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National
Teacher of the Year
Program
April 1, 1991
FACSIMILE TRANSMISSION
10
202/456-6218 Pages
MEMORANDUM
TO: Lisa Battaglia
Public Liaison Office
Room 191
OEOB
FROM: Jon Quam, Director
National Teacher of the Year Program
SUBJECT: 1991 National Teacher of the Year Information
Attached is the draft press release for the 1991 NTOY and her "Thoughts on Teaching".
I will messenger hard copies of these along with her complete application to the
program and some general information on the National Program and its sponsors.
Please let me know if you need additional materials. Obviously I am frantically
awaiting word on the final times and format. Thanks for all your help.
Sponsored by the COUNCIL OF CHIEF STATE SCHOOL OFFICERS in partnership with ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, INC.
379 Hall of the States * 400 North Capitol Street NW Washington, DC 20001-1511 (202)393-8168
- D - R - A - F - - T - -
Not for release until April 10, 1991; 10:00 am
In An Awards Program
Now In Its 40th Year
READING SPECIALIST FROM APPALACHIA
NAMED 1991 NATIONAL TEACHER OF THE YEAR
President Travels to West Virginia To Present Award
WASHINGTON, DC -- APRIL 10, 1991 - A remedial reading instructor from West
Virginia, chosen from among the nation's more than 2.5 million elementary and secondary
public school teachers, has been named the 1991 National Teacher of the Year.
The award winner, Rae Ellen McKee, 32, teaches at Slanesville Elementary School
in Slanesville, WV. President Bush travels today to her school where he will present
McKee a crystal apple, the traditional symbol of teaching. McKee will then travel with the
President back to Washington where national recognition continues in a series of events
introducing her to the national educational and policy-making communities.
The National Teacher of the Year Program is the oldest and most prestigious
awards program to focus public attention on excellence in teaching. The program, now in
its 40th year, is sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers in partnership with
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
More .
1991 National Teacher of the Year
Page 2
"My new title as National Teacher of the Year makes me prouder than ever to
proclaim myself a teacher," said McKee, who is a fifth generation teacher. "I wear the
armor of a professional. I am not embarrassed to vocalize the positive qualities of my
profession, nor am I slow to defend it. It is not myself that I seek to champion, but the
good that teachers do."
She was born and grew up in the small West Virginia Appalachia community of
Levels, about ten miles from where she now teaches. Most of her ancestors, who settled
in the region in the late 1700's, were teachers; in one branch of the family, 10 of the 13
offspring became teachers.
However, she credits her father, an elementary school teacher and administrator in
the area for 40 years, with giving her the desire to teach and the special interest in helping
disadvantaged children in rural areas. Through his example," McKee recalls, "I learned to
be more than a teacher--I learned to be an educator. In my father's classroom, all children
were equal because all had the ability to learn, perhaps not at the same pace or in the
same language, but all could partake. Through his dedication, he showed me how much
could be done to help all people, regardless of their situations, if interest and energy were
directed toward alleviating barriers that kept them from reaching their full potential."
"He taught me that any job that demanded much time was not worth doing unless
you were bettering the existence of another human being. He insisted that his students,
of which I was one, never stop growing or learning."
More
1991 National Teacher of the Year
Page 3
Rae McKee began her teaching career 12 years ago after graduating from Shepherd
College in Shepherdstown, WV, with a bachelor of arts in elementary education. In 1983
she received a master of arts in clinical reading from West Virginia University in
Morgantown, where she is currently working toward another masters, in educational
supervision.
She once turned down the opportunity to attend law school because, as she put it,
"teaching is in my blood."
Instead, she decided to persist in her teaching aspirations because, as she also says,
"I had been given so much that I was intent on giving something back to the children of
West Virginia."
"I am of Appalachia," she says. "That is why I chose to teach in West Virginia. I
know her children. Two decades ago, I grew up with them. The children of the poor
migrant and tenant farmers of the region were my neighbors, classmates and friends. Now
I feel I can help create a bright future for them."
Gary Kidwell, principal of the Slanesville Elementary School, where McKee has
taught for the past two years, observed her influence in this comment. "Upon her arrival
at our school, she began to motivate our most disillusioned students to participate, learn,
and enjoy her classes. Before long this excitement to learn became a part of these
students' entire day."
More
1991 National Teacher of the Year
Page 4
A colleague of McKee's at the school credits her with reviving her own flagging
enthusiasm for teaching. "In a brief year," she says, "I feel like a teacher again."
