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This review has been accessed times since August 1, 2009

Fiese, Bryan. (2008).  No Teacher Left Behind: Keeping Up With and Captivating “Generation Next” in the Classroom. Dallas, TX: Motivated Performance Inc Pp. 225         ISBN 978-0981852508

Reviewed by Diana D’Amico
New York University   

August 1, 2009

Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities!  Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own personality you cannot be successful or happy.  But with sound self-confidence you can succeed.  A sense of inferiority and inadequacy interferes with the attainment of your hopes, but self-confidence leads to self-realization and successful achievement. Norman Vincent Peale, The Power of Positive Thinking.

On a daily basis, we are surrounded by slogans that encourage us to do our best and reassure us that our best –whatever it may be – is enough.   “Be all you can be,” the Army, until recently, would say.  “Just do it,” Nike advertisements prompt.  Why, even our President has told us, “Yes we can!”  Both fueling and supporting these messages is the multi-billion dollar self-help industry.   As historian Scott Sandage has noted, we live in “a nation that worships success” (p. 3).   And, for a fee, a host of self-help gurus from Dr. Phil, to Tony Robbins, to the author of the book reviewed here, Bryan Fiese, are there to help us find the success that we have come to believe is rightfully ours. 

Hardly a new phenomenon, the self-help books that consistently dominate today’s best-seller lists are the most recent incarnation of nineteenth century evangelical pop-psychology.  Since that time Americans have willingly opened their pockets to sages of all sorts – today, folks known as ‘life-coaches’ – who, as Steve Salerno has offered, “promis[ed] relief from all that ails [us] while at the same time promoting nostrums that almost always guarantee nothing will change” (p. 2).   Extending Peale’s famous believe-in-yourself message, these authors explain that we can be the positive change we envision.  In their books, television series and in-person seminars, they weave an intricate web that inextricably links happiness, health, success and wealth and offer to eager audiences a shortcut to that full package of fulfillment free from the burdens of strenuous heavy-lifting.   But, as Salerno has critiqued, “the straight-line progression that the current brand of self-help draws between effort and result – ‘do this, get that, be happy’ – is spurious and misleading” (p. 249).  Anathema to the fundamental premises of a meritocracy, this genre encourages the troublesome notion that the act of desiring makes one deserving.

Fiese’s No Teacher Left Behind: Keeping Up With and Captivating “Generation Next” in the Classroom is a self-help manual for today’s teachers.  Cautioning his readers, Fiese explains “you can’t teach a new student old tricks.  Or at least you shouldn’t if you expect to connect with, engage and truly inspire him” (p. 3).  Replete with large print, bold and italicized font for emphasis, posed photographs, “F.Y.I.” sidebars and an abundance of acronyms, the volume contends that today’s students are fundamentally different than any other group preceding them and attempts to teach teachers a new style of communication.  Divided into three sections, Fiese begins his book by explaining the differences across four generations of Americans: “Veteran Generation, 1933-1946;” “Baby Boomers, 1946-1964;” “Generation X, 1965-1981;” and “Generation Next, 1982-2002.”  Current students are unique and, as he explains in one sidebar, “if provided with the right tools and tactics, if approached and coached in the right way, Gen-Nexters will be able to accomplish remarkable things” (p. 13).  How, though, in the face of what Fiese outlines as stark differences, are teachers to cope with this new breed of student?  To that end, Fiese offers “Theory C” – a “natural outgrowth of Theory Y,” which of course stands in contrast to “Theory X”(pp. 36-39).  Calling on teachers to be motivators much like himself, Fiese offers a five-step process coupled with a list of the “10 attributes of the motivated coach” (p. 43).

The second section of the book centers on communication skills.  “Look at the word ‘communication’ and sound out the ‘UNI’,” he prompts readers, “sounds an awful lot like ‘you and I’ doesn’t it?” (p. 65)  Explaining the common causes of “F.A.I.L.U.R.E” (fear, assumptions, insensitivity, labeling, uncertainty, resentment, ego) and “S.U.C.C.E.S.S” (sensitivity, understanding, caring, choice, esteem, sharing, silence) in communication, Fiese offers a three-step formula for improvement complete with another acronym: “S.O.F.T.E.N” (smile, open body language, forward lean, touch, eye contact, nod).  “Change your gesture every 15 seconds to avoid seeming rigid and closed [and] to exhibit extra interest in what is being said,” he choreographs, “lean slightly into (not on!) the other person whenever he or she is speaking” (pp. 72-73).  And, while he urges teachers to “physically nod and say ‘I agree’ or ‘I understand’ to clearly confirm comprehension and that you are on the same page as the speaker,” he neglects to explain what one ought to do with one’s head in the rare instance of disagreement (p. 74).  Also in this section are strategies for dealing with “Nega-holics,” the “Fiese system of conflict resolution,” and tips for presenting that attend to everything from vocal exercises to how to “Edutain” students.

The final section of the book focuses on motivation.  “Motivation is not taught… it’s CAUGHT,” he shouts in bold font (p. 172).  Here, as in the previous two sections of the book, Fiese offers his own techniques for success.  To provide intrinsic motivation, he explains, “one tool teachers have at their disposal… is called the Burger Technique.  I recommend that you use this technique at least 15 times a day.  Think of a hamburger.” (185).   In large, bold, italicized print beneath the photo of a smiling, young, slender white woman holding a stack of books with an apple balanced on top reads, “You Have the Chance to be That Teacher” (p. 193).  Among the advice dispensed here is “eat well,” “choose enthusiasm,” and “give thanks and recognize the wonder.”  “Look forward to tomorrow,” he tells his teacher-readers, “anticipating another opportunity to sip the nectar of life” (201).

