Local Author Writes Book That Could Change American Education Forever

Michael Brick looking writerly (Photo by Ben Sklar)

So, confidence in public education has never been lower. It seems like every school is strapped for cash–or in the process of closing–and every teacher I know complains that the job would be so much better and more effective if they didn’t have to “teach to the test.” We like to think the victims in all this are the kids deprived of a quality education, as if those kids won’t someday grow up to make our entire society less intelligent, less capable, less innovative, and more vulnerable to terrible ideas and terrible politicians.

Well, Michael Brick, a journalist who graduated from R.L. Turner, has a new book out on the topic. I met Brick at the Mayborn conference a few years ago, where he had an incredible story about the murder of a pot dealer. He’s also written for the New York Times and Sports Illustrated. And he’s a regular on Gangrey, a journalism site I’ve been known to visit. For Saving the School, Brick followed a principal, several students, and several teachers at a once-great high school in Austin, as they struggled to keep their school–and in many ways their entire community–afloat.

You know it’ll be big, because Oprah calls it a “must read.” The Washington Post calls it “a compelling, enlightening account of a school community rising to save itself in the unforgiving, data-driven, often nonsensical world bequeathed to public education by No Child Left Behind.” Really, it could change the way this country thinks about–and talks about–public education and investing in our own future.

Over the last few days, I had a fun little email exchange with Brick about the book.

Me: Okay, we’ll get to that whole education thing later. First, I have to ask: How many times did you watch movies like Lean on Me–or Stand and Deliver or Dangerous Minds, or the wholly under-appreciated Summer School–while working on this? And if this book one day becomes a movie, and there’s a reporter character based on you (there’s no first person in the book, but Hollywood loves to tinker), who would you want to play you?

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