Through her use of such props as purple cows, popcorn and pizza, McKee's first to
sixth grade students have discovered that reading can actually be fun and are motivated to
read.
In her role as National Teacher of the Year, which will have her traveling across the
country to speak before numerous educational and business organizations, McKee will
stress the importance of all sectors of the community working together to bring about
quality education for America's children.
"The school cannot be the only agent responsible for developing the skills and
character of young people," she says. "The community, too, must seek to educate." This
is why she also is involved in a welter of after-school activities. In addition to serving as
a literacy volunteer, Sunday school teacher, and pianist and organist at her house of
worship, she is also active in the local extension homemakers club, library foundation, Red
Cross, American Legion Auxiliary, and many other community groups.
"While my children are very young, my primary support for the community must be
to instill in my own the values that I can only hope to instill in my students," she says.
Married to John McKee, an electrical lineman, she is the mother of a seven-year-old
daughter, Mollie, and a two-year-old son, Zachary.
More
1991 National Teacher of the Year
Page 5
The other finalists in the 1991 National Teacher of the Year program were: Beatrice
Kramer Volkman, a special education teacher/arts facilitator at Old Shell Road School for
the Creative and Performing Arts, Mobile, AL; Shirley A. Hopkinson, a Pre-Kindergarten
teacher at Brightwood Elementary School in Washington, DC; and Shirley A. Rau, a 12th
grade English teacher at Nampa High School, Nampa, ID.
This is the 40th year that the National Teacher of the Year has been chosen from
among the State Teachers of the Year from the 50 states, five extra-state jurisdictions, the
District of Columbia and the Department of Defense Dependents' Schools. The State
Teachers of the Year are submitted to the Council of Chief State School Officers in
Washington, DC, where a blue-ribbon panel of representatives from a 12 leading national
educational organizations reviews the data on each candidate and selects four finalists. The
selection panel personally interviews each finalist before naming the National Teacher of
the Year.
Contacts for further information:
Jon Quam, National Teacher of the Year Program, CCSSO, Washington - 202/393-8168
Lisa Kendell, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., Chicago - 312/347-7163
Carl Bakal, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., New York - 212/725-0365
Thoughts on Teaching and Education
by
Rae Ellen McKee
1991 National Teacher of the Year
On her approach and style of teaching:
I teach little children to read. I hold the values of our culture and the history of
our world before them like a sweet confection. I make them reach out and grab
their education from me. I possess the power to lace their intake with arsenic or
opium, creating their self-esteem or destroying it. I shudder under the burden of
such a responsibility.
Few people in our society hold as much power in their hands each day as do
teachers. We are mentors and molders of human beings, which is not a mechanical
process, but the impact of mind upon mind and heart upon heart. Each child comes
to a teacher with the equality of opportunity to enable him to make the most of the
powers that are within him. We are guardians of that right.
On her philosophy of teaching:
I believe that the future of our nation depends upon our citizens' ability to think,
rather than repeat learned information. Thus, education must motivate students to
love the learning process. My classroom is a place where the learning process is
practiced. Students learn to monitor their own style and pace, experiment with their
own problem solving, and apply different strategies to better help them manipulate
new information. Such an environment spurs creativity and generates excitement.
Rae McKee - Thoughts on Teaching
Page 2
I believe that each child is special, a product of an often disadvantaged
environment, whose needs are not determined by a state-adopted curriculum. His
or her need on a given day may be that of an empathetic ear to the feelings he or
she is experiencing or a pat on the back for a difficult task accomplished. My realm
of support is not limited to intellectual development; I take time to educate the
whole child and recognize the unique talents of each. My students leave my
classroom feeling good about themselves.
I believe that a school's curriculum must be linked to the child's experiential
background and tie that student to a future that he or she envisions for herself or
himself. A child fascinated by snakes doesn't see the need for reading about rice
farming in China. Yet, my lessons strive to intertwine the familiar with the new, to
weave interest and intrigue into practice and problem solving. A simple, colorful
book on snakes leads the same child into a study of environmental dependence, and
he finds that snakes are a natural pest control in the rice paddies of China! My
students see a relevance to their learning.
On educational issues, trends, and priorities:
Education doesn't catch anyone's eye. It isn't a sensationalized issues. The lack of
media attention to the status of teachers in West Virginia, or any other state, is a
reflection of our population's increasing apathy toward the role of education in our
society; this is the major issues facing our profession today.
