I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had by Tony Danza

 In 2010, the famous actor Tony Danza decided to teach high school English for a year.  A&E filmed the experience for a short-lived reality show called Teach.  On its face, the premise of this experiment sounds absurd and potentially exploitive to the kids who would become Danza's students.  However, one chapter in to Danza's book about the experience will put any reader's mind at ease about his motives.  I really enjoyed this one.

I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had is Danza's own account of his year teaching tenth grade English at Northeast High School in Philedelphia.  He describes everything from his awkward first class, to his run-ins with the administration, to his struggles creating lesson plans, to the strong relationships he develops with his students.  His tone is genuine and caring throughout; his feelings and experiences are typical of any first year teacher struggling to make it in this very difficult profession.  He sweats buckets, cries, talks too much and forgets things. He breaks up fights and catches kids cheating.  He tries lessons that flop and lessons that work.  Everything he writes about are things that I experienced myself in my first year.  Through all the struggles, he comes to know what all good teachers know - that each success in the classroom makes up for the million failures that came before.   

Danza admits that his experience is easier than most teachers' first year.  He only has one class, and it's a double period.  A mentor teacher sits in the classroom and observes each day, debriefing with him after his class is over.  He only has to keep track of a small handful of kids, and he has the financial resources and connections to treat them to things like field trips.  Even with all of these advantages, Danza struggles mightily.  At one point he asks himself how teachers can do this job with a full class load.  He's right - it seems impossible sometimes to do so much for so many. All we can do is try.

One thing I loved about Danza's experience was how he handled the filming of his class.  The series based on his experience, Teach, was drastically shortened from what it was supposed to be.  The series ended up containing only six episodes.  Producers were disappointed with the lack of "usable material," which baffled Danza.  They captured his students completely engaged in interesting lessons, but this wasn't enough drama for a reality series, according to the higher-ups.  They wanted to begin scripting some tension into the show, and Danza categorically refused.  That wasn't what he was there for, he explains.  He wanted to give teaching an honest shot and help his students, not make a fake television show.  I found this to be so admirable.  I feel weird saying this, but Tony Danza seems like a really stand-up guy.

I feel a little bit of a connection to Danza.  2010 was also my first year of teaching, and it was tough.  We were probably both crying at the same time on some days.  It was nice to read something written by someone who was trying as hard as I was during that time.  He also touches on some of the political issues that plague education, like standardized testing and Adequate Yearly Progess (AYP).  These mandates bother almost everyone involved in this career, myself included.  This job can be very isolating.  Sometimes I don't get to talk to another adult for more than five minutes in a day.  It was just so comforting to read the words of someone who understands what teachers deal with and stuck out the year.        

I'd Like to Apologize was a very relatable account of a teacher's first year.  Danza's struggles, triumphs and frustrations mirror the experience of so many teachers who are trying their best to help their kids. This is a very honest picture of what it's like in public education right now, and those who want a clearer understanding of what's going on in our schools would benefit from picking this one up.