Profile Picture

  • ADMIN AREA MY BOOKSHELF MY DASHBOARD MY PROFILE SIGN OUT SIGN IN

avatar

MY POSSE DON'T DO HOMEWORK

by LouAnne Johnson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1992

Another funny, alarming look at a city school from a dedicated, unconventional teacher. When former Navy and Marine servicewoman Johnson (Making Waves, 1986) took over the pseudonymous ``Parkmont High'' classroom of a teacher who'd had a breakdown, she found herself surrounded by unruly, unmotivated students partial to Atom Bomb cologne and thunderbolt hair styles. At first, they tried the usual tricks, and Johnson, like others before her, nearly despaired (``I shook my head, and bit my lower lip, trying not to cry''). But she persisted, using an original mix of boot-camp tactics and genuine warmth, and, one by one, the students responded—like Danny, ``an advanced thinker caught in the body of a remedial student,'' who, inspired by Johnson's parakeet, turned from marginal to remarkable; or Curtis, who'd had a blank journal all year until The Merchant of Venice seized his imagination (``I never had anything to say before''). Along the way, Johnson learns a few lessons of her own, from simple management skills (``outshouting kids is like trying to teach a pig to sing'') to, most reluctantly, the hard facts of life (``You can't save a kid who doesn't want to be saved''). We've been up this down staircase before, especially in the late 1960's when an armful of books (by Kozol, Kohl, Herndon) first dramatized great inequities in school systems and the sad shuffle awaiting those least able to speak up for themselves. Johnson shows the importance of basic respect, constant encouragement, and unorthodox teaching strategies for a generation (another generation) of disenfranchised students.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1992

ISBN: 0-312-07638-X

Page Count: 240

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1992

Share your opinion of this book

More by LouAnne Johnson

MUCHACHO

BOOK REVIEW

by LouAnne Johnson

THE GIRLS IN THE BACK OF THE CLASS

INSIDE AMERICAN EDUCATION

The decline, the deception, the dogmas.

by Thomas Sowell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 4, 1993

American schools at every level, from kindergarten to postgraduate programs, have substituted ideological indoctrination for education, charges conservative think-tanker Sowell (Senior Fellow/Hoover Institution; Preferential Polices, 1990, etc.) in this aggressive attack on the contemporary educational establishment. Sowell's quarrel with "values clarification" programs (like sex education, death-sensitizing, and antiwar "brainwashing") isn't that he disagrees with their positions but, rather, that they divert time and resources from the kind of training in intellectual analysis that makes students capable of reasoning for themselves. Contending that the values clarification programs inspired by his archvillain, psychotherapist Carl Rogers, actually inculcate values confusion, Sowell argues that the universal demand for relevance and sensitivity to the whole student has led public schools to abdicate their responsibility to such educational ideals as experience and maturity. On the subject of higher education, Sowell moves to more familiar ground, ascribing the declining quality of classroom instruction to the insatiable appetite of tangentially related research budgets and bloated athletic programs (to which an entire chapter, largely irrelevant to the book's broader argument, is devoted). The evidence offered for these propositions isn't likely to change many minds, since it's so inveterately anecdotal (for example, a call for more stringent curriculum requirements is bolstered by the news that Brooke Shields graduated from Princeton without taking any courses in economics, math, biology, chemistry, history, sociology, or government) and injudiciously applied (Sowell's dismissal of student evaluations as responsible data in judging a professor's classroom performance immediately follows his use of comments from student evaluations to document the general inadequacy of college teaching). All in all, the details of Sowell's indictment—that not only can't Johnny think, but "Johnny doesn't know what thinking is"—are more entertaining than persuasive or new.

Pub Date: Jan. 4, 1993

ISBN: 0-02-930330-3

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Free Press

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1992

More by Thomas Sowell

SOCIAL JUSTICE FALLACIES

by Thomas Sowell

WEALTH, POVERTY AND POLITICS

THE ABOLITION OF MAN

by C.S. Lewis ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 8, 1947

The sub-title of this book is "Reflections on Education with Special Reference to the Teaching of English in the Upper Forms of Schools." But one finds in it little about education, and less about the teaching of English. Nor is this volume a defense of the Christian faith similar to other books from the pen of C. S. Lewis. The three lectures comprising the book are rather rambling talks about life and literature and philosophy. Those who have come to expect from Lewis penetrating satire and a subtle sense of humor, used to buttress a real Christian faith, will be disappointed.