This apathy has not developed overnight. It has been a gradual seduction into
oblivion by the very forces that have changed our society over the last half century.
Schools at one time lured students with that which was new and interesting: books
with colored photographs, audio-visual gadgets, and well-read teachers. However,
the ready accessibility of all forms of media communique, a materialistically minded
economy and a mechanized society leave our schools with little ammunition for
competition. When students who have grown up with satellites, computers, air
conditioning and heart transplants turn into the voting populace, it is little wonder
that it takes bigger and more fascinating issues than faculty renovation or "paper and
pencil" money to gain their tax dollars.
Rae McKee - Thoughts on Teaching
Page 3
If we as America's educators are loud enough with our outcry, the media will come
to realize that the fight for democracy in Eastern Europe, the destruction of rain
forests in South America, the political and economic struggles in the Middle East,
the growth of Japan's economic superiority, and the drug-related violence of our
own urban areas are the issues of education in America. Their cameras will be in
our classrooms, but perhaps it will be too late.
Teaching is a nice profession. It makes one feel good to be nice to children. The
time off in the summer is nice. It's nice to get twenty-six valentines every February.
However, education needs to be a priority in the eyes of our nation's leaders, not
because it's the nice thing to do but because it is mandatory for the survival of our
culture.
On the perception of teaching as a profession:
The "right stuff" is the urge in an individual to fulfill the paradox of the desire to
give of yourself unselfishly in the selfish knowledge that you are doing something
noteworthy. Teachers without this desire find the classroom boring, their students
and the system failing.
In today's changing society, being a teacher with the "right stuff" is more important
than ever. Society needs education's product, well-honed minds, but it does little to
encourage our system of production. Instead of encouraging the value of literacy,
individualism, and integrity it propagates materialism, selfishness, and mechanization.
Therefore, when students come to the workplace desiring benefits without possessing
the needed skills, teachers get the blame. Part of having the "right stuff" is having
the willingness to stand up for the education profession in the face of apathy and
criticism.
However, where it is always appropriate to hold teachers accountable for doing their
job, which is teaching, it is not always possible to hold them responsible for doing
the student's job, which is learning. A student's ability to learn is influenced by too
many factors outside the teacher's realm: his innate ability, his environment, his
family's support, his peer involvement, and his reactions to the messages of society.
Rae McKee - Thoughts on Teaching
Page 4
When I walk into my school building each fall and smell the freshness and sense the
newness, I remember why I teach. It renews my spirit and gives purpose to my
being. What other profession offers one the satisfaction of knowing you have lit a
spark in the mind of the next generation and nurtured a fire that will burn long
after you've gone? The power and warmth of that fire is its own reward; the power
enables me to say to a little child, "Yes, I can teach you to read," and the warmth
formulates her response, "I love you, Mrs. "Kee."
WEST VIRGINIA
1991
(STATE)
NATIONAL TEACHER OF THE YEAR
APPLICATION FORM
Nominee Name Rae E. McKee
Home Address
Route 3 Box 119
Points
West Virginia 25437
( )304-496-7958
City
State
Zip Code
Telephone
School Name
Slanesville Elementary School
School Address Route 29
Slanesville
West Virginia 25444
( 304-496-7069
City
State
Zip Code
Telephone
School Profile (check one):
Urban
Suburban
Rural
X
Number of Students:
District 2,920
Building
175
Major Subject Area (If any)
Reading
Grade Level 1-6
Total Years of Teaching Experience
11
Years in Present Position 2
I hereby give my permission that any or all of the attached materials may be shared with
persons Interested in promoting the National Teacher of the Year Program.
Signature of Nominee
X
make
Principal Name
Gary Kidwell
Address
Spring Gap Road Box 160A
Slanesville
West Virginia 25444
( ) 304-492-5242
City
State
Zip Code
Telephone
Signature of Principal
District Superintendent Name
Gerald Mathias
Route 1 Sox 86K
Address
West Virginia 26757
( ) 304-822-5395
Romney
City
State
Telephone
Gerredamathies Zip Code
Signature of Superintendent
- 1 -
II. Educational History and Professional Development Activities . (two double-spaced pages)
A. List colleges and universities attended including post-graduate studies. Indicate degrees earned
and dates of attendance.
