Stand for the Best

Thirteen years ago, Tom Bloch was CEO of H&R Block, the groundbreaking tax organization. The son of the company’s founder, he was a happily married 41-year-old executive, but something was missing from his life. After a nineteen-year career at the company, Bloch resigned his position to become a math teacher in an impoverished inner-city section of Kansas City. Stand for the Best reveals Bloch’s struggles to make a difference for his marginalized students and how he eventually co-founded a successful charter school, University Academy. Acknowledgments.

Introduction.

1 Off the Block.

2 Back to School.

3 Into the Trenches.

4 On the Learning Curve.

5 A Question of Character.

6 A New Kind of Urban School.

7 Great Expectations.

8 Making the Grade.

9 Moving the School.

10 Real Heroes.

11 A Duty to Dream.

12 Th e Next Urban Teacher.

13 A Calling.

14 Midterm Exam.

Epilogue.

Appendix.

Notes.

Selected Web Sites.

Index.

"The lessons from Mr. Bloch's journey — on the importance of courage, risk-taking, passion and service in our lives — are valuable to us all as citizens, leaders, social-change agents and human beings." (The Washington Times, October 2008)

THOMAS M. BLOCH, former CEO of H&R Block and currently a middle school math teacher and president of the board at University Academy, has been involved in a variety of education initiatives since he changed careers. He and his wife, Mary, founded the Youth Service Alliance of Greater Kansas City to encourage and recognize outstanding community service through school-based programs. He is also a founding board member of the Kansas City Foundation for Higher Education, a trustee of the University of Missouri at Kansas City, President of the Endowment Fund for the Henry W. Bloch School of Business at the University of Missouri at Kansas City, and chairman of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation. He returned to H&R Block in 2000 as a member of the board of directors.

“In early 1995, quite deliberately, I stepped down as CEO of H&R Block, where I was making nearly a million dollars a year. I had decided on a higher calling: teaching math to inner-city kids. This is the story of how that decision changed my life and the lives of kids I tried to help.” —From the Introduction

Tom Bloch was the successful CEO of H&R Block, the groundbreaking tax organization. The son of the company’s founder, he was a happily married 41-year-old executive, but something was missing from his life. After a nineteen-year career at the company, Bloch resigned his position to become a math teacher in an impoverished inner-city section of Kansas City. Stand for the Best follows Bloch’s struggles to make a difference for his marginalized students and how he eventually co-founded a successful charter school, University Academy.

But Stand for the Best is more than a memoir of one man’s journey; the book also includes lessons learned from Bloch’s experience, winning strategies from teachers he has known, valuable approaches for educating students no matter what their circumstances, and a unique model of education for teachers working with inner-city students. Most of all, it shows what can be accomplished when teachers, students, and the community all stand for the best.