Pub Date: April 8, 1947

ISBN: 1609421477

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1947

More by C.S. Lewis

ALL MY ROAD BEFORE ME

by C.S. Lewis

PRESENT CONCERNS

  • Discover Books Fiction Thriller & Suspense Mystery & Detective Romance Science Fiction & Fantasy Nonfiction Biography & Memoir Teens & Young Adult Children's
  • News & Features Bestsellers Book Lists Profiles Perspectives Awards Seen & Heard Book to Screen Kirkus TV videos In the News
  • Kirkus Prize Winners & Finalists About the Kirkus Prize Kirkus Prize Judges
  • Magazine Current Issue All Issues Manage My Subscription Subscribe
  • Writers’ Center Hire a Professional Book Editor Get Your Book Reviewed Advertise Your Book Launch a Pro Connect Author Page Learn About The Book Industry
  • More Kirkus Diversity Collections Kirkus Pro Connect My Account/Login
  • About Kirkus History Our Team Contest FAQ Press Center Info For Publishers
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Reprints, Permission & Excerpting Policy

© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Go To Top

Popular in this Genre

Close Quickview

Hey there, book lover.

We’re glad you found a book that interests you!

Please select an existing bookshelf

Create a new bookshelf.

We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!

Please sign up to continue.

It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!

Already have an account? Log in.

Sign in with Google

Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.

Almost there!

  • Industry Professional

Welcome Back!

Sign in using your Kirkus account

Contact us: 1-800-316-9361 or email [email protected].

Don’t fret. We’ll find you.

Magazine Subscribers ( How to Find Your Reader Number )

If You’ve Purchased Author Services

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up.

my posse don't do homework summary

  • Newsletters
  • Account Activating this button will toggle the display of additional content Account Sign out

Dangerous Tropes

How the michelle pfeiffer hit dangerous minds put an overtly paternalistic twist on a saccharine genre..

Edward James Olmos in Stand and Deliver , Sidney Poitier in To Sir, With Love , Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Minds , Hilary Swank in Freedom Writers , and Sandy Dennis in Up the Down Staircase .

Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker. Film stills via Warner Bros, Columbia, Buena Vista/Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros.

When Dangerous Minds opened 20 years ago this week, the critics couldn’t tell their readers loudly enough just how totally over it they felt. The film “tells another one of those uplifting parables in which the dedicated teacher takes on a schoolroom full of rebellious malcontents, and wins them over with an unorthodox approach,” began Roger Ebert in his unrelenting slam of the film . The New York Times ’ Janet Maslin hit the same theme: “ [It’s] formatted to match every other account of a dedicated teacher taming rebellious teens .”

Such critiques were not without merit. By 1995 the inspirational teacher movie, otherwise known as the “ save our students ” trope, was already several decades old, and Dangerous Minds stuck closely to its formula. That formula is simple: A new teacher takes on failing or at-risk kids who have long been abandoned by the system (usually in a poor, urban neighborhood) and helps turn their grades, and thus their lives, around. At some point, the teacher will reach a point at which she will want to quit, but an out-of-the-blue grand gesture by the kids will change her mind by the third act. It’s a subgenre that is naturally prone to sentimentality, so even the good or at least watchable examples of the form—like To Sir, With Love and Stand and Deliver —are at least somewhat cheesy.

Dangerous Minds stands out from its predecessors and many of the films that followed as a particularly egregious example of the inspirational-teacher idiom, particularly when it comes to its feel-good oversimplifying of two of its themes, pedagogy and race. The drama, loosely based on the memoir My Posse Don’t Do Homework by retired-Marine-turned-teacher LouAnne Johnson, doesn’t just stick to a well-worn path; in heightening the genre’s worst tropes so effusively, it elevates the condescendence and, more embarrassingly, the white-savior narrative that so frequently rests at its core.

Dangerous Minds starts off like most save-our-students films: with a depiction of a broken, or at least not particularly affluent, neighborhood. In movies like Blackboard Jungle , Up the Down Staircase , and Stand and Deliver , the eventual hero teacher is seen walking, driving, or riding the bus to his or her first day on the job. The point is to emphasize the cultural dissonance and long odds the teacher faces by positioning him or her as a fish out of water, and by positioning the students who come from these neighborhoods as at-risk youth. (The trailer for Up the Down Staircase explicitly asks what Sandy Dennis’ character—“a nice girl”—is “doing in a crazy place like this.”) In 1955’s Blackboard Jungle —one of the pioneers of the genre—new teacher Richard Dadier (Glenn Ford) arrives at the school and looks around bewilderedly at the kids who are smoking, playing around, and dancing to “ Rock Around the Clock ”—which in 1955 passed for a rebellious, raucous song enjoyed by wayward youth. Dangerous Minds takes this notion a step further: Over the rebellious strains of the Coolio hit “ Gangsta’s Paradise ,” it channels The Wizard of Oz and opens with the grainy black and white imagery of an impoverished California neighborhood, painting a dour, bleak scene of life for the kids we are about to meet. (The scene only bursts into color as they arrive by bus at their school.) In deploying that harsh cinematic technique, director John N. Smith renders the dire station of this particular group of students with an unsubtle brushstroke, setting up LouAnne for an even more triumphant “victory” than the teacher-saviors who came before her.

