Synopses & Reviews
The legendary Paul "Bear" Bryant is recognized nationwide as one of the greatest coaches ever. So why did he always cite his 1-9 A&M team of 1954 as his favorite? This is the story of a remarkable team - and the beginning of the legend.
In August of fifty-four, the town of Junction was a flyspeck on the map of Texas. The Texas Hill Country was in the grip of a five-year drought that had fried most of central and West Texas. On a day late in the month, two Greyhound buses weaved through a twisting and narrow two-lane highway. The Texas A&M football team aboard, 111 strong, would soon arrive in a tiny town with no stoplights, one service station, and precious little else; just outside town, they would find an unforgiving patch of land littered with spartan Quonset huts, rocks, sandspurs, cactus, yellow dust and gnarled mesquite trees.
As Texas suffered from the devastating drought, so to did Texas A&M football suffer from a drought of heart and talent. To the rescue came Bear Bryant, already a legend in the making, who was in no mood for a picnic. It was in Junction that he would make his stand, and it was here that he would drive home an extreme brand of blood-and-thunder discipline. In a calculated move that many consider the salvation of Texas A&M football, Bryant put his players through the most grueling workouts ever imagined. Beneath a broiling Texas sun, practicing on a drought-scorched field, only a handful would survive the ten-day Aggie Death Camp. The ones who braved the torch-like heat and the burning passion of their coach helped turn a floundering team into one of the nation's best.
The Junction Boys recounts this training camp and the rebuilding program that culminated in an undefeated season just three years later. But this is more than just a story of tough practices without water breaks. An extraordinary fellowship was forged from the mind-numbing pain. The thirty-five survivors bonded together like no other team in America. They profited from the Junction experience; the knowledge they took back with them to College Station, about themselves and what they were capable of, would be used for the rest of their lives. Among the Junction survivors who would have a powerful influence on the game of football were Gene Stallings and Jack Pardee.
In vivid and powerful images reminiscent of Friday Night Lights, Hoosiers, and The Last Picture Show, these young men and their driven coach come to life. The Junction Boys contains all the hallmarks of a classic sports story, and it combines America's love of college football with an extraordinary story of perseverance and triumph.
Review
“... most remarkable in that it simultaneously gives us insights into the small picture at the level of individual parents, and links these to the big picture of the role of schools in a democratic society . . .well worth reading.” —Michael G. Fullan, Dean of the Faculty of Education, Toronto University
“The authors...make a strong case for the imperative to involve everyone—parents, educators, civic leaders, students too—in a commitment to understand how best to engage the opportunities of a new century. The text is a handbook for those who dare to break out of familiar structures—especially when those patterns are not working—a potential antidote to frustration and misunderstanding. It offers solutions for those who would rather act than complain. It points out exactly what we can do, which is a refreshing change from the incessant expose of what we supposedly cannot.” —Tampa Tribune News
Synopsis
Making Our High Schools Better examines how the differing perspectives of parents and teachers can be understood and negotiated to improve high schools. Even though reformers argue that parents must become more involved with schools, most parents of high school students remain outside the schoolhouse doors. Teachers, who view themselves as experts on teaching and learning, often see parents as problems or critics and are happy to keep them at a distance. This groundbreaking book uses in-depth interviews with teachers and parents to give faces and voices to both sides of the conflict, explaining why parents and teachers should work together to help all children learn.
Synopsis
Making Our High Schools Better examines how the differing perspectives of parents and teachers can be understood and negotiated to improve high schools. Even though reformers argue that parents must become more involved with schools, most parents of high school students remain outside the schoolhouse doors. Teachers, who view themselves as experts on teaching and learning, often see parents as problems or critics and are happy to keep them at a distance. This groundbreaking book uses in-depth interviews with teachers and parents to give faces and voices to both sides of the conflict, explaining why parents and teachers should work together to help all children learn.
About the Author
Anne Westcott Dodd is the chair of the Education Department at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.
Jean L. Konzal is an assistant professor in the Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education at The College of New Jersey in Ewing, New Jersey.
Table of Contents
Part I: Crosscurrents, Crosstalk: Understanding the Often Problematic Relationships Between Parents and Schools * Cross Currents: Why Should We Focus Attention on the Relationships between Parents and Educators? * Understanding the Crosscurrents: What Might We Learn From History? * Understanding the Crosscurrents: Teachers as Professionals/Parents as Participants: What Roles Might Parents and Educators Play and How Might Their Relationships Be Defined? * What Should Be the Purpose of Education? The Goal of the School? * What Is Learning? What Is Teaching? * What and How Should Students Learn? * How Should Student Learning Be Assessed? * Part II: Building Bridges * Improving Relationships and Finding Common Ground Among Parents and Educators: What Some Schools Have Done * Expanding the Options: Other Strategies for Opening Doors and Dialogue Between Parents and Educators * Redefining Community: From Power Sharing to Perspective Sharing