index index index index Usually I don't like reading the investigative writings of reporters which are so often dry, but Elinor Burkett's writing is anything but dry -- and has all of the scoop of the best of the best of investigative journalism. I first read her book "So Many Enemies, So Little Time" about her experience in Kyrgyzstan which interested me because I had worked in Kyrgyzstan ten years ago. Because I liker her style of writing so much, I wanted to read something else of hers and chose this book. A look into a suburban high school is not something that particularly interests me, but with Elinor Burkett, whatever she is writing about, she builds an interest into the reader with her way of asking all the right questions, and some that nobody else wants to ask but everyone is wondering about. I highly recommend this book to anyone who just like to see a good investigative journalist dig her teeth into a subject and chew and chew and chew until the final product is sometimes disburbing, sometimes beautiful but always, a little closer to the truth.I could not believe Elinor Burkett used REAL FIRST AND LAST NAMES then follow them up with negative discriptions. Many discriptions had personal medical information. Oh yes, I am sure she got them to sign waiver's as they turned 18. She did not care about the students just the story. She got so many facts wrong. Many people were hurt by her inability to be factually accurate. This book should be in the fiction section. I found the book boring and I work at Prior Lake High School. She offered no suggestions to help the lifes she tormentedI am giving this book 5 stars even though I think it probably deserves 4. It appears as though a large portion of the negative reviews were written by students who were upset not to be included in the book. Also, one review appears to be duplicated, and I suspect that 4 1-star reviews were written by the same person - the atrocious spelling gave it away.

I am not too many years out of high school (I graduated in 1996) and this book brought back a lot for me. Yes there are plenty of kids who do just fine, and yes there are some kids who just don't care and no matter what you do for them, they still won't. But what about everybody else? I myself had a bad time in high school. I graduated with a C average (a mix of A's in the classes with inspiring teachers, and F's in the classes with the other kind of teachers) and went on to graduate from college Summa Cum Laude. What would have helped me do better in high school? What would have helped me care? I don't know. Neither does Elinor Burkett. She doesn't offer any answers, probably because there isn't one simple answer, other than the fact that we need more well qualified, engaging, inspiring teachers who truly love what they do. They are out there - I have had some, and boy does it make a difference. But what person of that caliber is going to take a job that pays so little? One reviewer said don't let your kids in public school no matter what. The simple fact is that is not a financial reality for many people. I don't think that is the answer. We can't run away from the problem.

I thought the book was very well written. It was a very quick and engaging read. I was drawn in by the characters, and I identified with so much of what they went through. I think one of the problems with high schools is simply a lack of maturity of the students. I felt myself wanting to reach through the pages to tell the students "hang on, it will get better. This is not real life, and this is not the way it will always be."Although it drags a little in the middle, this book ought to be mandatory reading for any parent about to send his or her child to public high school. No discipline, no values, no integrity, little education. I work two jobs so that I can send my kids to private school. Reading this made writing the checks a thousand times easier. The lesson of this book: even if you have to live out of your car, avoid public education!Elinor Burkett's eye for subtle detail will open yours to the state of education in the American suburban landscape. One could not imagine a more sensitive 'fly on the wall' to the sociology of American education. As a retired educator of thirty years [in an adjoining school district from which the saga transpires], I can attest to the painful features of an institution which has far more concerns than education on its plate. Students, administrators, teachers, cooks, and everyone else caught up in the impersonal nature of the American high school are given free rein in their reactions to, and coping with, the 'beast among us.' You may shake your head in reaction to Ms. Burkett's reporting, and you may oftentimes laugh out loud at the antics portrayed, but I can guarantee that you will be amazed at what you didn't know about our most important social institution for our nation's future. With great humor and understanding, the author has done a service for anyone interested in that future.

With a novelist's eye, Elinor Burkett takes readers behind the school system's closed doors, revealing a world of mixed messages, manufactured myths, and political hype.

In the wake of school shootings across the country, one question haunted America: What is going wrong inside our nation's schools? To find out, award-winning journalist Elinor Burkett spent nine months -- from the opening pep rally to graduation day -- in a suburban Minneapolis high school. She attended classes, hung out with students, listened to parents, and joined teachers on the front lines.

She soon discovered that, post-Columbine, fears about loners and misfits, "Smoker's New Year" (a pot holiday), "Zero Tolerance" policies, and school lockdowns have become as much a part of a teen's high school experience as dating and Clearasil. But Burkett goes even deeper and makes some startling conclusions in this poignant exposé of the real problems facing educators, parents, and the children they try to teach.

Not many adults would be willing to go back to high school voluntarily, but Elinor Burkett was driven by the question that has been haunting Americans since the Columbine shootings: What's going on in our suburban high schools? To find out, she actually spent a year at a suburban Minneapolis high school, sitting in on classes, eavesdropping on gripe sessions, attending pep rallies and concerts, and insinuating herself into the lives of students, teachers, and officials. The result is a first-hand and first-rate account of the myriad factors that are alternately paralyzing and pulling apart public schools. In a vivid lesson in high school social geography, we meet preppies and partiers, hip-hoppers, jocks, and Christian kids, and especially, the loners and outcasts who were harassed and feared after Columbine--kids like Roger Murphy, the school's only black student who quotes Dante and wears chains and spikes; Ashlee Altenbach, a hyperactive cheerleader who uses her ADHD diagnosis as an excuse for her behavior; and Reilly Liebhard, the misunderstood and sorely underchallenged school genius. Even more enlightening, Burkett talks to those on the frontlines, the teachers, as they debate the need for greater discipline and higher standards, complain about being made "the clothing-and-drug police, the lateness brigade and the parent hand-holders," and voice their anger over being the first to be kicked in the game of political football. Over the course of the year, this cast of characters amply illustrates the impact of such hot-button issues as zero tolerance, grade inflation, Internet plagiarizing, and the self-esteem movement. In the end, this one school throws adult society--and the tangled web of social changes that have helped undermine public education--into bold relief. Burkett has brought a keen ear and a fresh approach to a topic freighted by contradictory exhortations and political rhetoric, and penned a valuable and telling contribution to the debate over education reform. --Lesley Reed suria review reviews analysis analyze