Teach: Tony Danza

At last!
I stumbled upon this video (when it was first shown on TV) while teaching my first education course at a local community college. It is truly reflective of the challenges facing many public school teachers today. This is a MUST SEE for those people thinking about becoming teachers. I'm glad to be able to have my own copy instead of relying on internet snippets.

The DVD is not an ExtravaDanza (Buy the Book Instead)
To be fair, I read Danza's book first. I knew that the show was canceled after only a few episodes and I knew that he really only taught one class. I think anyone viewing the show should know that. There are only seven episodes on the DVD series so there is no "story" development, no "character" arc, and no conclusion. If you want to know about the depth and scope of Danza's experiences, read the book.

This is my 20th year in the high school (English and history) classroom and it was hard to take something I've dedicated my last twenty years to, something I've put heart and soul into, displayed on the screen as if it were some kind of experiment in teaching. In answering a student's question in the first episode, Danza explains that he is a millionaire, even if a million aint what it used to be. I wonder how different Danza's approach to teaching would have been if he didn't have the seven figures in the bank to fall back on. We see Danza say yes too many times and...

Fascinating at times....painful at times....fairly close to real life
I don't care for reality TV very much, but I'm a teacher and was interested in seeing this. I also teach teachers and I'm always interested in finding clips to show my students to spark a good discussion.

Danza is heartbreakingly vulnerable much of the time in this first season of the series. He comes in the with the full enthusiasm of a new teacher, although with less training, and it can be painful at times to watch him with students. He is charming and smart about people, but he is so out of his realm of expertise that sometimes it's like watching the moments leading up to a car accident in slow motion, hoping that there will be survivors.

The beauty of this series is that you can really see him trying like crazy to do everything in his power to be the best teacher he can. His effort at trying - and often succeeding - to make personal connections with students is beautiful. I have to admit that I weep with him in the second episode because I know exactly how...

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