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• Author: Walsh, Russ
• Position: Fear and Learning in America: Bad Data, Good Teachers, and the Attack on Public Education - Book review

Fear and Learning in America: Bad Data, Good Teachers, and the Attack on Public Education

By John Kuhn

Teachers College Press. 176 pages. Paperback $22.46

In his first book, Test-and-Punish (Park Place Publications, 2013), John Kuhn told the story of how Texas released the "test and punish" monster on public education and how, as in a 1950s science fiction movie, that monster came to threaten the entire country.

Now, in his latest book, Kuhn gives us the next chapter. Using personal narrative, sound research, and righteous indignation, he lays waste to the corporate education reform movement in America.

What I love about Kuhn's writing is that his well-told stories and carefully cited sources give way at times to bursts of passionate advocacy that have the reader, at least this life-long educator, primed to storm the beaches of the Gates Foundation or the halls of Teach for America if necessary, to do what is right by children, teachers, parents, and public education.

I have had the opportunity to hear Kuhn speak, and his writing voice leaps off the page at you, just as his speaking voice jumps out at you in an auditorium.

Kuhn first came to prominence for a speech he gave at a Save Our Schools rally in Texas a few years ago that went viral on YouTube. That speech is included in this, his second book. Fans of Kuhn, the public speaker, are sure to be fans of Kuhn, the author.

Kuhn's bona tides as a critic of the education reform movement are impeccable. After two years working as a missionary in Peru, Kuhn returned to his native Texas and became a teacher of Spanish, eventually working as an assistant principal, principal, and superintendent in rural Texas. His book is punctuated by anecdotes from his time as a teacher and administrator--and the students and parents he encountered along the way.

Part of Kuhn's appeal is the way he describes his failures and turns a harsh eye on himself for not doing a better job. This is not a tale of the hero teacher who parachutes into a failing school to save the day--a mainstay of the education reform narrative--but rather of the lifelong teacher, working hard day-to-day and doing the best job he can while trying to balance work, family, and community. Kuhn says that he is confident that the lifelong educator, plugging along, has a more lasting impact on students and the community than the fly-by hero teacher who is burnt out and gone in a few years.

The fear that Kuhn refers to in the book's title is...