ABSTRACT
This chapter tries to provide a forum for those teachers—a place where their voices can be heard; a place where others can attempt to better understand the factors that help teachers reconcile their professional identities with the phenomenon of school failure. It considers the implications of the knowledge for all teachers, preservice and inservice. The chapter presents the voices of the teachers which describes the voices of one small group of people attempting to "teach against the grain". It portrays the teachers, who are powerful reminders of those behaviors that cannot be measured or accounted for in classrooms by looking at test scores or dropout rates, or even teacher performance appraisal instruments. Public schools have occupied an important place in the growth and progress of the United States. Private schools for the elite would continue to exist, but public schools provided a vehicle for the masses to acquire formal schooling and benefit from the "uplifting" effect of general education.
