Write and Wrong

In response to the outgoing senior - Absolutely correct on all accounts. I also had Ms. Heerman three different times in my 4 years at Perry Meridian. She was constantly in trouble with the administration. She is not what I would consider a "teacher". My English class with her was spent watching A Few Good Men. I'm not really sure how that relates to English, but I definitley learned to love Jack Nicholson at that time! (Obviously censorship was not an issue then either). I also had the opportunity to have Mr. Potter my Senior year - THAT is a teacher. I learned more from him in one half of the year than ever learning in my three class with Ms. Heerman. Don't get me wrong, she is a nice lady - but she has always had personnel issues with the administration - she has never actually "taught" a class that I have experienced - and if anything she was cold and distant to her students. I also encourage Anne Quindlen to contact Mr. Craig Potter or anyone of the administration and look at Connie Heerman's personnel file. That will tell you what a great teacher she is.

It's been stated by a couple former students at this school that the error in Mrs. Heermann's ways lay in the fact that she did not follow appropriate channels for approval of the book, not in the book itself. I find this to be a pathetic excuse for the way things happened. Maybe this woman isn't a martyr, as one former student pointed out, but if she could get her students excited to read a book, what is wrong with that? If, as was stated, she had waited another month or whatever and the book was approved, this would not have happened? If the school board was in ultimately going to approve the choice of literature for her class, why is this even an argument? Chalk it up as a mistake that she made, and move on. Its not a termination-worthy offense. We need to teach our children that its ok to make mistakes. I am an educator as well, and I find that I am not above making errors in judgment or just errors in general, and I own up to my mistakes and use those instances to teach my students that teachers are not infallible, that we are human as well.

The biggest piece of information that needs to be gleaned from this story is this: she was a teacher who was engaging and exciting her students to read! This is not a bad thing! This is what educators strive for! And the school board's actions do nothing but solidify to the students that they are not important in the school system, it is more important to follow the politics of the school board and administration. This makes me sad, as this is not the point of a sound education system. The students MUST be the first priority, not what may or may not have been "insubordination" by a teacher who merely was thinking outside of the box to engage her students.

And, in regards to the side note of Mrs. Heermann being voted the craziest person of the year by the senior class: it sounds to me like she is a teacher those students will remember for the rest of their lives, and that is a characteristic of a good teacher. Memorable is something I attain to be in my students eyes as well, because it means I've gotten inside their heads. The bad teachers are the ones that are forgotten....

Reading this just after reading Jonathan Alter's article on holding teachers accountable really puts things in perspective. I am amazed that although all the parents signed permissions slips (not an easy thing to accomplish) and that she had already had success with The Street Lawyer, the powers that be couldn't push through permission to teach rather than "holding her accountable" to their standards. Add to that her taking on the expense of the first novel and finding corporate funding for "Freedom Writers" thiis is truly piling on. I'm hopeful this article, as so many of Ms Quindlen's, will move us to do something about and for those who do their jobs in face of reprimand and dismissal. Please keep bringing these things to our attention---surely someday we will really give teachers their due. Rewards ($) and awards long overdue. Mis Heermann, keep on teaching your way.

Is there anything that the public can actually do for this incredible woman? I tire so much of merely voicing my disgust or opinions and want to know if there is actually a way to make a change when such injustices occur.

It is likely that Ms. Heermann had a reputation for doing the right thing and had possibly already made the system appear stupid with another incident & this was simply their opportunity to punish her.

I have a saying, "If a man (or woman) has no enemies, then he or she has never taken a passionate stand for what they believe in". Ms. Heermann obviously stood for something.

She is a hero in my book!

Book should not be able to be banned. I don't understand why we just can't rate the books like movies, you have to be 17 to see rated R movies, make it the same with books.

I, as the author, am ashamed of the Perry Township Board of Education.

Here is another book for her hungry students, and the Perry Township Board of Education, whom might be keeping track; John Gardner's " Art of Fiction: a Notebook for Young Writers." Published in 1983, it had become an underground "syllabus" for Young Creative Writers in every established Ivy League Program.

The beauty of this book is that it was designed as an directed course for University level under-grads. But any student of creative writing can spot the genius of this book at an early age. For those of you who feel dis-enfranchised, buy it for your children, or for yourself. Any group, or individual who commits themsel(ves) to this work, cannot fail as a writer.

"At-Risk" is a precarious notion. By definition, it tells us that if a child does not have the money or the Prep-School education, the child is lost in a public school melieu, and by definiion of the demographics involve, the is at a loss by definition.

I disagree on two-fronts vehemently. I am the product of over nine Public Schools, domestic and international, and one fine Prep-School. I remember in Prep-School, four of us banding together to help a fellow class-mate who had "misbehaved" on Senior Day. A few of us helped her finish a very long paper on "Indecency". She had already aquired her diploma based on four-years of study. But what I remembered where her tears in the Library, her humiliation, and pleas for help. It was well known that she could not turn out the demanded twenty-five pages on Saturday and Sunday before Graduation.

So, a group of us gathered around her in the Library, years before the Internet, to help her construct and absolute triumph to her punishment.

Each one of us took in the thrill of the sight of her entering the Headmistresses Office on Monday morning at 8:00 a.m. to hand in her research paper on "Indency". Our friend "Fanny" graduated with the rest of us. And she now works for one of the Five "National Newspapers of Record"

How does this apply to the case at hand? It take a Village to raise an idiot or a genius. If we condemn the "out-of-the-box" thinkers such as Connie Heermann, we lose as a community and as a Nation.

I endorse her comment, " My students have the book, They kept the book!" May they have what Churchill called, " Grace Under Pressure"....or Courage....to find more books and more mentors who will fire thier imagination.

Shame of the School Board of Perry Township. As the actor, Peter Falk, with one glass eye was proud to demonstrate as he pulled his glass-eye casually out of his head after a bad call in Little League, " Here Boys, you need this more than I do."

Irish (put 'em up) Jane

I freaking hate the beaurocracy and bullsh*t that makes it so difficult for good teachers! no wonder ever generation of Americans seems to get stupider, the older generations are intent on making it that way!!!!!

I taught language arts at a school for at-risk students for three years. I bought used books with my own money and worked overtime to develop lessons that would engage my students. My classroom observations by administrators and peer reviewers were very good until the school supervisor learned of a complaint that some of the novels had "inappropriate language" and some of my students were using "curse words" in their writing. I explained to this supervisor that I tried to teach the difference between formal and informal language and that language choices were just that: choices.

Unfortunately, my efforts to teach language use, literacy, and meaning-making to these struggling students went completely overlooked and I was "laid off" with the most ugly, hurtful performance review that essentially stated that I "used literature to disrespect and degrade" my students. It was absolutely awful.

Teachers who work day in and out to try and help their students are frozen in the crossfires of these culture wars. And it's no wonder that almost half of all new teachers end up leaving the profession.

When Premier Khrushchev declared, "We will bury you," little did we know the generals would be two teacher union presidents, the hit squads would be local school boards and the first casualties our children.

When Premier Khrushchev of the USSR declared, "We will bury you," little did we know the generals would two teacher union presidents, the hit squads would be local school boards and the first casualties our children.

Wow. Powerful article, Anna.

Thanks for balancing Alter's teacher - bashing article with this one. It's a shame that good teacher are let go and bad ones can't be gotten rid of. Week administration is a huge stumbling block for teachers who have the guts and the insight to take the necessary risks to reach kids. Sadly, Connie Heermann's kids were all left behind, literally.