Test test [inaudible conversations] [cheering] [applause] welcome to book culture. If this is your first time, thank you so much for finding us. 20 years ago this was lost to Upper West Side along with many other bookstores over the years. A year ago we took the plunge and opened a third store. Book culture is pleased to host ed boland whose book is the battle for room 314. [applause] join we dont charge for the events but we hope you will pick up a copy of the book and we will have ed signing up at the front afterwards. So if you can wait a moment to congratulate him personly. Ed boland has dedicated his entire life to nonprofit causes predominantly educational institutions. As a fundraiser and communication expert he was an admission officer and lived in china as an asia fellow. And me yong lee writes for many publications and she received a full bright award in korea and was a judge for the National Book anard and prev previously taught at brigham young. Of course i killed them. I killed them all. The book is going tbe very exciting. It is on the mustread list of 2016. [applause] and it is going to be in the New York Times so everybody look for it. I will let you take it away. All right. Thank you so much for coming, everybody. I was at fox and friends last week and let me say you are a sight for sore eyes and much more my crowd. I did the flowers at her wedding on a budget and badly and i want to thank you for still talking to me. A terrible job i did. But she forgave me. You know that famous cable personality robin burn . Relax and get comfortable. I will quote Julia Andrews who said lets start at the beginning. A very good place to start. E we will start with the prologue. Chantay warner sat on top of her desk with her back to me. A tight old navvy shirt was exposing her baby blue thong. I leaned over and whispered we had a deal and you are not living up your end of it. She yelled back at me what deal, mister in the kind of teenage voice that adults dread. She was chewing a wad of purple gum with such force and speed she seemed to have a piscine implanted in her jaw. It was ten minutes before it it three oclock bell and a scorching hot afternoon on the Lower East Side of manhattan. A single oscillating fan strained to clean the classroom. Its white plastic head panned back and forth on the student and 30 other High School Freshman and me, their anxious new teacher. Our deal was that you would do your work and i wont call you out in public. No more drama, remember . I said in a desperate whisper quoting a mary blige song trying to find sming common as a gay male with a black girl from the bronx. Precious little in the way of learning was getting done. The student continued to talk and their chatter getting louder and their geographic work they were supposed to do were left untouched. I shot her a fierce look and she returned it with a light smoil as if she were on a talk show and was giving the host an amusing time. Our deal was off and i was angry and resorted to old school yelling. Sit in your seat and get back to work now i punched out the last word in what i thought was a strict teacher voice. On the other side of the room someone hurled a calculator at the blackboard. My head snapped toward the trouble. It wasnt the only problem. A group of boys were shoving each other near a new laptop. Two girls swayed in sweet unison and mouthed lyrics while sharing a frobidden ipod. Another girl was reading thug love 2 as if she were on a cruise. I heard her distinct cackle and turned back to her. She was now standing on top of her desk and towering above me like a prowrestler on the ropes about the bounce. She had a currency above her head from a mobile i made over the summer. I started to feel queasy and lightheaded. Mow, it wasnt supposed to happen like this. Sit down immediately or there will be serious consequences i barked. All eyes were darting back and forth between us like spectators at a tennis match. She laughed and then slid her head down the outside of her genes to her upper thigh and formed a cylinder between her thumb and forefinger and shook it. She looked me in the eye and screamed suck my dick, mister. I sat frozen in front of the room and i didnt know a room full of humans were capable of making that much noise. It sounded like a hollywood laugh track times a hundred. The rebel paused and then, oh, no, she didnt. And you cant even control the girls. Her bad ass boyfriend looked at her and grinned, proud of the talent he cultivated. I had always admired a filthy mouth and for a minute i thought to a touche and then i remembered i wasnt in a bar talking smack with my friends. I was her teacher and she was my student. I searched for a professional response. If i were to go ape shit it would show she got me. Nothing came to me. Nothing at all. I stood there paralyzed and afraid. By now, hidden inside my dockers. I was so unfamiliar with the feeling of fear that i barely recognized it. In one fell swoop she fingered me as gay and her bitch. It was a great humilation for me. So much for there being the easy ones to control the girls. Even how she blocked the scene was strategic. The final touch . She didnt even know my name. It wasnt worth remembering. Just mister would suffice. I should have walked out of the building, hailed a cab and gone to the unemployment office. Game over. How had things gotten so bad so quickly . So i want to take you towards the end of the book. This section is about a field trip that was part of our world religion where we went to a mosque, bud ist temple and synagogue all in one day. I was concerned about a student named mickey because he was one of my most disruptive students. We arrived late and rowdy at the temple of emanuel. The tiny temple in new york. At the Visitor Center i checked in with a Security Guard who caned his neck over the desk to see where all of the noise was coming from. He rolled his eyes when he saw my crew terrorizing a hot dog vendor outside. A woman who was kissing 80 and 52 at most even with the assistance of a smart pair of cork wedges. She looked up through over size Phillip Johnson glasses and asked me questions as the screaming and profanities were outside. I pulled her out of the sight of my students and said sometimes they get so out of