Recommended reading: Tony Danza’s book about his experiences in the classroom

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Tony Danza

Tony Danza’s book about his experiences in the classroom is recommended reading.

It seems to me that in every teacher’s career, there comes a desperate moment in which we just want to be understood. We fervently wish that the public, the parents, and the media comprehended just how dedicated we are to our students, and just how hard we work on their behalf, and just how tough the job is. Tony Danza goes a long way to build this understanding in his 2012 book I’d Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had: My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northeast High.

Having already earned his degree in history and  his teaching credential, Danza accepted a position as a first-year teacher in an inner-city school in Philadelphia, partly because he had always wanted to teach and decided now would be a good time in his career to explore that option, and partly because the experiment could be turned into a reality show that, Danza hoped, could accomplish some genuine good by turning an empathetic spotlight on our nation’s over-worked, over-criticized, and under-paid teachers.
Throughout the book, Danza provides an insider’s perspective on many of the topics that dominate political discussion in the media and professional conversation in the teachers’ lounge, including such topics as funding cuts, high-stakes testing, high absenteeism, student apathy, and lack of parental involvement. It’s amazing how he hit the nail on the head with every chapter.
I loved this book, and how Danza eloquently voiced the frustrations of practically every teacher in America. Most importantly, I loved how much his genuine affection and respect for his students, and his strong commitment to do right by them, shines through the frustrations. It’s an inspirational book I recommend you put on your summer reading list. You can find it on amazon at I’d Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had. Find more recommended reading on this website’s “Books to Read” tab.

Teacher Prudence Crandall: The Chalkboard Hero who taught African American students

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Prudence Crandall

Teacher Prudence Crandall: The Chalkboard Hero who taught African American students.

There are many examples of heroic teachers who have dedicated their considerable energy to improving the American social fabric. One such teacher is Prudence Crandall, a 19th-century educator who fought her entire Connecticut community for the right to enroll African American students in her school.

In 1831 well-known and highly-respected schoolteacher Prudence Crandall opened a boarding school for young ladies in Canterbury, Connecticut. By the end of the first year, she had earned the praise of parents, community members, and students throughout New England.

The accolades for Prudence suddenly ended, though, the day an African American student named Sarah Harris asked to be admitted to Prudence’s school. Sarah said she wanted to learn how to be a teacher so she could open her own school for black students. Prudence knew admitting an African American student would generate some resistance from her neighbors, but after some soul-searching she decided her conscience would not allow her to refuse the request.

Prudence had severely under-estimated the resistance she would face from her community. Figuring the complaint was that she was operating an integrated school, the teacher closed her academy for white girls and re-opened as an academy for “misses of color.” That just made the situation worse, causing objections that rippled all the way up to the US Supreme Court and resulting in Prudence’s brief incarceration in the local jail.

Read the gripping account of this valiant teacher in the book, The Forbidden Schoolhouse: The True and Dramatic Story of Prudence Crandall and Her Students by Suzanne Jurmain, available on amazon. I have also included a chapter about this heroic teacher in my second book, Chalkboard Heroes.

Martha Forrester: Classroom teacher and early Civil Rights activist

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Martha ForresterTeachers very often devote considerable talent and energy towards advancing social causes. One teacher in American history who did this is Martha Forrester, a classroom teacher and early Civil Rights activist.

The Civil War was in full swing in 1863 when Martha Forrester was born in Richmond, Virginia. When she grew up, she worked for several years as a public school teacher in Richmond.

Martha married Robert Forrester as a young woman, and after her husband passed away, she moved to Farmville, Virginia, to live with her daughter. There Martha was one of five founding members of retired educators who established the Council of Colored Women in 1920. She served as the president of that organization for over 30 years, endeavoring to better educational opportunities for African American students in Prince Edward County. “She felt the need that she wanted to improve the lives, you know, of African American children here in the form of education,” commented Beatrice White, a descendant of Martha Forrester. Martha was able to accomplish many improvements for the students she cared so much about, including  extending the school year and increasing access to higher-level classes. The Council also conducted tutoring, offered counseling, and organized blood mobiles to serve their community.

