The hardcover was released about a year ago from today. Both the hardcover and paperback versions of Crazy Like a Fox are published by a division of Penguin Group (USA) called New American Library.

The paperback features a new foreword by MSNBC analyst Michelle Bernard.

You can purchase the paperback online or in stores. A new, as opposed to a used, purchase is always appreciated if you can swing it. And my editor prefers that people shop somewhere other than Amazon. Thank you very much for your support!

Here’s what Diogenes the blogger passionately wrote:

“One of the most compelling conservative books I have had the fortune to read is Crazy Like A Fox: One Principal’s Triumph in the Inner City, by Dr. Ben Chavis and Carey Blakely. Ironically it was not written as a ‘conservative’ book but conservative principles naturally erupted throughout this memoir of a brave educator that spun trash into gold. I found myself cheering as this politically incorrect America Indian pioneer took over the American Indian Charter Public School in Oakland, California, that was failing in every measurable aspect, a cesspool of illiteracy, and single-handedly brought it to the fifth ranked public school in the state – based on standardized tests! In that process Ben Chavis slashed and burned every stupid liberal idea, from unions to multiculturalism and their decades long ’soft bigotry of low expectations’ – all to the abject horror of the Oakland liberal educational establishment. He was attacked by many leftist-liberal educators but he would turn their criticism into an attack on how they have failed minority education for generations. I am astonished this book has not received more play from the conservative media elements, it is a spectacular read. (Laura Ingraham and John Stossel did cover it.)

“For those of you with the belief that public school education has deteriorated to the point of disaster – and especially inner city schools, and the dominant political party has had a great role to play in its downfall then this book is for you.

“If you thought it was a monumental case of hypocrisy for Barack Obama to send his children to the prestigious Sidwell Friends school while he destroyed the voucher program in DC, which then prevented poor black children from attending the same school – then this book is for you.

“If you are tired of being lectured by Democrats on racism, while they and their union paymasters have for generations kept minority children in a world destined to fail, and never once admitted their grotesque mismanagement or complete negligence about the disastrous consequences – this story is for you – because Ben Chavis has a special message for these ‘pimps’ as he calls them.

“If you are tired of liberals telling the world that not enough is being spent on education and that taxes need to be raised to fix this problem – while they purposely thwart any attempt of accountability for teachers, and fight with tooth and claw the ability to fire incompetent teachers, standardized testing and No Child Left Behind – then this book is for you. Chavis bemoans the money being wasted by a system that is designed to spend and designed to fail. He is a proponent of No Child Left Behind and dedicated the book to it, because he is not afraid of standardized testing and wants to be held accountable – he is the anti-liberal education establishment. Are you listening NJ teachers? I would think Governor Christie would be dispensing this book at meetings.

“Ben Chavis is an American Indian educator and self made wealthy businessman, has struck a rock in the desert with his teacher’s ruler and unleashed an untapped river of pure water. He took over the American Indian Public Charter School in Oakland California, which had a 35% absentee rate, alcohol and marijuana problems, kids having sex on a mattress behind a tool shed, and moronic Oakland teachers spending hours making beads and banging drums to keep the students culturally attuned to their Indian heritage. Chavis, a veritable Hercules, cleaned the Augean Stables of this rot and fired almost everyone working at the school. He painted, scrubbed and revitalized the school building but more importantly he wire brushed the corroded minds around him. He brought absenteeism to 2%, he tracked down mothers in bars at ten in the morning demanding their children come to school, he made math and English a top priority devoting 90 minutes to each subject, he banished all multicultural nonsense from the curriculum, he ended the minority “victimization” mentality and he taught free market capitalism as a color blind road to prosperity. Test scores sky rocketed!

“His growing up as a ‘darkie’, as he calls himself, on an Indian reservation in utter poverty has given him a special insight into the education of minority children. His upbringing had pain, poverty but an incredible wisdom which he has brought to the fore. He studied the Bible and the book is replete with religious symbolism and values. He put a cross on the building and cannily told inquisitors it was the ‘Four Directions’ of the American Indian, while he told his minority students the school was the house of the Lord and to respect it. Chavis made this middle school more like the one class country school house. He gave the students one teacher for all their subjects, and stopped the wasteful and useless rotation of classrooms – bringing stability and lasting relationships to those who lacked it in their lives. He would reward student accomplishments with dollar bills for tasks that he assigned. He pulled up the pants, wiped off the make up and if he had to, shaved the heads of unruly students. He brought rule and order to a world that had been nothing more than a campaign prop for liberal politicians to enhance their own careers while generations of illiterate children were pushed through the system – to become immediate unproductive liabilities of the state.

“Ben Chavis gets it – and in this book he indicts the Democratic Party, even though it is his political party. Education, he says was ceded to them and they have destroyed it with their unions, uncaring attitudes, unaccountability and the wasting of billions of dollars. Ben Chavis walks it likes he talks it because he made it rain in the desert, and Governor Schwarzenegger came twice to visit. His results are astounding for an inner city school – but the recognition doesn’t seem enough and it makes one wonder that he has too many political enemies? (Recently, he called Charles Barron, black radical politician in NY, a pimp and offered to take the argument outside.)