hand but they dont mean half of what they say. There is this one kid mickey she hits me with a stare. Dont you worry about a thing, my dear. We enter the sanctuary that took up almost an entire city block. Most were used to the store front evangelical operations or the juova witness churches. I was so relieved to see mickey sat in a row by himself. With one smooth gesture a wireless head set was pulled down to her head and to had ermouth. Janet jackson had nothing on her. That is it sebastian. Thank you. The blasting organ went silent. She talked about her faith in history, the temple and by god as she promised they listened to her. I should have been delighted at their behavior but instead i sank into a shame spiral. What does she have that i dont have . Are they cutting her slack because she is old . Female . Short . Maternal . Here they were listening like they were the temple sisterhood. What gives . Question she said finally . My abdomen tightened. How much does it cost you to heat his place every month as one student rubbed his hands. Well nobody ever asked me that before and i dont know. She sounded perplexed. It might have seemed like a cheeky question to her but it was logical for a mother who is struggling to pay the rent. How do you change a light bulb here in here . She just chuckled. Are you jewish asked warren. What a silly question. Of course i am jewish. Well that Security Guard who works back there works here and doesnt look jewish. Touche. Good point she conceded. Why do jews love black and white so much . You mean the cookies . I love them. The jews invented oreos. The jews make oreos . Nobody they are so rich someone mumbled. My eyes darted back to mickey and i was relieved to see him starring into space. And with a sweep of her hand she alluded to her colorful purple dress with pride. Many of our students come from the Lower East Side and i think they are referring to the hecytic community. Oh, them, that is a good question, they like things very old fashion. William who specials in making adults feel uncomfortable took his shot. Do you hate all muslims . What . I dont hate anybody. Before she could finish she was drowned out by mickeys voice screaming from the last row. I knew this was coming. You dumb bitches dont you listen to anything. The jews are related through brotherhood. It has been that way for a long time that it is mess over there. What is wrong with you . The setting was perfect for an emotional thunderclap. I was speechless. Mickey, of all people, had listened to something in class. Mickey asleep. Mickey with the headphones on. Mickey with his head forever out the window how in gods name did that sink in . I was shocked he even knew my name. What the hell else was me managing to learn . Maybe they are all getting it. Learning on the sly and just faking it to torture me. Maybe there was hope after all. As i was leaping from my seat with the hopefully idea about the power of teaching i realized all eyes were on me waiting to weigh into mickey for his profanity. I heard myself giving a reprimand but i was enjoying the afterglow of my victory. As we filled out of the sanctuary and on to the stret, a scene from a streetcar with desire, sometimes there is god so quickly. On the way back to the school from the field trip. Maybe it was the warm air or being liberated from the school but romance was in the air. Several established couples joined hands as we made our way back to school. Singles were flirting up a storm with jokes and frisky horse play. The attention was turned by way. Mr. Boland, you got a girlfriend . No, i answered for probably the 200th time. I always vowed i would never lie about my sexuality but i had not been asked directly. But Stefon Jackson broke through and asked me. Have you got a boyfriend and without much thought i answered with a simple yes. I realized what i said as it was leaving my mouth. In my fog, i lacked the energy or will to brace myself. I had been shredded. There was little to devour. I looked into the sun and waited for the on slot. I heard whispers and giggles and then have you got a picture . I pulled out my phone that had a tiny sticker of sam on the back. Smaller than a postage stamp. They gathered around the phone and inspected the image with care and intensity as if they had uncovered a rare coin. Mr. Bolands boyfriend is black no, actually, he is not. Mr. Boyfriend is no, he is actually jewish. Oooh mr. Bolands boyfriend is rich. And i said no, he doesnt make very much money. Jewish, i heard when you cannot tell what they is, they jewish. Then seth asked in the same tone does he have a big dick . I tried to act indigant. That is really inappropriate. What are you thinking even asking about that . Teacher . They chanted in unison. The chinese mothers and many from the neighborhood gave us disapproving looks. The chorus grau grew louder. But it wasnt hate full. It was jolly, cheerful, and human. They seemed happy for me. Where was all of the hate . Why had i not just done this from the start . I blushed. I was standing on east broadway surrounded by a group of thuggy teenagers who were chanting about my boyfriends junk. Who had i become . Victory i know ed from he was one of our first Board Members for the eastern american writers workshop which recently celebrated its 25th birthday. A bunch of us were in our 20s that formed this Great Organization and ed came to donate time as a board member because he was a professional and executive. I have known ed as the one nonasian person and nonwriter of the eastern writers workshop. She is still not asian. So, i was so thrilled when i got my advanced copy of this. I also, i guess, you can see, too, like you i was laughing and crying through the whole thing. I kept my husband stole it before me and where was like this is so great. I want to try to bring us back to i think this book is going to be, kind of, inflammitory but it is really the dispatch that writing has made so immediate from this kind of hell hole where people who want to help children are just up against it. You know, before i came, i thought let me just randomly take a sentence and this is the one i picked. Given the two students criminal record, i was afraid to have them in my class. I think the first question i want to ask you