Tony Danza
Motivating
Students
Students, teachers,
the principal—nearly
everyone at Northeast
High School in Philadel-
phia was skeptical of
Tony Danza, whose year
teaching 10th-grade
English was filmed for the
A&E documentary series
Teach: Tony Danza. They
assumed the former Taxi
and Who’s the Boss? star
was unqualified to teach,
though he has a degree
in education, and that
he was more interested
in his TV career than in
grading tests. But Danza,
59, surprised them all.
“They saw me sweat.
They saw me fail. They
saw me do what they do,”
he says. By the end of the
year Danza had won over
even the school’s no-
nonsense principal. “She
actually said to me, ‘If you
mess up, you’re outta
here,’ ” he recalls. Today
she says she’d hire Danza
for real. Though he’s no
longer teaching, Danza is
still working to improve
public education. In
October he returned to
Philadelphia with U.S.
Secretary of Education
Arne Duncan to promote
the Obama administra-
tion’s TEACH initiative,
which seeks to attract
talented instructors.
He’s also penning a book
about his experience,
titled I Would Like to
Apologize to Every Teach-
er I’ve Ever Had. “We all
have a part in this,” says
the father of three. “My
mother used to say every
kid should have someone
who is irrationally com-
mitted to their future. If
you are relentless from
the first day, the kids will
understand that educa-
tion is important.”
—Fannie Weinstein
AARP.ORG/MAGAZINE 55
