alex popowich, and he said he thought that was a stupid idea because people experienced in new orleans were so compelling and interesting on their own. and so i settled on the idea of structuring the book around three schools, with one person preeminent in each. miss laurie ayden and jerald lynn, all of whom i met at different times and in different ways. since writing this book was a journey for me i wanted to talk about some what i learn over the course of reporting and writing it. apart from the fact i would make a terrible teacher. the first is that i feel like the extremists and absolutists on both sides of the'm conversation over school reform and other issues dominate the debate, but their voices don't really capture the need or desire of those attending and working in the schools, and i had covered education for long enough when i started working on the book to sense this to some degree. i was really amazed by the extent to which the aspirations and ideals of many families and frontline educators eluded the talking points of those who had the soap box on this issue, and i got f