Throughout the movie, Dangerous Minds portrays a dynamic between LouAnne and her students—of the doting authority figure and the infantile teenager—that borders on parody. LouAnne, for her part, is initially portrayed as a fragile woman whose students easily break her composure on Day 1. (It’s an unlikely speed bump, considering her background as a Marine.) She walks out in the middle of her class to vent to the colleague and friend who helped her get the job in the first place: “I can’t teach them!” At home that evening, a montage shows her diligently reading a book called Assertive Discipline and eventually reaching an epiphany—she’ll project authority and command respect by donning a leather jacket and wowing the kids with karate instructions. The students, meanwhile, are largely portrayed as fatalistic about their own lives and antagonistic toward their teacher because she’s white. They call her “white bread”; in one scene, the grandmother of two of her students calls her a “honky bitch.” Facing such resentment, LouAnne has her work more than cut out for her.

Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker

The disconnect between a white teacher and his or her nonwhite students is a recurrent feature of these films, but the structure of Dangerous Minds bungles it more clumsily than usual. By having the students exert prejudice upon their teacher rather than make any explicit mention of how the education system overwhelmingly fails black and Latino students in turn, the students are largely responsible for their own failures. Blackboard Jungle at least tries to address racial and ethnic differences in a meaningful way. In that film, Richard Dadier’s students are a diverse bunch rife with conflict because of their different ethnic and racial backgrounds. It’s a tension he frequently has to ease by reprimanding his kids for using derogatory slurs toward one another, and by incorporating the appreciation of other cultures into his lessons. In a scene with his student Miller (Sidney Poitier), who’s planning to quit school to become a mechanic, Richard points to opera singer Marian Anderson and boxer Joe Louis as reasons Miller shouldn’t give up on higher aspirations because of his race.

That’s a rather pat kind of encouragement (this was the 1950s, after all), but at least the teacher is acknowledging race, and racism, in a somewhat useful way. Similarly, in 1988’s Stand and Deliver , calculus teacher Jaime Escalante (Edward James Olmos) warns his Latino students that their names and complexions will be judged in the real world, but “math is the great equalizer.” (He and his students soon get a hard dose of reality that this is not always the case, when they are accused of having cheated on their Advanced Placement exam.) Such complexities are absent from Dangerous Minds —LouAnne doesn’t attempt to reach out to her students from their point of view or realistically confront the odds they face. To get her kids to enjoy poetry, she uses the not-very-relevant Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” and describes the lyrics as a metaphor for dealing drugs; she bribes them as if they were 5-year-olds, with prizes and a field trip to an amusement park. (In the similarly plotted Freedom Writers starring Hilary Swank, her character is shown using the lyrics of Tupac to engage her classroom, perhaps because 12 years after Dangerous Minds , rap was no longer the vilified art form it once was.)

Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker.

All of these moments add up to a film made up of relationships that don’t ring true, even though the intent behind the story, in line with its predecessors’, is clearly an honorable one. In fact, much of the real LouAnne Johnson’s My Posse Don’t Do Homework didn’t make it to the screen—after selling the film rights, she had no involvement with the script, which is credited to screenwriter Ron Bass ( My Best Friend’s Wedding , The Joy Luck Club ). When it first came out, “I was really upset and so were my students by the way they were portrayed,” she tells me. What bothered her most about the final movie was the grandmother who called her character a “honky bitch.” Johnson says she actually had a good relationship with the woman, and that they worked together to help keep her twin grandsons on the right track and graduate. “I asked them why did they put that in,” she says, “and they said, ‘Well, we were sure that a lot of the black and Hispanic parents resented you … for being white.’ ” Johnson says that while she did have a student who told her he hated white people, she otherwise didn’t encounter such blatant name-calling or hostility.

But there were other crucial alterations, as well: Johnson didn’t teach her students Bob Dylan; in My Posse Don’t Do Homework , she recalls bringing in the lyrics to Public Enemy’s “ 911 Is a Joke ,” and asking students to choose their own song lyrics to bring in to class. (They weren’t all rap songs, either—the kids also brought in heavy metal, jazz, and country lyrics.) And while she did visit her students and their parents at home without administrators’ knowledge—“it’s much easier to get forgiveness than permission,” she says—she didn’t go so far as to bribe them with candy or an inappropriate field trip to an amusement park.

Johnson isn’t the only person involved with Dangerous Minds who would have approached the final film differently. Bass, the screenwriter, tells me, “The movie you saw wasn’t the screenplay I wrote. My name is on the script, because the writer who came in and did very substantial rewriting”— Elaine May —“didn’t want credit, and I was asked to take the sole credit.” In his version, Bass had hoped to convey the strong bond he’d witnessed between Johnson and her students while sitting in on one of her classes, and how much they gave to her as she did them. Bass is well-aware of how the final version of Dangerous Minds can be seen by some as being overtly paternalistic, with the white hero coming to save the day. But he also insists that that was never the intent of those who worked closely on the movie. He told me:

I admire the work that Elaine did … I wonder if in retrospect, hearing that said sometimes over the years, if anybody would say I didn’t realize that the balance was such that it could make people wonder if that was in the mix. If I had to go back, I’d certainly switch scenes back in, I’d readjust the balance so that everybody knew that the relationship was a two-way street.

