After a Year Teaching High School, Tony Danza Says We Owe Educators an Apology - Education - GOOD

After a Year Teaching High School, Tony Danza Says We Owe Educators an Apology - Education - GOOD:

After a Year Teaching High School, Tony Danza Says We Owe Educators an Apology

by Liz Dwyer

Don't be surprised if the nation's teachers start a fan club for actor Tony Danza. Unlike the countless policy makers and talking heads who offer up suggestions for improving education without ever teaching a day in their lives, during the 2009-2010 school year the actor ditched Hollywood for a gig teaching tenth grade English at Northeast High School in Philadelphia. Now Danza's written a book, I’d Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had, about the experience.
What's Danza apologizing for? He readily admits that he wasn't the best student in school, and since he'd earned a degree in history education, he wanted to make a difference. Perhaps he's also regretting the disrespectful assumption too many in our society make: educators don't really want to work hard and are incompetent.
During his year in the classroom, Danza dealt with the tough challenges so many teachers face: Over 60 percent of Northeast's majority minority student population are economically disadvantaged and the year Danza taught