Quotes from Martin Haberman

If you believe it's life or death for the kids, it changes everything you do.

For the children and youth in poverty from diverse cultural backgrounds who attend urban schools, having effective teachers is a matter of life and death. These children have no life options for achieving decent lives other than by experiencing success in school … Because it generates extremely high levels of emotional intensity, it [teaching in an urban school system] is more akin to being an air traffic controller than being a 'schoolteacher'.