Too Dangerous To Teach

About the Book

Readers will laugh, cry and rage as Elizabeth Feinman, passionate about her job, her students and the issues of the day, tumbles from grace the more deeply involved she gets in trying to improve all three.

Set in a junior-senior high school in the nineties, this story reveals what passes for standards and discipline and how a school administration, eager for national attention, can cook the books, shut down criticism, avoid critical evaluation and rid itself of whomever it cares to. The narrative, which spans four decades, touches on raising the mantel for women, introducing sports to girls and adapting to societal changes. It then follows a school district's efforts to rid itself of a thorn in its side.

As Ms. Feinman stands up to career ending challenges, readers will no longer believe that teaching is easy; teachers don't care; top-down management improves what goes on in classrooms; tenure protects teachers; and that a strong professional association is unnecessary if teachers are good at what they do.

About the Author

Before becoming too dangerous to teach, Isobel Kleinman, a.k.a. Elizabeth Feinman, graduated from the State University of New York, College at Cortland with a BSE and went on to complete an MSE and New York State Certification in School Psychology from Queens College in New York City. She began teaching as soon as she completed her undergraduate degree and remained in her school district from 1967 until February, 1999. During her teaching career she taught junior and senior high school, wrote curriculum, supervised extra curricular activities, coached junior high soccer, field hockey, volleyball, basketball, tennis, gymnastics, archery, track and field and softball. At the high school level she created and ran a performing arts dance group. In addition, she was an active union leader.

Her new life finds her writing. She is the author of COMPLETE PHYSICAL EDUCATION PLANS FOR GRADES 7-12, a rotating editor for a professional web site designed for physical educators and has had several articles published.

Kleinman, who lives in Flushing, NY, spends her leisure playing tennis, golf, dancing, cycling, attending cultural performances, reading and traveling the world-sometimes on bike.