| Introduction | p. ix |
| America has met the enemy-teachers | |
| The Almighty Principal | p. 23 |
| Meet the Teachers | p. 41 |
| Classroom Management | p. 101 |
| The music department is kept in a closet. And the library…what library? | |
| Good-Bye Too Soon | p. 1 |
| The life of the traveling teacher. | |
| Not High School as You Remember It | p. 127 |
| Wait! I don't want to leave these kids. And they don't want me to leave. | |
| In this class, we're all writers. Voices of Teachers around the Country: Corinne Driscoll, Syracuse, New York | |
| What Has Four Wheels and Flies? | p. 111 |
| Voices of Teachers around the Country: James Boutin, Seattle, Washington | |
| This is the "secret sauce." But what's the recipe? | |
| Take it from a teacher: "Run! Run away! Really, I mean it!" | |
| The power of positive delusion as an organizing principle. | |
| Can you find the lazy do-nothings in this picture? | |
| My Students and Me | p. 63 |
| The Rules | p. 89 |
| Teaching, Step by Step | p. 137 |
| How to perform choreography with a stopwatch. | |
| Bad Moves | p. 147 |
| Never poke the principal. | |
| Judgment Daze | p. 165 |
| How can we tell who's good and who's bad? | |
| Voices of Teachers around the Country: Mr. "X," Southwest Florida | |
| Cheaters' Paradise | p. 189 |
| Those who insist they aren't lying are liars. | |
| Voices of Teachers around the Country: Mrs. Chili, New England | |
| What I Learned | p. 203 |
| Ten things about education that nobody wants to hear these days. | |
| What We Can Do | p. 231 |
| There is hope. Here's how to help. | |
| Epilogue | p. 239 |
| Bibliography | p. 242 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 245 |
| About the Author | p. 246 |