Declaring that "public education is at a crossroads where the future of our world could not be more precariously poised," the author addresses the challenges facing middle school teachers, such as the narrowing of curriculum due to high-stakes assessments. She argues that students should not leave middle school without the "interpretive skills" developed through the arts, opportunities to interpret literature from a personal stance, and "a hunger for routing out what's beneath and beyond the printed work, the rap lyric, the image, or the electronic text." (Contains 3 footnotes.)