“In Ben Chavis’ words: ‘My approach to race and culture at AIPCS is nothing like the victimization and babying of minorities preached in teacher credential programs and implemented in public schools. I prefer hiring smart, uncredentialed teachers because many credential programs brainwash educators to teach in a way that is soft, ineffectual, and focused on non-academic topics, such as self-esteem and multiculturalism.’ p102

“ ‘President Barack Obama has indicated he will push for an additional $80 million to train public school teachers. In California, teachers must complete a five year higher education program to qualify for a teaching credential. Then, once they are employed by public schools, millions of dollars are spent on teacher training for these college graduates. If you’ve spent five years in higher education and you still can’t teach, how is more money going to help you? Could it be we need to restructure the colleges of education instead of wasting more money?’ P103

“On a dispute over strict dress codes with a liberal teacher, he does not suffer fools gladly: ‘I don’t care what you think, and I’m tired of you guys helping the students undermine the rules. Some of you are letting them wear their shirts out. Mr. Bates, these kids can be anarchists like you if they go to a stick-it-to-the-Man college like you did, but they’re not going to be anarchists here. How are these kids ever going to get into your private college? You know, I’ve gone all over the state looking at secondary schools, and not a single one of them that uses a liberal philosophy with ghetto students is worth a damn. All this liberalism has screwed over minorities. You think they’re poor and underprivileged and they can’t cut it, so you give them an easy way out. It’s people like you who have f_____ed over my people and I am sick of it.’……’You know, I’m a Democrat, too, and sometimes when I look in the mirror I can’t stand what I see because we haven’t done anything for minorities in public education. All this left wing liberalism has destroyed generations of minorities.’ P164

“The education establishment has attacked him, they despise him, because he has grabbed them by the scruff of the neck and wiped their faces in the excrement that they have spewed in the halls of inner city schools for decades – and they can’t take the stench of their own filth. (Some of the attacks are purely racist – saying he is bringing in Chinese kids, and the assertions are not true.) Since when has a labor union been able to contribute to the intellectual development of another human being – the whole concept is ridiculous. It also assumes that teachers are fungible, one is as good as another – which why so few are fired in their cushioned, unrealistic world.

“Maybe they should make this required reading at all teachers’ colleges. Chavis is spreading his message but not quick enough. His accomplishments are all the more fantastic when one realizes that 74% of his student body uses English as a second language in the home. When political arguments go on and on and solve nothing – here is someone with damn answers, damn glorious answers, and he has proved it beyond a shadow of doubt. Stop spending money, get rid of unions, find the right teachers, good daily structure, family, accountability, high expectations, cleanliness, detention, no to racist affirmative action, emphasize the academic, teach capitalism, and if you act like a fool you will be treated like one.”

http://diogenes-honest-politician.blogspot.com/2010/07/democrats-lies-and-awful-education-of.html

“Once, as a young boy, Ben Chavis wandered unwittingly onto the grounds of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke with some friends. In short order, a man approached them and shouted: ‘You darkies get out of here! You’re trespassing!’ For the past decade, Chavis has been preparing the next generation of poor minority kids to be welcomed through the front gates of top colleges around the country. He’s succeeding beyond everyone’s expectations, except his own.

“When Chavis took over the American Indian Public Charter School in 2000, it was the worst-performing middle school in Oakland. Within seven years, it was the fourth-highest ranking middle school in the entire state of California. The other top-scoring schools are overwhelmingly wealthy and white; Chavis’s former students at AIPCS (he recently retired as principal) are low-income and mostly black, Hispanic, or American Indian.

“Crazy Like a Fox is the story of their academic ascent, and it’s unlike any other book of its kind because Ben Chavis himself is one-of-a-kind—passionate, intense, and brutally honest. Like a character in a high-concept Hollywood film, he unabashedly tells whomever he’s speaking with exactly what’s on his mind. And his thoughts often tend toward the controversial. The reactions he inspires range from shock and outrage to admiration and awe.

“All of this comes through in his book, in which Chavis unflinchingly skewers those he faults for ruining the educational hopes of generations of minority kids. Though a Democrat, he rails against ‘far-to-the-left liberals who in my opinion are worse than the Ku Klux Klan. . . . They love for minorities to have the illusion that we can make choices, but when families are given the chance to choose a public charter school, like AIPCS, these ‘saviors’ always find a way to interfere.’

“It goes without saying that much of the education establishment finds Chavis infuriating. Yet several attempts to remove him ultimately failed. His incontrovertible success as a principal acted like professional body armor. And while Chavis is keen to document his school’s success based on statewide tests, the book has a conversational feel, interleaving the formative experiences of his youth with the exposition of his school’s methods, trials, and triumphs.”