(According to Johnson, this imbalance was apparent to at least one actor from the film. When visiting the set, the actress who played Callie, Bruklin Harris, asked her why it always has to be a white person lifting up the “poor little Negroes.” Johnson’s blunt response: “I wrote the book, I have to be white.” And: Hollywood at the time simply didn’t embrace stories with black female protagonists.)

This imbalance and oversimplicity reaches its peak at the end of the film, when LouAnne pleads with her most troubled student, the brooding Emilio (Wade Dominguez), to go to the school administrator Mr. Grandy (Courtney B. Vance) and tell him about a kid just out of jail who is threatening to kill him because of a grudge. The kid, who is addicted to crack, would go to detox for substance abuse at school, she says, and by the time he gets out, he’ll have “forgotten” about his grudge. “You asked me once how I was gonna save you from your life,” she says. “This is how, this moment, right now. This will make the difference in your life forever.”

Mr Grandy is one of the only school authority figures of color in the movie, and it’s ultimately his refusal to see Emilio—because he wasn’t “respectful” enough to knock on his office door instead of barging in—that gets Emilio killed. (In real life, Emilio didn’t die; he spent four years in the Marine Corps and started a family.) This moment—and the subsequent scene in which the remaining kids beg LouAnne to stay because she’s their “tambourine man” and their “light”—encapsulates the narrow, patronizing worldview of Dangerous Minds . It is also egregiously maudlin, even compared to To Sir, With Love , in which the teacher’s climactic triumph comes in the form of a gooey No. 1 pop song . In that film and others, at least, the teachers and their students interact with one another in a way that feels more like the “two-way street” Bass described—like in the end of Blackboard Jungle , when Dadier has decided he won’t quit teaching, and Miller has decided he’ll stay in school after all. “I guess everybody learns something in school, even teachers,” declares Miller.

Despite the critical beating it took, Dangerous Minds was a surprise hit that opened atop the box office, besting a post- Speed Keanu Reeves war drama and legendary bomb Waterworld , then in its third week. Its soundtrack, and more specifically, Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise,” became a cultural phenomenon. It even spawned a short-lived television series that replaced Pfeiffer with Annie Potts as Johnson. What’s most fascinating about the film 20 years later is the fact that it lives on as a paradox: It continues to be remembered in large part because it lends itself to parody so well—its one-dimensionality spawned some pretty hilarious pop-culture moments in film and TV shows, like Hamlet 2 and 30 Rock —and stands as a glaring example of the white-savior narrative. The irony, though, is that despite all of this, it did manage to do the one thing all save-our-students movies set out to do: inspire. “I think it’s emotionally manipulative,” says Johnson. “But … I realized a lot of people became teachers because they saw that movie, and I had hundreds of kids who wrote to me and said they were going to finish school because the kids in the movie finished school.”

comscore beacon

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links

my posse don't do homework summary

Follow TV Tropes

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/DangerousMinds

Film / Dangerous Minds

Edit locked.

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/63121.jpg

They say I got to learn but nobody’s here to teach me If they can’t understand it how can they reach me? I guess they can’t, I guess they won’t I guess they front That’s why I know my life is out of luck, fool — Coolio , “Gangsta’s Paradise”

Dangerous Minds is a 1995 American drama film, directed by John N. Smith. It is based on My Posse Don't Do Homework (1992), an autobiography of Lou Anne Johnson. Like the book, it narrates the experiences of a former marine turned teacher while teaching at Carlmont High School, a California-based high school, where African-American and Hispanic students are the majority.

The film begins with Johnson (played by Michelle Pfeiffer ), a retired marine, applying for a teaching position at Parkmont High School. To her surprise, she is almost immediately hired. It turns out Johnson applied for a position nobody else wanted, teaching literature to a rather tough audience. Her new class includes "tough, sullen teenagers, all from lower-class and underprivileged backgrounds". Several of them involved in criminal activities and all of them indifferent to whatever school has to teach them.

The film focuses on her efforts to gain their respect, teach them to appreciate literature, and change the teaching methods to better apply to their needs. Some of her methods, such as bribing them with rewards, anger the senior staff such as George Grandey ( Courtney B. Vance ) and Carla Nichols (Robin Bartlett). She also takes personal interest in the lives of individual students, trying to help them out in situations rather removed from school. The first is Callie Roberts (Bruklin Harris), a promising student experiencing Teen Pregnancy . The teacher convinces her to keep pursuing further education even as a single mother. Her second case Raúl Sanchero (Renoly Santiago), a reluctant gang member who has to be taught the basics of self-respect and getting used to operating outside a pack.

