Teachers on this list (LONG).

Amy Z aiz24 at hotmail.com
Mon Jul 2 14:01:51 UTC 2001


Jenny, thanks for your post on teaching.  I was very moved.

I quail with shame at the state of schools such as yours and the 
communities in which they're situated.  This week I've been reading 
Amazing Grace by Jonathan Kozol, which for those of you who don't know 
his work is a nonfiction book about children in the poorest 
Congressional district in the nation, the South Bronx, particularly 
Mott Haven.  The crematorium Jenny mentioned may be the same one he 
writes about; it was situated there despite possibly being 
carcinogenic, and certainly contributing to the almost 100% asthma 
rate in the area.  I can't recommend this book, or his others about 
education, homeless people, the spiritual lives of children, etc., 
highly enough.  He is one of my heroes.

Back to teaching.  A good administration is really important.  I have 
worked with a good, supportive one and a pretty weak one--the 
difference was enormous, and I left the latter job partly because a 
new headmaster was coming in whom I thought was bad news.  Things like 
discipline are made all but impossible if the administration doesn't 
back up the teachers.

Amy Z





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