The full review can be found here:

http://www.city-journal.org/2010/bc0128ac.html.

Coulson blogs at Cato-at-Liberty.org if you’d like to read more of his work.

At Youthworker’s website, I found this review, which was short and well put in my opinion:

“In the mold of such memorable films as Stand and Deliver and Freedom Writers, the cast of characters in Crazy Like a Fox live in the inner city, are part of an ethnic minority and are poor; but so is their hero. Dr. Chavis shares in his own words the journey that inspired Gov. Schwarzenegger to call his school an ‘education miracle.’ Not only in the villages of Africa, but also on the streets of Oakland, one of the greatest needs on our planet right now is primary education that gives underprivileged children a chance for a healthy and accomplished adulthood. Chavis is crazy; and he’s tough, too. This memoir invites you to walk the path of triumph that overcomes all odds.

http://www.youthworker.com/reviews-for-youth-pastors/youth-ministry-books/11626786/

Jay Mathews, the education columnist for The Washington Post, wrote about Crazy Like a Fox and AIPCS’s education model in an excellent article entitled “A Crazy Idea for Middle Schools”. The piece was published on Friday, October 2.

Here’s the link: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2009/10/a_crazy_idea_for_middle_school.html?hpid=news-col-blog

I have never been so self-promotional in my life and am beginning to wonder if I should be banished to a monastery for all my effusive urgings to buy the book, attend a signing, etc. etc. Or perhaps this year on Christmas I’ll get coal in my stocking. One friend wrote to me recently, “No need to apologize for self-promotion. As my mother used to say: It’s a poor dog that won’t wag his own tail.” While I take comfort in that to some extent, I worry other friends are thinking of a different dog-related idiom, which is “Every dog has its day” and we hope yours ends soon so we don’t have to hear about it anymore.

Crazy Like a Fox: One Principal’s Triumph in the Inner City has only been out for two weeks, but there’s been a whirlwind of activity surrounding it. I’m in a perpetual game of catch-up. I’ve been working on a Facebook fan page, which I invite you to join, and I have been trying to launch this Web site with the help of my friend Eugene Kaneko. I have now dubbed Eugene “webmaster flash” (for the fact that he designs sites using flash though ironically advised me against using it here, for his flash of genius, and for what I imagine to be the flash of white eyeballs rolling as I talk to him on the phone about a new idea I have for the Web site). If patience is a virtue—and I’m not sure it is, though it is certainly a wonderful coping tool for those who have it, myself not included—then Eugene possesses even more goodness than the hapless recipients of my all too frequent emails lately about the book.

So, let me be apologetic on the one hand (see above) and completely promotional on the other (see below) as I share upcoming events and the latest media attention for Crazy Like a Fox: One Principal’s Triumph in the Inner City.

Upcoming Events

“About Our Children”, MSNBC panel featuring Bill Cosby with Ben Chavis as a guest, Sunday, September 20, 2009, from 4-6 p.m. PST (7-9 ET):

MSNBC will host a 2-hour special called “About Our Children.” It will feature Bill Cosby and be moderated by Michelle Bernard, the president of the Independent Women’s Forum. Ben Chavis will be a guest panelist on this special program about poverty in America and its effect on education, health care, and other issues affecting youth. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32676326/

Book Signing, Warwick’s in La Jolla, Monday, September 28, 2009, at 7:30 p.m.:

Dr. Ben Chavis and I will be at Warwick’s in La Jolla, California, to discuss and sign our book. If you plan to attend and have not purchased a book, please wait and buy it at Warwick’s. Hope to see you there! http://www.warwicks.indiebound.com/event/ben-chavis

Book Reviews and an Opinion Piece

• From the San Francisco Chronicle, Mitchell Kapor
  • http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/11/RV6919JUOI.DTL
• From National Review, Mark Hemingway
  • http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NGI0NzBlMTNiODZkMjBlZjhlYTdhZGMwZWViY2YzNGY
• From CNN.com, a piece by Dr. Ben Chavis that contains excerpts from Crazy Like a Fox
  • http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/09/07/chavis.education/
• From Native Visions Magazine, by James V. Locklear
  • Note: this piece is not online, but info. on Native Visions can be found at http://www.myspace.com/nativevisionsmagazine

Radio Shows

• From NPR’s “Tell Me More”
  • http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112636486
• From Radio Alice (scroll down to “Sunday Magazine: Dr. Ben Chavis”)
  • http://www.radioalice.com/pages/2067168.php
• From The Gil Gross Show (It’s a full hour of radio, though, not just Ben)
  • http://bayradio.com/podcasts/Gil2pm090209.mp3
• From KSFO 560 AM, Hot Talk Radio (It’s a full hour of radio, though, not just Ben)
  • KSFO Hot Talk with Dr. Ben Chavis
    
• Upcoming: From KALW in San Francisco, 91.7 FM
  • It will air on Monday, September 28, at 5 p.m., and you will be able to listen here: www.crosscurrentsradio.org