Brown at the UFT Salon

Dan Brown began his teaching career the way most new teachers do – with a vision of helping and inspiring his students as he taught them.

During summer training, I studied cases that made a convincing argument that students’ achievement levels vary directly with their teacher’s expectations of them, regardless of neighborhood or family background. I was determined from the first day to maintain high expectations for all my students, giving everybody the blank slate I felt we all needed.

The Great Expectations School: A Rookie Year in the New Blackboard Jungles describes his experience as a first year teacher, and the struggles that are all too familiar to any new teacher. Here’s another excerpt from Dan Brown’s book:

For the first lesson, I had to read Crow Boy, an Eastern fairy tale about an outcast child who finds self-reliance. Introducing the story, I wrote the word “unique” on my chart paper which Sonandia, my wordsmith, defined as “one of a kind.” I told them we all have secret talents that we ourselves might not even know about yet. “Some of you on the carpet right now might be brilliant comic strip artists, creative writers, question-askers, room-organizers, or things we haven’t even thought of. This year we will work together to discover those hidden gifts.”

Two pages into my Crow Boy read-aloud, Fausto stood up and ambled leisurely towards the door, drawing the attention of the whole class. “Fausto. Fausto. Fausto!” I shouted. Fausto turned back toward the class.

“THAT STORY’S WACK YO!”

I kept a straight face, but a majority of class erupted in crazed laughter at Fausto’s apparently genius comedic line. Fausto beamed while 15 kids cracked up, Lakiya the loudest of all. She bellowed a forced, open-mouthed cackle, swaying violently in her seated position, knocking into classmates.

Ten seconds ago, we were all on the same page. Now it looked like a different class.

As the overwrought giggles receded, Fausto, now a superstar, still had not returned to his seat. I had to take this kid down. In deadpan, I said, “The story’s not wack. Are you ready to stop acting like a kinder…”

“DAAAAAA!!!! Mr. Brown talkin’ gangsta yo!”

“Mr. Brown said ‘wack!’”

Destiny, Athena, Sonandia, and three others whose names I had not yet memorized sat patiently waiting for the story to continue. Everyone else was going bonkers.

“He say, ‘the story not wack’!!!”

Beads of sweat formed all over me. I looked at the clock. 8:43. Three hours and 47 minutes until lunch.

“Silence. Silence. Fausto! Sit!” I yelled at him as I would a wayward mutt.

Deloris piped up with a grin, “Mr. Brown, you turning red.”

Dan Brown encounters micromanagement and criticism from administrators, cynicism from colleagues, lack of involvement from parents, and students with dramatically varied academic abilities. But he’s also able to look back on his first year of teaching with the bleak humor teachers use to cope. With all the uncertainty and stress that comes with working in an inner city public school, a sense of humor should be a mandatory requirement!

The UFT Salon is talking about The Great Expectations School right now until 7 p.m. on the second floor of UFT headquarters at 52 Broadway. Stop by for the end if you can to discuss the book and to meet Dan Brown in person, and then check back on Edwize for a discussion of the book.

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