This book is written outside of the academy, and Fiese—neither a teacher, researcher, nor professor—openly discusses his own struggles in college and adroitly recasts his academic shortcomings as character traits demonstrating tenacity and perseverance.  Fiese’s punchy assertions such as “gone are the days when teachers could educate and command respect by ruling with an iron fist” offer poignant evidence of the book’s ahistoricity (p. 4), as do the grossly over-simplified characterizations of generational differences summed up in a concise table (p. 27).  And, though he offers a brief “disclaimer about generalizations,” it hardly excuses him from making no mention of race, class or gender, much less the ways in which these constituent elements shape the processes of teaching and learning (p. 19).  While Fiese refers to “studies,” “rigorous research,” and offers various data throughout—for instance, apparently “we listen with 33 percent of our true capacity” (p. 68)—he offers neither footnotes nor references.  Though at moments Fiese’s tone exudes authority and credibility, the book is comprised entirely of pseudo-science (refer especially to his section on “Neuro-Linguistic Programming”).  But, in the end, none of this really undercuts Fiese’s project.  He is not attempting to advance knowledge and, sadly, does not seem to believe teachers are to do so, either.  Instead, as he repeatedly offers, teaching is about inspiration.  And, all he wants to do is inspire.

On one level, Fiese and his advice are well-intentioned and harmless.  He may be right that “too many teachers eat a lunch high in fat” (p. 202).  And, how invidious can a few self-affirmations really be? But, on another level, there is a real danger in his project and that of the entire self-help conglomeration, writ large.  The inescapable corollary to the success-through-positive-thinking model, of course, is that failure springs from negative thinking.  As Salerno observed, if a particular program “doesn’t transform your life, it’s not because the program is ineffective.  It’s because you’re unworthy” (p. 40).   To make his acronyms and five-step plans seem applicable to teachers he must both oversimplify their work and ignore the real and complex problems that shape their classrooms.   “If you feel yourself slowing,” he encourages, “tell yourself, ‘I am an unstoppable energy machine ready for action’” (p. 203).  Perhaps this will help teachers muster the extra energy to make it through the final moments of the day, but how does it help them manage the poverty and overcrowding that surround them?  Well, it doesn’t.  But, in Fiese’s telling, these things do not exist.  He writes of a nation with homogeneous schools where “the typical Gen-Nexter sport[s] low-riding, ripped $150 designer jeans, a $45 faded and torn but new vintage t-shirt, flip flops, shaggy hair and one or more tattoos” and 97 percent of students own a computer (pp. 15-16).  The problems of the nation’s urban centers and rural outposts where students must share textbooks and often come to school hungry would surely make much of the advice Fiese doles out seem trivial.  And, so, he disregards them. 

But, there is a more pernicious element of Fiese’s project still, and it is captured in the title: No Teacher Left Behind.  Though powerful unions have worked to make such the case, in whose best interest is such a scenario?  Fiese along with the culture of self-help offers the false illusion that anything can be fixed by anyone with a bit of positive thinking.  But, in reality, these shortcuts perpetuate failure.  While his dictum to say loudly and believe “I am the most enthusiastic, motivated, energetic person in the world” might make some teachers feel good, there is little evidence that it will make them better teachers (p. 203).  Instead, what is needed is the very thing Fiese and his cohort of self-help guides retreat from: knowledge. 

Of course, a teacher must have certain characteristics: enthusiasm, charisma, and sensitivity are all important.  But, one can have these qualities and still be a poor teacher.  Instead, we must cultivate a population of practitioners with real expertise in what they teach.  They should be historians, mathematicians and scientists.  Their ability to inspire the kids who sit before them must stem first from their passion for the subject they teach.  Even more importantly, this new cohort of teacher-experts may represent the most powerful antidote to inequality yet. Through their studies these teachers will have learned a new way of thinking about the world.  When they teach about the intricacies of plant life, geometry or the American Civil War, unavoidably by extension they will also teach about the responsibilities of informed citizenship.   If the standards that educators and teachers hold for the profession rise in this way, no longer will just the most affluent have access to the brightest teachers.  In this case, the facts here really are simple:  acronyms cannot stand in place of tangible knowledge and will not make teachers who lack this expertise better at their craft.  And just as certainly, those teachers with subject matter expertise will find such direction altogether belittling.

References

Peale, Norman Vincent. (1952) The Power of Positive Thinking. NY: Prentice-Hall.

Salerno, Steve. (2005) SHAM: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless. New York: Crown Publishers.

Sandage, Scott A. (2005) Born Losers: A History of Failure in America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

About the Reviewer

Diana D’Amico is a PhD candidate in the history of education at New York University and a Spencer Dissertation Fellow.   Her dissertation, “Claiming Profession: New York City Teachers Unions, School Administration, Teacher Education Programs and the Creation and Contestation of Professionalism in the Twentieth Century,” examines the shifting cultural meanings of professionalism.  She can be contacted at damico.dc@gmail.com.

Copyright is retained by the first or sole author, who grants right of first publication to the Education Review.

Editors: Gene V Glass, Gustavo Fischman, Melissa Cast-Brede

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