After a physical altercation with a troubled student, school officials remove jaded veteran English teacher Manny Quesada from his high school classroom. They assign him administrative duties in the Rubber Room of lore and legend in the superintendents office where lost souls known as rogue teachers await judgment. Rather than wait passively to be exonerated for what he considers justifiable defense, Manny undertakes a quest to clear himself. He uncovers startling evidence that educational officials are falsifying statistics - and that the scandal reaches the highest levels of city politics. As the new realities of urban education erode his ideals, Manny wallow in self-pity. He spirals downward on alcohol, drugs, and his favorite student, Maggie, a bright, green-eyed beauty interestedunlike the othersin learning, whose infatuation temps him in his weakened state. But then blackmail and a murder investigation cast serious doubt on his return to the classroom, and Manny must decide if his ministry to problem students can survive his personal turmoil. Reminiscent of such notable works as Blackboard Jungle, Up the Down Stair Case, and To Sir with Love, Confessions of a Rogue Teacher paints a sobering portrait of the American classroom and artfully captures the realities of public education today.

As a National Merit Scholar majoring in physics at Rice University, Henry Rambow thought he was a rational person. But primed by years of Sunday School and haunted by a promise made as a terrified child, he nevertheless fell head over heels into a fundamentalist brand of Christianity. Confessions of a Rogue Missionary is an account of his struggle--and eventual failure--to reconcile his faith with reason. At times dryly humorous and at times sober and contemplative, the story begins when Henry is "born again." Brimming with zeal--but already plagued by doubt--he travels to Beijing as a missionary in the guise of an English teacher, where he tries desperately to embrace the culture and win disciples for Jesus. Culture clashes and miscommunications result in cringe-inducing encounters in unlikely settings, ranging from a brothel to a military base. Eventually, the very questions that troubled him from the start prove to be too much, and his faith collapses entirely, leaving him feeling disillusioned--but free.

Not control his amorous and pugilistic inclinations and so left for the West. According to his "Confession," he seduced countless women in the U.S. and Mexico, never missed a fandango, fought gallantly against Mexican guerrillas, and rode with the 1st Dragoons into the Battle of Buena Vista. His remarkable story is pure melodrama; but Goetzmann has proven by his painstaking research that much of it is true. In extensive annotation, the editor has been able to separate.

Former fabulist Peter Burt turns Father Confessor for this latest volume of sensational exposés. Boldly breaking all professional taboos, he reveals the shocking secrets whispered to him through the confessional grille by a whole rogues' gallery of unrepentant sinners - from a DIY universe creator to two suburban friends who practise wife-swapping by means of astral projection, from an undercover literary agent to a large molecule who has deserted the military. Shudder at the dark secrets Father Burt has courageously brought out into the light of day - and ponder whether any spell in purgatory would be long enough to cleanse this vast array of miscreants of their heinous crimes.

In the decades since his 1992 breakout novel, All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy has gained a reputation as one of the greatest contemporary American authors. Experimenting with genres such as the crime thriller, the post-apocalyptic novel, and the western, his work also engages with the aesthetics of cinema, and several of his novels have been adapted for the screen. While timely and relevant, his works use idiosyncratic language and contain intense, troubling portrayals of racism, sexism, and violence that can pose challenges for students. This volume offers strategies for guiding students through McCarthy's oeuvre, addressing all his novels as well as his published plays and screenplays. Part 1, "Materials," provides sources of biographical information and key scholarship on McCarthy. Essays in part 2, "Approaches," discuss subjects such as landscape and ecology, mythologies of the American West, film adaptations, and literary contexts and describe assignments that encourage students to write creatively and to examine their personal values.