The Battle for Room 314, Ed Boland
The Battle for Room 314, Ed Boland
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The Battle for Room 314
My Year of Hope and Despair in a New York City High School

Author: Ed Boland

Narrator: Ed Boland

Unabridged: 7 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/09/2016

Synopsis

In this insightfully honest and moving memoir about the realities of teaching in an inner-city school, Ed Boland "smashes the dangerous myth of the hero-teacher [and] shows us how high the stakes are for our most vulnerable students" (Piper Kerman, author of Orange is the New Black).
In a fit of idealism, Ed Boland left a twenty-year career as a non-profit executive to teach in a tough New York City public high school. But his hopes quickly collided headlong with the appalling reality of his students' lives and a hobbled education system unable to help them. Freddy runs a drug ring for his incarcerated brother; Nee-cole is homeschooled on the subway by her brilliant homeless mother; Byron's Ivy League dream is dashed because he is undocumented.
In the end, Boland isn't hoisted on his students' shoulders and no one passes AP anything. This is no urban fairy tale of at-risk kids saved by a Hollywood hero, but a searing indictment of schools that claim to be progressive but still fail their students.
Told with compassion, humor, and a keen eye, Boland's story is sure to ignite debate about the future of American education and attempts to reform it.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Diane on February 13, 2016

This author earned my respect for writing his memoir--one without the ending he yearned for. Ed Boland was a second career teacher in a lower Manhattan progressive school for one year. His ideals collided with the reality of ninth graders who had more interest in disrupting his lessons than learning......more

Goodreads review by Mg on February 03, 2016

Just heartwrenching. I can feel your despair, Mr. Boland. I too was a NYC teacher who felt the same despair at the lack of respect I got since Day 1. Somehow I managed to survive 8 years of hell. This is the book I could never bring myself to write because I too wanted the success story you desired......more

Goodreads review by Deb (Readerbuzz) on June 23, 2017

Let me start by telling you the ending.... *****SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!***** ...he quits. Yes, he gives it a year, one year, and he tosses in the towel. But I will tell you that after I read chapter one I doubted he'd make it through the first semester. Those kids are difficult. E......more

Goodreads review by Andy on December 12, 2018

I did not get much out of this, but there are probably lots of readers who have never been to a failing school and don't know about urban poverty in America; if so, then this might be a good intro. It's a relatively light memoir about a guy who believes that any educated person can just go be a teac......more

Goodreads review by Pete on March 14, 2016

A short and quick read that seemed compulsory given my current change in vocation. In many regards this is the story of my life - however, starkly different in the way in which I've handled the change in vocation. Ed had all of the right information and intentions but learned (as many have) the hard......more

Quotes

"[Boland] never paints himself a hero, rather shares his failings generously when his own education and passion leave him short on immediate solutions. Boland seamlessly ushers readers into his stressful world and keeps them there. Readers will ache for him when students turn in blank worksheets, laugh when he tries to control his classroom using phrases he imagines 'a real teacher would say,' and furiously turn the pages to find out what the next school day holds. While there are few victories, readers are not left hopeless. Some students succeed, and Boland concludes the book with his case for changes needed in America's educational system. With skillful storytelling, self-deprecating humor and swiftly paced narratives, Boland's vulnerability will lure readers from the first scene."—Associated Press

"The Battle for Room 314 chronicles a year of gladiatorial altruism in the unruly arena of American public education. Ed Boland shares the startling, funny, audacious, and sad confrontations and conundrums he must puzzle his way through after deciding to try his hand at one of the most important, least appreciated professions in this country: teaching. His vivid anecdotes ensure there will be no reader left behind. Like his students, he sometimes fails a test, but he never loses hope, and his story gleams with insight and urgency."—Andrew Solomon, National Book Award-winning author of Far from the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity

"By turns harrowing and hilarious, Ed Boland's memoir about teaching in a New York City high school is raw, moving, and smashes the dangerous myth of the hero-teacher. The story told in The Battle for Room 314 shows us how high the stakes are for our most vulnerable students. It offers a fresh view and a pointed and powerful first-person perspective on American public education."—Piper Kerman, author of Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison

"There is an edge to this book that I have not encountered before in any book about education, and it is extremely refreshing because education is edgy and often controversial." —Getting Smart

"Enthralling...By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Boland's memoir is a deeply human story about the power of teaching." —Publishers Weekly

"Boland has a knack for capturing the stakes in seemingly small moments and the intensity of clashes between personalities. Ruthless in his evaluation of himself, his students, and the larger educational system, Boland provides a clear look at the challenges facing public schools today." —Booklist

"Boland is modest, likable, and realistic...[He] has a charming way with words that makes the book entertaining to read, even laugh-out-loud funny...The results of his experiment in teaching are dispiriting and absolutely beautiful, in turn." —Utne Reader

"Captivating, insightful, and instructive...Boland's colorful descriptions let the reader share his experience, living his successes, his growing understanding of his craft and his students, his dissections of days that did not go well, and his efforts to maintain hope." —Library Journal

"Told with compassion and wry humor...An unflinchingly honest account of one man's experiences with inner-city education." —Kirkus

"Riveting... There's nothing dry or academic here. It's tragedy and farce, an economic and societal indictment of a system that seems broken beyond repair."—NY Post

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