false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179671701m/943832.jpg 943832 2 <b>The acerbically humorous account of one teacher's experience at an idealistic "New Visions" high school in Queens, New York.</b> <br><br> In response to plummeting test scores and a soaring drop-out rate, in April 1992, the New York City Board of Education established several New Visions schools, including the School of the New Millennium in Queens, New York. Created with hope and high ideals, New Millennium was to be a place where teachers and students would treat each other like family members, where no child would be lost or left behind. <br><br> This is the story of how that idealism failed. <br><br> Elizabeth Gold came to work at New Millennium as a mid-year replacement for a teacher who had suffered a nervous breakdown. Over the course of four months, her classroom nearly defeated her too. "Our goal was not simply to graduate students but to transform them into loving, compassionate Leaders of Tomorrow," she writes. "Though I never figured out how to do it, I did suspect that cowering behind my desk was not the way." <br><br> In <i>Brief Intervals of Horrible Sanity</i>, Gold describes the challenges she and her colleagues faced: no books, a principal not grounded in reality, and a system in which every child-but not every teacher-has a voice. She chronicles her students and how she tried to reach them: disruptive Cindy Fernandez, with a voice that was "part bullhorn and part plaintive baby"; beautiful Sarah Patel, a victim of her classmates' jealousy; and Peter Garcia, a skateboard-loving, Hobbit-reading teenager with an adult-sized sense of honor and self-respect. <br><br> At a time when the struggles of the School of the New Millennium are reflected in textbooks and schools across the country, this modern-day <i>Up the Down Staircase</i> offers provocative, wildly entertaining insight into what students should learn and what schools should actually be for. 928768 15 9 2003 Brief Intervals of Horrible Sanity: One Season in a Progressive School total:44|5:5|4:11|3:18|2:7|1:3| 44 140 59 8 1 5 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Jun 09 16:52:52 -0700 2007 Sat Jun 09 17:05:26 -0700 2007
But the COMPLETE self-deception is horrific - I mean, she...more...]]> 1 6 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 12 18:20:38 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 01 12:38:17 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu May 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu May 07 18:49:35 -0700 2009 Thu May 07 18:53:55 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Jul 20 12:54:31 -0700 2007 Wed Jan 30 08:08:14 -0800 2008 There Are No Shortcuts, which maybe wasn't the best idea since he is so overwhelmingly successful and Gold, well, wasn't. My cringe factor at first was so super sensitive to this book that I had to put it down for a while. It wasn't until I to...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Apr 19 07:00:31 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 19 07:01:32 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 26 18:28:31 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 26 18:53:00 -0800 2009 2 0 false false Fri Aug 28 15:54:57 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 04 13:02:34 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Jul 27 23:24:04 -0700 2007 Fri Jul 27 23:24:27 -0700 2007 2 0 false false Tue Nov 17 20:34:59 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 17 20:34:59 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Fri Oct 16 10:06:38 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 16 10:06:38 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Sep 26 21:07:33 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 26 21:07:33 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sat Aug 08 12:46:26 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 08 12:46:26 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Aug 03 11:05:21 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 03 11:05:21 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Wed Sep 23 08:06:47 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 25 10:51:21 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 23 08:06:47 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Mon Jul 13 14:51:10 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 13 14:51:10 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Tue Jun 30 16:19:26 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 30 16:19:26 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Wed Jul 01 15:35:43 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 28 03:48:05 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 01 15:35:43 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Jun 21 21:28:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 21 21:28:00 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Jun 16 05:57:22 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 16 05:57:22 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Mon Jun 01 09:10:33 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 01 09:10:33 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=943832