The third case proves a failure. Emilio Ramírez (Wade Domínguez) is a student involved in personal conflict with a hardened criminal acquaintance. Emilio considers it a matter of personal honor to face his problems alone, never asking for help. Johnson tries to protect him but finds no support from the school system. Without sufficient protection, Emilio is easily killed. Johnson regards it as a personal failure, announcing her intention to retire at the end of the school year. Her students take offense and protest their mentor abandoning them. The film ends with Johnson reconsidering her decision.

Along with Bad Boys (1995) and Crimson Tide , it was one of three hits in a single year by producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer . Simpson died early in 1996 due to combined drug intoxication. His swan song was The Rock . The film had a television series spin-off, Dangerous Minds (1996 - 1997). It lasted one season, 17 episodes. Annie Potts was cast as Johnson.

My Posse Don't Do Homework

Louanne johnson. st. martin's press, $19.95 (226pp) isbn 978-0-312-07638-2.

my posse don't do homework summary

Reviewed on: 08/03/1992

Genre: Nonfiction

  • Apple Books
  • Barnes & Noble

More By and About this Author chevron_right

my posse don't do homework summary

Featured Nonfiction Reviews

my posse don't do homework summary

We will keep fighting for all libraries - stand with us!

Internet Archive Audio

my posse don't do homework summary

  • This Just In
  • Grateful Dead
  • Old Time Radio
  • 78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings
  • Audio Books & Poetry
  • Computers, Technology and Science
  • Music, Arts & Culture
  • News & Public Affairs
  • Spirituality & Religion
  • Radio News Archive

my posse don't do homework summary

  • Flickr Commons
  • Occupy Wall Street Flickr
  • NASA Images
  • Solar System Collection
  • Ames Research Center

my posse don't do homework summary

  • All Software
  • Old School Emulation
  • MS-DOS Games
  • Historical Software
  • Classic PC Games
  • Software Library
  • Kodi Archive and Support File
  • Vintage Software
  • CD-ROM Software
  • CD-ROM Software Library
  • Software Sites
  • Tucows Software Library
  • Shareware CD-ROMs
  • Software Capsules Compilation
  • CD-ROM Images
  • ZX Spectrum
  • DOOM Level CD

my posse don't do homework summary

  • Smithsonian Libraries
  • FEDLINK (US)
  • Lincoln Collection
  • American Libraries
  • Canadian Libraries
  • Universal Library
  • Project Gutenberg
  • Children's Library
  • Biodiversity Heritage Library
  • Books by Language
  • Additional Collections

my posse don't do homework summary

  • Prelinger Archives
  • Democracy Now!
  • Occupy Wall Street
  • TV NSA Clip Library
  • Animation & Cartoons
  • Arts & Music
  • Computers & Technology
  • Cultural & Academic Films
  • Ephemeral Films
  • Sports Videos
  • Videogame Videos
  • Youth Media

Search the history of over 866 billion web pages on the Internet.

Mobile Apps

  • Wayback Machine (iOS)
  • Wayback Machine (Android)

Browser Extensions

Archive-it subscription.

  • Explore the Collections
  • Build Collections

Save Page Now

Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future.

Please enter a valid web address

  • Donate Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape

"My posse don't do homework"

Bookreader item preview, share or embed this item, flag this item for.

  • Graphic Violence
  • Explicit Sexual Content
  • Hate Speech
  • Misinformation/Disinformation
  • Marketing/Phishing/Advertising
  • Misleading/Inaccurate/Missing Metadata

[Amazon]

plus-circle Add Review comment Reviews

1,069 Previews

20 Favorites

DOWNLOAD OPTIONS

No suitable files to display here.

EPUB and PDF access not available for this item.

IN COLLECTIONS

Uploaded by Lotu Tii on August 13, 2012

SIMILAR ITEMS (based on metadata)

my posse don't do homework summary

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

LouAnne Johnson

Image Unavailable

My Posse Don't Do Homework by Louanne Johnson (1992-08-23)

  • To view this video download Flash Player

My Posse Don't Do Homework by Louanne Johnson (1992-08-23) Hardcover

  • Publisher St Martins Pr
  • See all details

The Amazon Book Review

Customers who bought this item also bought

The Girls in the Back of the Class

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01N6L1QSA

About the author

Louanne johnson.

Biography LouAnne Johnson

LouAnne Johnson is a former U.S. Navy journalist, Marine Corps officer, high school teacher, and the author of The New York Times bestseller Dangerous Minds. A native of rural northwestern Pennsylvania, LouAnne served nine years on active military duty first as an enlisted journalist in the Navy and later as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Marine Corps where she earned awards for her work as a journalist and radio-tv broadcaster. 

