Politics is about a bunch of articulate, motivated people trying to engage the interest of another, mostly apathetic lot. Teaching teenagers in a big inner-city school is much the same sort of thing, but more intense. That is the message that comes across from Peter Hyman's untidy but fascinating book. He used to be a wordsmith in Tony Blair's office, writing uplifting speeches for Britain's prime minister about, among other things, how the government was improving education. Tiring of that, he started work at a tough school in Islington. A few years back, it was notoriously rough: the Blair family, when they lived nearby, sent their children halfway across London (to an elite Roman Catholic school) in order to avoid it.
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