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Rating: 
Summary: Inspiring
Review: As a soon to be teacher, I was inspired by this book and the stories within it. It will make you realize that some teachers really do care and can make a difference. The sections dealing with background infomration on the students and NYC's history are a little tough to get through. However, they paint the picture that many people fail to see in today's students.
Rating:
Summary: Inspiring
Review: As a soon to be teacher, I was inspired by this book and the stories within it. It will make you realize that some teachers really do care and can make a difference. The sections dealing with background infomration on the students and NYC's history are a little tough to get through. However, they paint the picture that many people fail to see in today's students.
Rating:
Summary: Stark Reality
Review: I found Small Victories to be a text of incredible value for the even-handed way that it lays out the profound problems facing the New York City Public School system-- from the exhaustingly ponderous beaurocracy and latent racism of the Board of Education to the extreme poverty and violence that surrounds the students all of the time. Freedman cuts back and forth between sections of personal narrative and the political and social history of the Lower East Side so that you really gain an understanding of the way that many of these problem has been created and maintained by the education system over such a long period of time that overcoming them may be quite difficult. The story of Jessica Siegal, the teacher profiled in the book, is one of amazing courage and dedication that sinks into a depressing story of insurmountable obstacles such as uninterested politicians, bitter, lazy educators, and rampant poverty. The small victories that she achieves are incredible and important but are so far from remedying the very real problems of the school system, which short changes so many thousands of students in so many ways, that it is hard not to be left with a sinking feeling that the large failures of the system that surrounds Siegal just might swallow up the pride and drive off the teachers like her who perservere. Though this may be incredibly depressing it is a story that needs to be told and I applaud Freedman for tackling such a difficult topic with such a keen eye and unrelenting dedication to the truth.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent, gripping, affecting and important book
Review: I was very moved by this book which intertwined the stories of the lives of a dedicated teacher and her lower East Side students, many of whom faced giant obstacles to their academic success. I particularly appreciated the author's smooth narrative style, which contributed to his effectiveness in painting real lives. I was also grateful for the complete absence of a "preachy" tone, or a self-righteous attitude sometimes found in books on this subject. With the many stories in today's newspapers about NYC firing yet another school chancellor, students failing standardized tests, etc, this story, with its detailed descriptions of daily life in the classroom of a typical NY high school, and the colorful personalities of the school administrators, faculty, and the students they seek to educate, made a real impression. Not just statistics or hysterical arguments, but real lives, passions, and burnouts. Small Victories was very helpful to me to read in my effort to develop a more detailed understanding of the public education system and the problems facing young people today. An excellent story, cooly told with a powerful shape and impact.
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