While on active duty, LouAnne earned a B.S. in Psychology. Following her honorable discharge, she attended graduate school to earn a Master of Arts in teaching English. In 1989, LouAnne began teaching reading and writing to non-English speakers as an intern at a high school in California. Two years later, she was appointed department chair of a special program for at-risk teens. During the government evaluation of 10 similar pilot programs, LouAnne's group was rated first in academic achievement, increased self-esteem, and student retention.


In 1992, she wrote a memoir My Posse Don’t Do Homework, about her experiences working with at-risk teens. The book was published in eight languages and was adapted for the 1995 box office hit “Dangerous Minds” starring Michelle Pfeiffer.


Since then LouAnne has continued to teach. She has taught high school English, adult ESL and Developmental Reading and is presently a full-time professor of teacher education at Santa Fe Community College in New Mexico.

LouAnne also continues to write. She is the author of seven nonfiction books, most recently Teaching Outside the Box: How to Grab Your Students by Their Brains.

Muchacho, LouAnne's first novel, was published by Knopf in September 2009. The narrator of Muchacho, Eddie Corazon, is a 16-year-old juvenile delinquent and “secret reader” who attends an alternative high school in New Mexico.

LouAnne has presented keynote addresses to the National School Boards Association, the American School Counselors Association, the National Staff Development Council, and the European Council of International Schools, among others. She has appeared on several TV shows, including Oprah, CBS Eye to Eye, and NBC Weekend Today.

LouAnne maintains a website that has direct links to many of the topics she discusses during her presentations.

www.louannejohnson.com

Customer reviews

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

  • Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

my posse don't do homework summary

Top reviews from other countries

my posse don't do homework summary

  • Amazon Newsletter
  • About Amazon
  • Accessibility
  • Sustainability
  • Press Center
  • Investor Relations
  • Amazon Devices
  • Amazon Science
  • Sell on Amazon
  • Sell apps on Amazon
  • Supply to Amazon
  • Protect & Build Your Brand
  • Become an Affiliate
  • Become a Delivery Driver
  • Start a Package Delivery Business
  • Advertise Your Products
  • Self-Publish with Us
  • Become an Amazon Hub Partner
  • › See More Ways to Make Money
  • Amazon Visa
  • Amazon Store Card
  • Amazon Secured Card
  • Amazon Business Card
  • Shop with Points
  • Credit Card Marketplace
  • Reload Your Balance
  • Amazon Currency Converter
  • Your Account
  • Your Orders
  • Shipping Rates & Policies
  • Amazon Prime
  • Returns & Replacements
  • Manage Your Content and Devices
  • Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
  • Conditions of Use
  • Privacy Notice
  • Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
  • Your Ads Privacy Choices

Frequently Asked Questions

icon

Write My Essay Service - Working to Help You

Do you want to have more free time for personal development and fun? Or are you confused with your professor's directions? Whatever your reason for coming to us is, you are welcome! We are a legitimate professional writing service with student-friendly prices and with an aim to help you achieve academic excellence. To get an A on your next assignment simply place an order or contact our 24/7 support team.

my posse don't do homework summary

Write my essay for me frequently asked questions

Customer Reviews

Is buying essays online safe?

Shopping through online platforms is a highly controversial issue. Naturally, you cannot be completely sure when placing an order through an unfamiliar site, with which you have never cooperated. That is why we recommend that people contact trusted companies that have hundreds of positive reviews.

As for buying essays through sites, then you need to be as careful as possible and carefully check every detail. Read company reviews on third-party sources or ask a question on the forum. Check out the guarantees given by the specialists and discuss cooperation with the company manager. Do not transfer money to someone else's account until they send you a document with an essay for review.

Good online platforms provide certificates and some personal data so that the client can have the necessary information about the service manual. Service employees should immediately calculate the cost of the order for you and in the process of work are not entitled to add a percentage to this amount, if you do not make additional edits and preferences.

1035 Natoma Street, San Francisco

This exquisite Edwardian single-family house has a 1344 Sqft main…

my posse don't do homework summary

We are quite confident to write and maintain the originality of our work as it is being checked thoroughly for plagiarism. Thus, no copy-pasting is entertained by the writers and they can easily 'write an essay for me’.

Diane M. Omalley

Customer Reviews

Finished Papers

my posse don't do homework summary

"Research papers - Obsity in Children..."

my posse don't do homework summary

Customer Reviews

my posse don't do homework summary

Advanced essay writer

my posse don't do homework summary

Check your email inbox for instructions from us on how to reset your password.

Writing my essay with the top-notch writers!

