matthew horn was the teacher who, between classes at sullivan central high school in sullivan county, tennessee, would be in the hallway bantering with fellow teachers and with students about tv music. he wore a pearl jam t shirt when we first met and nonsense such as what exactly? qualified as soup. he coached baseball and taught courses on personal finance and for juniors, seniors, two sections of a class titled contemporary issues horn as students called or coach john would pause a lesson to let a kid show off a new tattoo. when he taught, he pulled up a chair or sat at a school desk. who is not about podiums and lectures but converse sation even about private creation, he nudged, but also listened classes about learning to question, to research and to evaluate what you thought. kids wanted to take that class because. they wanted to talk. they want to learn. they want to argue in an academic setting one student who took harlem's contemporary issues class twice told me a former student who was studying to be an early childhood educator, said, he was our teacher, but he was our frien