The former classroom teacher was also instrumental in founding the county’s first high school for African American students. Under her leadership, the Council raised $300,000 to buy a building and establish Robert Russa Moton High School, named in honor of a local educator. When the doors of the school opened in 1939, 450 students showed up for classes, although the facility was built for only 150. The school has since been turned into a museum.

This amazing chalkboard champion passed away in 1951. Her Farmville home was designated a historic site by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources in March, 2017. Read more about Martha Forrester in this article published by the Farmville Herald.

Martha Forrester

Classroom teacher and Civil Rights activist Martha Forrester was instrumental in founding Virginia’s Robert Russa Moton High School for African American students.

Teacher Mary Tsukamoto was incarcerated in a US internment camp during WWII

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Mary Tsukamoto

Japanese American teacher Mary Tsukamoto was incarcerated in a US internment camp during WW II.

At the start of World War II, Mary Tsukamoto was living a quiet life as the wife of a strawberry farmer in a diminuitive Japanese-American community in Florin, Northern California. When Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Empire of Japan on December 7, 1941, “a day that will live in infamy,” Mary’s quiet life was suddenly turned upside-down.

Like 120,000 other persons of Japanese descent living on the West Coast, most of them American citizens, Mary was forced into a relocation camp by the US government because her loyalty to our country was questioned. Evicted from their home, Mary, her husband, their five-year-old daughter, her elderly in-laws, her teenaged brother and sisters, and other members of her family wound up in a camp in Jerome, Arkansas, where they were incarcerated until authorities were convinced this family of farmers posed no threat to national security.

While detained in the camp, Mary became part of a prisoner-organized effort to provide meaningful educational opportunities for the imprisoned children. Mary taught speech courses for the high school students and English language classes for the elderly. Once she was released from the camp and the war was over, Mary returned to college, completed her degree, and became an elementary schoolteacher, one of the first certificated Japanese American teachers in the United States.

This intrepid teacher’s remarkable story is told in her autobiography, We the People, a volume which unfortunately is now out of print. However, with some effort, it can be found through second-hand book sellers or in some libraries (check WorldCat), and it is well worth the hunt. You can read also read her story in my first book, Chalkboard Champions, available through amazon.com.

Eulalia Bourne: The plucky Arizona teacher who was ahead of her time

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Eulalia Bourne

Eulalia Bourne, the plucky Arizona teacher who was ahead of her time.

I love to tell stories about plucky teachers, and in this blog post I’ll share a little bit about a really plucky teacher from the American Southwest: Eulalia Bourne. This daring educator, whose career spanned more than four decades, taught elementary school in rural areas, mining camps, and Indian reservations throughout Arizona during some of our country’s most challenging periods: World War I, the Depression, and World War II. This women’s libber was ahead of her time, becoming one of the very few women in her day to own and run her own cattle ranch.

Eulalia thought outside the box in many ways. Every year on the first day of school she would wear a new dress, usually blue to complement her eye color. Every school day after that, she wore jeans, Western-style shirts, cowboy boots, and Stetson hats to class. She was once fired for dancing the one-step, a new jazz dance, at a birthday party some of her students attended, because the clerk of the school board considered the dance indecent! She even learned to speak Spanish fluently and, when confronted with non-English-speaking students, taught her classes in Spanish, even though at the time it was against the law to do so.

Eulalia is probably best known for producing a little classroom newspaper entitled Little Cowpunchers which featured student writings, drawings, and news stories about classroom events. Today, these little newspapers are recognized as important historical documents of Southern Arizona ranching communities from 1932 to 1943.

Additionally, Eulalia published three critically-acclaimed books about her teaching and ranching experiences: Ranch Schoolteacher, Nine Months is a Year at Baboquivari School, and Woman in Levi’s. These volumes, although now out of print, can sometimes be purchased at used book stores and can sometimes be found at online sites featuring royalty-free works. These books are well-worth the search, particularly for those interested in Arizona history.

You can read more about about Eulalia’s intriguing life in a book entitled Skirting Traditions, published by  Arizona Press Women. You can also find a chapter about her in my first book about remarkable teachers, Chalkboard Champions.