Teachers on this list (LONG).

[meboriqua at aol.com]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:
> Jenny, thanks for your post on teaching.  I was very moved.

Thank you! 
> 
> 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.

I loved Amazing Grace.  I read it quite a while ago, actually, but the 
book of his that really blew me away was Savage Inequalities.  The 
school Kozol described in East St. Louis made NYC school look like the 
life of luxury.  I hope things there have changed.  I've heard that 
Kozol is actually back in the classroom in Boston again - yay!

What you said about administrations is absolutely true.  My assistant 
principal is lucky if she's five feet tall, but even the biggest and 
toughest boys respect her.  Once again, her key to success is that she 
loves the kids and they know it.  During lunch, her table by the door 
is surrounded by students who make jokes with her, tell her their 
problems and bug her about anything they can think of.  She loves it.  
In a previous school I taught in, the principal used to hide in her 
office when there was a fight and only came out when she knew it had 
been broken up.  The students hated that school, partly, I'm sure, 
because she so clearly showed no care towards them.  She made me sick.  
I'll stop here because whenever I talk about that school I get upset.

BTW Amy Z, I would have never guessed that you are a minister.  What 
made you pursue that line of work?

--jenny from ravenclaw, who is currently reading the "A Series of 
Unfortunate Events" books and getting a kick out of t