Too Dangerous to Teach

Book Description
Readers will laugh, cry and rage as Elizabeth Feinman, passionate about her job, her students and the issues of the day, tumbles from grace the more deeply involved she gets in trying to improve all three. Set in a junior-senior high school in the nineties, this story reveals what passes for standards and discipline and how a school administration, eager for national attention, can cook the books, shut down criticism, avoid critical evaluation and rid itself of whomever it cares to. The narrative, which spans four decades, touches on raising the mantel for women, introducing sports to girls and adapting to societal changes. It then follows a school district's efforts to rid itself of a thorn in its side. As Ms. Feinman stands up to career ending challenges, readers will no longer believe that teaching is easy; teachers don't care; top-down management improves what goes on in classrooms; tenure protects teachers; and that a strong professional association is unnecessary if teachers are good at what they do.

About the Author
Before becoming too dangerous to teach, Isobel Kleinman, a.k.a. Elizabeth Feinman, graduated from the State University of New York, College at Cortland with a BSE and went on to complete an MSE and New York State Certification in School Psychology from Queens College in New York City. She began teaching as soon as she completed her undergraduate degree and remained in her school district from 1967 until February, 1999. During her teaching career she taught junior and senior high school, wrote curriculum, supervised extra curricular activities, coached junior high soccer, field hockey, volleyball, basketball, tennis, gymnastics, archery, track and field and softball. At the high school level she created and ran a performing arts dance group. In addition, she was an active union leader. Her new life finds her writing. She is the author of COMPLETE PHYSICAL EDUCATION PLANS FOR GRADES 7-12, a rotating editor for a professional web site designed for physical educators and has had several articles published. Kleinman, who lives in Flushing, NY, spends her leisure playing tennis, golf, dancing, cycling, attending cultural performances, reading and traveling the world-sometimes on bike.

Excerpted from Too Dangerous to Teach by Isobel Kleinman. Copyright © 2003. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Prologue "You are too dangerous to teach in my school," I heard my principal declare from the other end of her conference table. So did the others who had gathered to pay witness. My heart skipped a few beats. A lump swelled in my throat as her comment sunk in. Oh, I knew she was annoyed with my grades, that I was spoiling her numbers, and that in her effort to garnish awards and accolades, numbers had become everything. But, not for one minute did I think it would come to this. Sure, she wanted to cut me, the ex-grievance chairman of the union, down to size, get me to play the statistics game, get me to be like the others who conformed to survive. But this was different. This was not just censuring. This was career threatening and with her, there would be no backing down. How could this be happening? How could I become a "throw away" teacher? Could she prevail? What about my passion for teaching? And my thirty-one years? How could she, without flinching or a sign of remorse, actually question my ability to teach? Am I dreaming? Is this meeting really about me and my removal from teaching? "You are too dangerous to teach here," she said again. "I have asked the Superintendent to have you removed immediately."


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Kleinman lives in Flushing, New York. Her leisure time is spent playing tennis, golf, social dancing, cycling, attending cultural performances, reading and traveling the world-sometime on bike.


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