Perspective

"I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had," by Tony Danza is an autobiographical account of Danza's foray into teaching after losing his job as a TV talk show host. The story is told by Tony Danza in the first person. Danza provides great detail about the challenges of being a high school teacher in Philadelphia's inner city and shares his doubts and uncertainty about his decision to become a teacher for the first time at age fifty-nine. No one else could have told his story better.

In his narrative, he shares the passion and emotion that working with his troubled students evoked in him. He related to the kids because, as the title suggests, he was a handful and a disciplinary problem himself at Long Island's Malverne High School. After being in the shoes of a teacher, he felt he owed his former teachers an...