is about failure. Being a writing is all about failure but failure is not something you want to hear about from our teachers no humans like failure but i think americans really hate failure. I dont love it. But i will tell you my urgent need to tell this story and process this experience was so great that it overcame my shame of failure so that tells you a lot. I mean i have never written a word until i wrote this book and that tells you just how urgently i needed to process this and i was willing to put failure on the line because the greater message is we need to Pay Attention to the problem and if i look like a terrible teacher so be it. But people need to know what life is like for kids in struggling school. It is not stand and deliver. Or freedom riders or dangerous minds. Yeah. And so what like about when you are writing it it, you a white guy and your students are all students of color, like tell us more about what was that like facing the challenge writing this . The biggest challenge i had in writing this book is i promised if i was going to do it , i was going to go against the herotype teacher. We are drawn by that. The turn the classroom around in 90 minutes superhero. It makes for great hollywood tv and crappy educational policy. So with every day, i was at odds with my own performance and hopefully expectations of what i hope to do. That tension was there every day. Plus you just got out of the big Career Change and graduate school. On paper, i was a star and a much soughtafter teacher. But in reality i wasnt an effe effective teacher. Going back to the point here i was and couldnt be different in background i honestly believe at heart anybody can learn from anybody. 70 year old nuns in robes and i didnt know they were people even under the scarves i learned them from. Kids respond to rolemodels and whose live circumstances were similar to their own. I wish that i wish our teachers more closely reflected the students they are teaching. Contradictory thoughts. On the one hand anyone can learn from anyone but we need role models and people the kids can relate to. It was a barrier. So this is causing hope and despair. You lasted a year. And gave it your all. What are you going to do when somebody says i totally want to be a teacher . Someone said that to me recently. They said arent you just afraid you will scare every one away that wants to be a teacher and i really hope not. Part of me wishes i read this book before i thought. I would be the sadder but wiser girl but i would have been better prepared and more realistic in number one what i can accomplish, i would have been tougher and ignored half of what i heard in graduate school like just create fascinating lesson plans that kids respond to. My kids dont respond to sarcasm or anger just your professionalism. And you should really assign best intentions to everything students do. You may see students doing x but think what is the best intention you can find in their action. As i was watching someone really pommel another student i thought what are the best intentions of this situation . People have amnesia that they were once that age. Exactly. I am going to ask you a question and memory question. Your book is getting a lot of press. Everyone is seeing it. I am curious about what kind of response you are getting from people in the book or random the response that shocked me the most has been several of my former students have written to me to apologize. Awe. That is not what i was looking for. I refused to accept their apology and one kid said something that just stuck with me. He said i was just a kid. I said i was sorry. These kids were described in the worst terms. Someone described these kids as animals. I thought how dare you judge those kids. You dont even know the half of it. I dont know the half of it but you really dont know the half of it. So that was very telling when the kids apologized to me when they had no business doing that. Wow. So i am going to ask you two more questions and you have such a huge audience so people will want to do questions. Your subtitle is my year of hope and despair as i was laughing and crying and reading this i would love to hear about the stories of hope. The school i taught was a school for International Stud ae studies. They tried to teach cricket instead of basketball in gym and we taught chinese instead of french. There was one student who was not profiled in the book and i wish i knew him better because i would have profiled him and guess what . He embraced the study of chinese. He worked very hard and he wasnt the very top kid but a top kid and went on to college. I think he was only one of 390 kids who graduated from college but graduated with a degree in business and is living in china working a leather exporting company and sent me a picture of him and his girlfriend. I am so thrilled. That is like it worked for this kid. My second story is that there was a coworker of mine, a fellow student teacher, who we were in the graduate program together and we went to the same place for student teaching. He is actually here tonight. And i have to tell you that he became a Master Teacher. He has excellence results on the regency exams. He loves teaching. He is a great teacher. He was a better history student than i was. He was a better teacher than i was. There are people that can do what i cannot do. They are super human but hats off to them. Those are my two success stories. [applause] my last question for you is over the last 25 years, you guys are the writers, and you have been hiding this under a bushel because you were like i wrote this book and i am like ed, you are such a writer. I want to hear what you are working on next. A little unformed but i grew up in rodchester, new york and it has been noted a smug town for a long time. It goes back to the 1920s. So i think tales from smug town is the next project and it going to be about a coming of age memoir. I think. We have some questions. I thought your book was terrific because you didnt im sorry. I thought your book was terrific because you were truthful and told with the best of your ability what you observed. You dont see that in many books written by teachers. I had two points to make about what you said before. Very often, we hold teachers to