Teacher Thinks He Can Save Ill-Mannered Sneuxflaykes, Gets a Rude Awakening.

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Ed Boland stepped out of a twenty-year career as a nonprofit executive to teach in a tough inner city school on Manhattan's Lower East Side.

His idealism was shattered after a year in urban public schooling and he penned this provocative memoir as 'a radical call to action' to change the system that is failing its students mired in poverty, racism and violence.

He believes teachers alone should not be expected to solve the overwhelming issues their students face. Here are some excerpts from Ed Boland's The Battle For Room 314, published by Grand Central Publishing.

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And then there was a dull thud, followed by a crash. Near the door he had just kicked open stood one Kameron Shields in pure renegade glory, a one-man violation of every possible rule. Above the neck alone, he was flaunting four violations:

He wore sunglasses and a baseball cap over a red bandanna over iPod headphones. A silver flip phone was clipped to his baggy jeans. Everything he wore was cherry red—the hallmark color of the Bloods. I didn't know much about gangs, but even I knew that.

He turned his grinning face to the ceiling and howled,'WASS . . . UP . . . N****S?'

I stood in front of him before he could complete his round of gladhanding. He turned 90 degrees toward one of his buddies, Fat Clovis, looked me up and down, and asked, 'Who dat?'

His question had a ring of genuine curiosity. I started the morning with first-day jitters made worse with too much caffeine; I was now approaching full-blown panic. My palms got clammy and my mouth sour.

'Hey, somebody forgot to tell this n***a that it's supposed to go like this.'

He took his index finger and made a f***ing motion into his rolled-up fist, while simulating what I supposed was a female orgasm.

'Mister,' he continued, staring at me, 'it don't go like this.'

He clumsily jammed the tips of his two index fingers together and accompanied the motion with falsetto male groans. Christ, I had barely said a word. Could he really smell the gay on me that readily? I'm bent, but I'm not Richard Simmons.

'What's your name?' I barked.

'Nemesis.'

'Well, Nemesis,' I said, summoning what I thought a real teacher would say, 'you can't just walk in here like that and disrupt this class.'

He laughed. 'I can't come in here and do that? Well, it looks like I just did, don't it?'

He had me there. Luckily lunch time came fast. I bolted into the faculty lounge and sought out a few of the veterans.

'Who is this Kameron Shields?' I asked, and then in an attempt to camouflage my fear in humor: 'And why isn't he chained to a rock somewhere?'

There was a range of frowns, laughs, and moans.

'Oh, you met dear Kameron, did you? He was the pride of the middle school here,' said Monica with a sheepish smile.

'Oh yeah, he's brutal. He threw an electric pencil sharpener at Miss Dimitriopolou's head last year. That should have gotten him expelled, but our fearless leader thinks it's a failure to throw any kidout,' added Marquis, the sophomore history teacher.
The class population at the lower Manhattan school was mostly black and Latino -- a few Asian kids and exactly one white child. The rules list included no electronics visible or in use, no sunglasses or hats, no gang wear, no foul language, no fighting. But that was only a list and not the reality, as the author learned on his first day.

The class population at the lower Manhattan school was mostly black and Latino -- a few Asian kids and exactly one white child. The rules list included no electronics visible or in use, no sunglasses or hats, no gang wear, no foul language, no fighting. But that was only a list and not the reality, as the author learned on his first day.

When Kameron threatened to blow up the school, Boland reported him to the principal, Mei Vong. She was required to report it to a superintendent who in turn notified Homeland Security. Kameron wasn't arrested but he was sent to a suspension center in the South Bronx for two months.

I secretly hoped I might earn a little credibility with the kids since I was the first teacher in the three-year history of Union Street who managed to get Kameron suspended, though many had tried.

But no such luck: I had sold their hero up the river on a trumped-up charge. Despite my victory, the damage he had done to my reputation that first day was beyond repair.

Instead of the gay witch hunt dying down after he was gone, as I'd hoped, the rest of the boys declared open season on me in his name.

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At least on the plantation the family unit was mostly intact, the younger generation was educated,

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yurble

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At least on the plantation the family unit was mostly intact, the younger generation was educated,

Err, in what world?

People could be sold, which means there was no guarantee, ever, of the family staying intact even if they wanted to. Women could be raped at will by the master of the house, and if children resulted their father could sell them off as well. Universal education did not exist for people who were not enslaved, and certainly there was no widespread schooling of slave children. The memoirs that were collected in the early 20th century are largely recordings for a reason, that reason being that few slaves were taught to write.

Try reading the forum rules and take your bullshit somewhere else.

It is one thing to say that slavery still exists in another form, and quite another thing to claim that slavery was for people's own good.

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This is what Clive Bundy was talking about when he said a lot of folks were better off as slaves. But instead of stepping back a minute and trying to understand what he was attempting to say, they got all butt hurt. And he kind of has a point. They are still slaves. Not to to some rich (and not nessesarily white) plantation owner but to the government cheese. At least on the plantation the family unit was mostly intact, the younger generation was educated, food and housing was provided for work done. Slavery is a terrible thing, which still occurs on a much more horiffic scale in Africa and the middle east. But at least on the plantation life somewhat resembled civilization.

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Breaking Moron
Slavery is a terrible thing, which still occurs on a much more horiffic scale in Africa and the middle east.

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breakstuff
This is what Clive Bundy was talking about when he said a lot of folks were better off as slaves. But instead of stepping back a minute and trying to understand what he was attempting to say, they got all butt hurt. And he kind of has a point. They are still slaves. Not to to some rich (and not nessesarily white) plantation owner but to the government cheese. At least on the plantation the family unit was mostly intact, the younger generation was educated, food and housing was provided for work done. Slavery is a terrible thing, which still occurs on a much more horiffic scale in Africa and the middle east. But at least on the plantation life somewhat resembled civilization.

Quote
breakstuff
This is what Clive Bundy was talking about when he said a lot of folks were better off as slaves. But instead of stepping back a minute and trying to understand what he was attempting to say, they got all butt hurt. And he kind of has a point. They are still slaves. Not to to some rich (and not nessesarily white) plantation owner but to the government cheese. At least on the plantation the family unit was mostly intact, the younger generation was educated, food and housing was provided for work done. Slavery is a terrible thing, which still occurs on a much more horiffic scale in Africa and the middle east. But at least on the plantation life somewhat resembled civilization.

Quote
breakstuff
This is what Clive Bundy was talking about when he said a lot of folks were better off as slaves. But instead of stepping back a minute and trying to understand what he was attempting to say, they got all butt hurt. And he kind of has a point. They are still slaves. Not to to some rich (and not nessesarily white) plantation owner but to the government cheese. At least on the plantation the family unit was mostly intact, the younger generation was educated, food and housing was provided for work done. Slavery is a terrible thing, which still occurs on a much more horiffic scale in Africa and the middle east. But at least on the plantation life somewhat resembled civilization.