B. Include information regarding professional association memberships, offices held. and other
relevant activities. Have you been active in the training of future teachers and/or inservice staff
development?
C. List awards and other recognition of your outstanding teaching.
The following is a listing of the highlights that have shaped my preparatory and teaching caree
American Legion National Oratorical Winner--accepted $20,000 in scholarships in Sioux Falls,
South Dakota, 1975
Served as American Legion Auxiliary Girls' Nation Senator, Washington, DC, 1975
Attended and was graduated from Shepherd College, Shepherdstown, West Virginia, 1975-79
Received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Elementary Education with a Middle School endorsement
in Language Arts
Honors: Graduated summa cum laude, second in a class of 300, with a GPA of 3.99
Designated as a McMurran Scholar, the highest academic honor of the college
Chosen as the Outstanding Elementary Education Graduate of 1979
Inducted into Sigma Phi Omega National Honor Fraternity, 1978
Noted in Who's Who Among American College Students, 1979
Attended and was graduated from West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, 1980-83
Received a Master of Arts Degree in Clinical Reading
Endorsed with a West Virginia state licensure as a Reading Specialist
Graduated summa cum laude with a GPA of 4.00
Amassed post graduate hours from West Virginia University toward a second Master's Degree in
Educational Supervision, 1983-90
Member of the International Reading Association
Attandance and participation in the National IRA Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1986
and National Regional Conferences in Baltimore, Maryland, and Charleston, West Virginia; state-
sponsored conferences in Roanoke, Virginia, Morgantown, West Virginia, and Frostburg, Maryland
- 3
it
(Educational History and Professional Development Activities continued)
Eight-year member of WVEA and the Western Maryland Reading Association
Served as Hampshire County's delegate to RESA VIII's Reading Authorization Committee, 1986-87.
Served as chairman of the Remedial Authorization Subcommittee, responsible for drafting RESA
VIII's Reading Authorization criteria for the State Department of Education
Served as RESA VIII's Reading Authorization interviewer for Mineral County, 1988
Member of Hampshire County's Comprehensive Planning Committee 1987-88; served as chairman of
the curriculum subcommittee, 1987-88.
Authored and implemented a study skills and content reading curriculum now being used throughout
Hampshire County schools; designed and conducted monthly inservicing programs county-wide for
teachers and administrators at the junior high level dealing with the implementation of the
study skills curriculum. Served as mentor for a similar program in Mineral County.
Developed and taught numerous inservicing and staff development programs at both the building
and county level. Small and large group presentations have covered various reading and study
skills topics.
Employed as a primary and intermediate classroom teacher, respectively from 1979-83; employed
as a reading specialist at the junior high level from 1984-88; currently employed as a
Chapter I reading specialist, grades 1-6
Chosen as Hampshire County's Teacher of theYear, 1990-91
Chosen to serve as a Mentor Teacher for the Hampshire County School System, 1990-91
Recipient of the Reader's Digest Outstanding Young Woman of America Award accepted in Salt
Lake City, Utah
Recipient of Valley Forge Freedom Foundation Award--accepted by oratorical address in
Valley Forge, Pennsylvania
4 .
III. Professional Biography - (two double-spaced pages)
A. What were the factors that influenced you to become a teacher. Describe what you consider to
be your greatest contributions to and accomplishments in education.
I am of Appalachia. I grew up in the small community of Levels, West Virginia, so named
for its levels of prime apple land nestled between rolling hills. It was home to the families
of two orchard owners, one storekeeper, two teachers, and over fifty tenant farmers employed
in the "apple business." The population increased annually at "pickin' time" as scores of
workers arrived from Jamaica, Florida, and Puerto Rico to fill skeleton shacks that stood
empty throughout the winter. Two decades ago, the children of these migrant and tenant farmers
were my neighbors, classmates, and friends. Their life situations were intermingled with mine.
I knew them as people with goals as well as concerns. We shared a childhood.
I am of five generations of teachers. My father, an elementary school teacher and
administrator, worked within the area for forty years. Through his example, I learned what
it meant to be more than a teacher; I learned what it meant to be an educator. In my father's
classroom, all children were equal because all had the ability to learn, perhaps not at the
same pace or in the same language, but all could partake. Through his dedication, he showed
ne how much could be done to help all people, regardless of their situations, if interest and
energy were directed toward alleviating barriers that kept them from reaching their full
potential. He taught me that any job that demanded much time was not worth doing unless you
sere bettering the existence of another human being. He insisted that his students, of whom :
was one, never stop growing or learning. He taught me to speak French in Quebec, fly an air-
plane over the Florida Keys, and swim in the Pacific Ocean.