The writers you are supposed to hire for your cheap essay writer service are accomplished writers. First of all, all of them are highly skilled professionals and have higher academic degrees like Masters and PhDs. Secondly, all the writers have work experience of more than 5 years in this domain of academic writing. They are responsible for

  • Omitting any sign of plagiarism
  • Formatting the draft
  • Delivering order before the allocated deadline

Our Professional Writers Are Our Pride

EssayService boasts its wide writer catalog. Our writers have various fields of study, starting with physics and ending with history. Therefore we are able to tackle a wide range of assignments coming our way, starting with the short ones such as reviews and ending with challenging tasks such as thesis papers. If you want real professionals some of which are current university professors to write your essays at an adequate price, you've come to the right place! Hiring essay writers online as a newcomer might not be the easiest thing to do. Being cautious here is important, as you don't want to end up paying money to someone who is hiring people with poor knowledge from third-world countries. You get low-quality work, company owners become financial moguls, and those working for such an essay writing service are practically enduring intellectual slavery. Our writing service, on the other hand, gives you a chance to work with a professional paper writer. We employ only native English speakers. But having good English isn't the only skill needed to ace papers, right? Therefore we require each and every paper writer to have a bachelor's, master's, or Ph.D., along with 3+ years of experience in academic writing. If the paper writer ticks these boxes, they get mock tasks, and only with their perfect completion do they proceed to the interview process.

my posse don't do homework summary

For expository writing, our writers investigate a given idea, evaluate its various evidence, set forth interesting arguments by expounding on the idea, and that too concisely and clearly. Our online essay writing service has the eligibility to write marvelous expository essays for you.

my posse don't do homework summary

As we have previously mentioned, we value our writers' time and hard work and therefore require our clients to put some funds on their account balance. The money will be there until you confirm that you are fully satisfied with our work and are ready to pay your paper writer. If you aren't satisfied, we'll make revisions or give you a full refund.

Frequently Asked Questions

Customer Reviews

What if I’m unsatisfied with an essay your paper service delivers?

My experience here started with an essay on English lit. As of today, it is quite difficult for me to imagine my life without these awesome writers. Thanks. Always.

Viola V. Madsen

my posse don't do homework summary

"Research papers - Obsity in Children..."

  • Admission/Application Essay
  • Annotated Bibliography
  • Argumentative Essay
  • Book Report Review
  • Dissertation

How Our Paper Writing Service Is Used

We stand for academic honesty and obey all institutional laws. Therefore EssayService strongly advises its clients to use the provided work as a study aid, as a source of ideas and information, or for citations. Work provided by us is NOT supposed to be submitted OR forwarded as a final work. It is meant to be used for research purposes, drafts, or as extra study materials.

We do not tolerate any form of plagiarism and use modern software to detect any form of it

  • Password reminder
  • Registration

my posse don't do homework summary

COMMENTS

  1. Dangerous Minds

    Dangerous Minds is a 1995 American drama film directed by John N. Smith and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer.It is based on the autobiography My Posse Don't Do Homework by retired U.S. Marine LouAnne Johnson, who in 1989 took up a teaching position at Carlmont High School in Belmont, California, where most of her students were African-American and Latino teenagers from East Palo ...

  2. Dangerous Minds by LouAnne Johnson

    11 books54 followers. LouAnne Johnson is a former U.S. Navy journalist, Marine Corps officer, high school teacher, and the author of The New York Times bestseller Dangerous Minds (originally My Posse Don't Do Homework). In 1989, LouAnne began teaching reading and writing to non-English speakers as an intern at a high school in California.

  3. MY POSSE DON'T DO HOMEWORK

    MY POSSE DON'T DO HOMEWORK. Another funny, alarming look at a city school from a dedicated, unconventional teacher. When former Navy and Marine servicewoman Johnson (Making Waves, 1986) took over the pseudonymous ``Parkmont High'' classroom of a teacher who'd had a breakdown, she found herself surrounded by unruly, unmotivated students partial ...

  4. LouAnne Johnson

    Known for. My Posse Don't Do Homework. LouAnne Johnson is an American writer, teacher and former U.S. Navy journalist. She spent seven years as a radio-TV broadcaster and one year as a Marine Corps Officer, after graduating as Honor Woman in her Marine Corps OCS class. She was the first woman inducted into the DINFOS (Defense Information School ...

  5. "My Posse Don't Do Homework"

    In 1992, she wrote a memoir My Posse Don't Do Homework, about her experiences working with at-risk teens. The book was published in eight languages and was adapted for the 1995 box office hit "Dangerous Minds" starring Michelle Pfeiffer. Since then LouAnne has continued to teach. She has taught high school English, adult ESL and ...

  6. Dangerous Minds, 20 years later: The real-life LouAnne Johnson

    The drama, loosely based on the memoir My Posse Don't Do Homework by retired-Marine-turned-teacher LouAnne Johnson, doesn't just stick to a well-worn path; in heightening the genre's worst ...

  7. Dangerous Minds (Film)

    Dangerous Minds is a 1995 American drama film, directed by John N. Smith. It is based on My Posse Don't Do Homework (1992), an autobiography of Lou Anne Johnson. Like the book, it narrates the experiences of a former marine turned teacher while teaching at Carlmont High School, a California-based high school, where African-American and Hispanic students are the majority.

