I'D LIKE TO APOLOGIZE TO EVERY TEACHER I EVER HAD My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northeast High

Tony Danza, a TV star in the 1980-90s, spends a year teaching tenth grade at an inner-city high school in Philadelphia. The book is part companion to “Teach”—the A&E Television series about Danza’s teaching—and part memoir of Danza’s year, his students, and his struggles. While this work is one of many memoirs about inner-city teachers (UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE and TEACHER MAN, for example), Danza is hardly a representative teacher, nor is his double-period reality-show literature class a representative high school class. Danza’s delivery is lively and warm. Despite his trademark New York accent, his voice is always clear, and he seems to care deeply about his students and the plight of high school teachers in America today. F.C. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2012]