Such exposure gave me a desire to do and become. Thus, when I graduated from college, I
applied and was accepted to law school at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg,
Virginia. I never went. Teaching was in my blood. I had been given so much; I was intent on
giving something back to the children of West Virginia.
. 5
(Professional Blography continued)
I am a teacher of remedial reading. As my father did before me, I work with disadvantaged
children. I try to fill gaps and pray at times that there will be gaps small enough to fill.
Because of my upbringing, I have empathy, not pity, for these students, be they migrant
Jamaicans or fourth generation residents of our Welfare Belt. This is my greatest contribution
to education in West Virginia: I can look out through the eyes of my students rather than peer
into them.
I have heeded my father's urgings to never stop learning or growing. I am constantly
striving to improve my teaching techniques by attending local and national seminars. The
information that I glean is then used in my inservicing programs for other teachers. Through
such interaction, I gain insight into ways in which I can better instruction for all students.
When it was perceived by myself and other teachers that our students were experiencing
difficulty in their transition from a rural elementary school to a consolidated junior high,
I authored and implemented a study skills program that later was adopted throughout the
Hampshire County school system.
I am proud to have made a contribution that has helped such a large number of students
and teachers. I am just as proud to teach four sight words to a learning disabled child or
to explain to a parent why books are important in the home. I accept my students as they are,
not in spite of their differences, but because they need to learn, and I have chosen to teach.
- 6 .
IV. Community Involvement - (one double-spaced page)
A. Describe your commitment to your community through service-oriented activities such as
volunteer work, civic and other group activities.
Enlightening the community as to the means by which it can best serve the educational needs
of our young people has been the focus of most of my community involvement. As a reading
specialist, I have been asked to speak to various PTA groups, the Literacy Volunteers, and
several civic groups, including the Lion's Club and the Rotary Club. My presentations have brough
about a desire for training sessions, which I have been thrilled to teach. Here parents and
_vic leaders together have learned techniques that they can use to fight illiteracy and its
causative ills.
I have chosen to live and teach in rural West Virginia because I think it offers to my
children the best possible set of values and life choices. I have used the skills that I have
refined in my classroom to ensure the continuance of this way of life. I have served as a
Sunday School teacher and Youth Leader, pianist and organist at my house of worship. I am a
member of the Extension Homemaker's Club and have served as its local secretary, vice president,
and chairman of its Family Life Committee. Through its programs, I have volunteered time to the
ed Cross Blood Mobile, the local library foundation, the roadside litter collection campaign,
And the International Literacy Project. From 1987-89, I served as election commissioner for the
Democratic Party in my precinct and was active in the elections during that time. I am an active
member of the American Legion Auxiliary and participate annually in its judging of youth oratory.
While my children are very young, my primary support for the community must be to instill
in my own the values that I can only hope to instill in my students. America's communities will
only be strong in the future if our children know the cost of our freedom and the free and public
education that comes with it. My home is a starting point.
roof prothern
- 7
V. Philosophy of Teaching (two double-spaced pages)
A. Describe your personal feelings and beliefs about teaching, including your own ideas of what
makes you an outstanding teacher. Describe the rewards you find in teaching.
B. How are your beliefs about teaching demonstrated in your personal teaching style.
I teach little children to read. I hold the values of our culture and the history of our
world before them like a sweet confection. I make them reach out and grab their education from
me. I possess the power to lace their intake with arsenic or opium, creating their self estaem
or destroying it. I shudder under the burden of such a responsibility.
Few people in our society hold as much power in their hands each day as do teachers. We are
mentors and molders of human beings, which is not a mechanical process, but the impact of mind
upon mind and heart upon heart. Each child comes to a teacher with the equality of opportunity to
enable him to make the most of the powers that are within him. We are guardians of that right.
I believe that the future of our nation depends upon our citizens' ability to think, rather
than repeat, learned information. Thus, education must motivate students to love the learning
process. I am not willing to take a given set of steps to be taught and mass ingrain it in
assembly line fashion. The difference between absorbing information and gaining understanding
depends upon how much responsibility students are taught to accept for their own continuing
education. My classroom is a place where the learning process is practiced. Students learn to
monitor their own style and pace, experiment with their own problem solving, and apply different
stratagies to better help them manipulate new information. Such an environment spurs creativity
and generates excitement. My students want to learn.