  8. PDF Summary of My Posse Don'T Johnson

    book My Posse Don'T Do Homework by Louanne Johnson. My Posse Don't Do Homework is a captivating and eye-opening memoir by LouAnne Johnson, a former Marine and high school teacher. The book provides a glimpse into Johnson's experiences working with a group of at-risk students in an inner-city school in California.

  9. My Posse Don't Do Homework

    Books. My Posse Don't Do Homework. LouAnne Johnson. St. Martin's, 1992 - Education - 226 pages. Not since Up the Down Staircase has the insanity of the public school system been explored with such humor and love for students. Tiny, pretty, ex-marine Miss Johnson bullies, bluffs, and cajoles her students into thinking and caring about school.

  10. My Posse Don't Do Homework

    My Posse Don't Do Homework. They were called "the class from Hell": 34 inner-city sophomores whose last teacher had been "pushed over the edge". Now they have a new teacher: a pretty, 98-pound ex-Marine who would bully, bluff, and bribe her students into caring about school. The major motion picture starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Andy Garcia ...

  11. The Girls in the Back of the Class by LouAnne Johnson

    LouAnne Johnson is a former U.S. Navy journalist, Marine Corps officer, high school teacher, and the author of The New York Times bestseller Dangerous Minds (originally My Posse Don't Do Homework). In 1989, LouAnne began teaching reading and writing to non-English speakers as an intern at a high school in California.

  12. My Posse Don't Do Homework by LouAnne Johnson

    My Posse Don't Do Homework. LouAnne Johnson. St. Martin's Press, $19.95 (226pp) ISBN 978--312-07638-2. While her Marine Corps training helped, Johnson found the caring parts of her personality ...

  13. "My posse don't do homework"

    Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2012-08-13 21:22:23 Boxid IA161301 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II

  14. Muchacho by LouAnne Johnson

    LouAnne Johnson is a former U.S. Navy journalist, Marine Corps officer, high school teacher, and the author of The New York Times bestseller Dangerous Minds (originally My Posse Don't Do Homework). In 1989, LouAnne began teaching reading and writing to non-English speakers as an intern at a high school in California.

  15. My Posse Don't Do Homework by Louanne Johnson (1992-08-23)

    During the government evaluation of 10 similar pilot programs, LouAnne's group was rated first in academic achievement, increased self-esteem, and student retention. In 1992, she wrote a memoir My Posse Don't Do Homework, about her experiences working with at-risk teens. The book was published in eight languages and was adapted for the 1995 ...

  16. My Posse Dont Do Homework Summary

    My Posse Dont Do Homework Summary - Of course, we can deliver your assignment in 8 hours. 1811 Orders prepared. Level: Master's, University, College, High School, PHD, Undergraduate. Assignment, Linguistics, 2 pages by Rising Siri Kaewpakit. ... Do my essay with us and meet all your requirements.

  17. My Posse Dont Do Homework Summary

    My Posse Dont Do Homework Summary, Example Cover Letter Entry Level Position, Free Help Writing A Cover Letter, Professional Thesis Proofreading Site Gb, Cover Letter For Promotion Sample, Resume Builder 4 3 Registration Key, Texas Bar Exam Essay Scoring

  18. My Posse Dont Do Homework Summary

    Look up our reviews and see what our clients have to say! We have thousands of returning clients that use our writing services every chance they get. We value your reputation, anonymity, and trust in us. Area. 1344 sq ft. 1-PAGE SUMMARY. Expository Essay. Persuasive Essay.

  19. My Posse Dont Do Homework Story Summary

    My Posse Dont Do Homework Story Summary, Essay On Experience Is The Best Teacher, Lord Of The Flies Simon Christ Ess, Fermilab-thesis-2008-61, Donald Asher Ashers Bible Of Executive Resumes And How To Write Them, Practice For Sat Essay, Extended Essay Format Double Spaced

  20. My Posse Dont Do Homework

    That is exactly why thousands of them come to our essay writers service for an additional study aid for their children. By working with our essay writers, you can get a high-quality essay sample and use it as a template to help them succeed. Help your kids succeed and order a paper now! 652. Finished Papers.

  21. My Posse Dont Do Homework Story Summary

    Be it any kind of academic work and from any domain, our writers will get it done exclusively for you with the greatest efficiency possible. Gustavo Almeida Correia. #27 in Global Rating. 4.7 (3244 reviews) Toll free 1 (888)499-5521 1 (888)814-4206. 2191 Orders prepared. My Posse Dont Do Homework Story Summary -.

  22. My Posse Dont Do Homework Summary

    Information about writing process of our company. Professional Writers Experts in their fields with flawless English and an eye for details. Nursing Management Business and Economics Psychology +113. Your Price: .35 per page. Enter your phone number and we will call you back. 11640 +.