If your teenager is slamming doors, slumping over a phone for hours, or treating you to sullen silence, there's a different kid interacting with the teacher all day long at school. In unflinching accounts of what really goes on with teens at school, Marilyn Englander takes us inside the walls of private middle schools with funny, sad, often poignant stories that lay bare how we are sabotaging our teens' education. Parent pressure for all the wrong "fixes" and a giddy fascination with technology are creating schools where a generation of kids are stressing out, tuning out, and turning cynical. The author shows us how to instill the grit, resilience, and intellectual rigor teens need to thrive. Both teen whisperer and informant from the front lines, this author has over twenty years of tales to tell, and now she's telling them. Peeling back the layers of today's debate on education reform, Englander takes us into the classroom, bringing to light the humorous, heartwarming, and heartbreaking truths behind private education. She reveals what works and what doesn't, and how we can transform our teenagers. Our kids are tougher and more capable than we know. Englander demonstrates a better way to educate students by fostering relationships, cultivating community, and inspiring students to discover the rich fulfillment of hard work.