In 1992, after more than a decade as a professor of education, George Wood left academia to become the principal of a poor, struggling high school in rural Ohio. In only three years, Federal Hocking High became one of the top schools in the region. As a result of Wood's groundbreaking ideas, attendance, GPAs, college attendance rates, and student morale soared.In A Time to Learn, Wood offers guidelines, practical plans, and advice based on his observations and experiences as a high school principal. His focus is not on policy decisions or legislative debates, but on the real lives of teachers, students, and parents whose determination helped reshape the school. Wood also confronts the problems and social issues facing today's teenagers--from gang violence and pregnancy to drugs and apathy--and presents viable solutions in which we, as responsible adults, can become the most effective instruments of change.A Time to Learn tells us how to make what's wrong with our schools right, and is a vitally important book for anyone who cares about the future of education in this country.