When Mike Taubman was studying to become a teacher, he didn’t buy the anti-charter school sentiment. As an undergraduate, he interned at Uncommon Schools and now, at 39, is in his 15th year at the network and thriving.
Many teachers at charter schools, like Taubman, are willing to work the long hours because, writes Jay Mathews, they see how effective they can be in the rising confidence of their students.
“I had always thought that creativity meant the absence of structure,” says Taubman, but he saw that those structures were essential to the content mastery that fostered critical thinking in his students.