"The more the Eagle Academy approach and its successes can be shared,
the more opportunities young people will have to find their way to their
own triumphs." --Wes Moore, New York Times bestselling author of The
Other Wes Moore
From New York City public schools chancellor David Banks--a respected
educator who has advised Hillary Clinton and Cory Booker on scholastic
issues--comes a "rare book that can bring tears to your eyes while
showing the way to deep and meaningful social change" (New York Times
bestselling author William Pollack).
In this country, the failure of black and Latino men in schools has
become the norm. Some go as far to say that young men of color are
helpless cases and they are treated as such in school. Though this
unfair experience hits brown and black boys the hardest, the underlying
causes are shared by boys of many backgrounds. There needs to be a
change, and David Banks had some ideas to help at-risk boys. In 2004, he
petitioned New York City's mayor to allow an all-boys public school to
open in one of the most troubled districts in the country, the South
Bronx. He had a point to prove: when rituals that boys are innately
drawn to are combined with college prep-level instruction and community
mentorship, even the most challenging students can succeed. The result?
The Eagle Academy for Young Men--the first all-boys public high school
in New York City in more than thirty years--has flourished and has been
successfully replicated in five locations in the city and in Newark, New
Jersey.
In Soar, Banks shares the experiences of individual kids from the
Eagle Academy as well as his own personal story. He reveals the specific
approach he and his team use to drive students, from tapping into their
natural competitiveness and peer-sensitivity, to providing rituals that
mimic their instinctual need for hierarchy and fraternal camaraderie, to
finding teachers who know firsthand the obstacles these students face.
Results-oriented and clear-eyed about the challenges and promises of
educating boys at risk, Soar is "a must-read for those concerned with
the welfare of young men" (Kirkus Reviews).