I believe that each child is special, a product of an often disadvantaged environment, whose
needs are not determined by a state adopted curriculum. His need on a given, day may be that of a
empathetic ear to the feelings he is experiencing or a pat on the back for a difficult task he ha
accomplished. My realm of support is not limited to intellectual development; I take time to ed:
cate the whole child and recognize the unique talents of each. My students leave my classroom
feeling good about themselves.
I believe that a school's curriculum must be linked to the child's experiential background
and tie him to a future that he envisions for himself. A little boy, fascinated by snakes,
- 8
(Philosophy of Teaching continued)
doesn't see the need for reading about rice farming in China. Yet, my lessons strive to inter-
twine the familiar with the new, to weave interest and intrigue into practice and problem
solving. A simple, colorful book on snakes leads the same little boy into a study of environ-
mental dependence, and he finds that snakes are a natural pest control in the rice paddies of
China! My students see a relevance to their learning.
I believe that a teacher's job of educating extends to his fellow teachers and the public.
By attending numerous conferences and seminars, I am enlightened to new techniques and strive
to stimulate other educators and the community. By working in a sharing fashion with all
individuals whose lives touch the child, the best possible learning environment can be created
for him. I am pleased that my colleagues look to me as a resource for new ideas.
When I walk into my school building each fall and smell the freshness and sense the newness
I remember why I teach. It renews my spirit and gives purpose to my being. What other
profession offers one the satisfaction of knowing you have lit a spark in the mind of the next
generation and nurtured a fire that will burn long after you've gone? The power and warmth of
that fire is its own reward; the power enables me to say to a little child, "Yes, I can teach
you to read," and the warmth formulates her response, "I love you, Mrs. 'Ree."
. 9
is
VI. Education Issues and Trends - (two double-spaced pages)
A. What do you consider to be the major public education issues today? Address one, outlining
possible causes, effects and resolutions.
"Abortion at Twelve; Must She Tell?" catches the eye. So does, "Into the Mind of a Rapist."
These are not supermarket tabloid headlines. These are recent cover stories of the nation's
leading news periodicals, Time and Newsweek. The small, rural school in which I teach is only
seventy miles from our nation's capital, the point of origin for many "newsworthy" events. I
stood in front of it for four days as I participated in West Virginia's first teacher strike
during the spring of 1990. Time, Newsweek, nor any other major media forum noticed. They
noticed the baseball players' strike, the Greyhound bus drivers' strike, mating pandas at the
National Zoo, and the President's dislike for broccoli. Education doesn't catch anyone's eye.
It isn't a sensationalized issue. The lack of media attention to the status of teachers in West
Virginia, or any other state, is a reflection of our population's increasing apathy toward the
role of education in our society; this is the major issue facing our profession today.
The upstaging of the educational arena has not occurred overnight. It has been a gradual
seduction into oblivion by the very forces that have changed our society over the last half
century. Schools at one time lured students with that which was new and interesting: books with
colored photographs, audio-visual gadgets, and well-read teachers. However, the ready accessi-
bility of all forms of media communique, a materialistically minded economy and a mechanized
society leave our schools with little ammunition for competition. When students who have grown
up with satellites, computers, air conditioning and heart transplants turn into the voting
populace, it is little wonder that it takes bigger and more fascinating issues than facility
renovation or "paper and pencil" money to gain their tax dollars.
The nurturing and training of a society's children is a painstaking and involved process.
It does not lend itself well to a burst of glory riding. Its lack of gilding in a gilded age
leaves it without support for the true issues that should be glamorized: the lack of professiona
salaries for teachers and, thus, the lack of America's brightest professionals in our classrooms;
the lack of adequate child care legislation and, thus, overworked and distressed families; the
lack of adequate drug and dropout prevention programs and, thus, an unraveling of our culture.
- 10
A
(Education Issues and Trends continued)
A nation that survives on hype cannot survive long. Educators must speak out in forums
such as this, the Teacher of the Year program. We cannot keep dealing ourselves a bad hand
when we hold the ace in the hole: we are the only faction capable of supplying a thinking,
caring populace. We hold the only hope our society has of surviving the crush of ills so often
illuminated in colored ink.
If we as America's educators are loud enough with our outcry, the media will come to
realize that the drug escapades of city officials in the District of Columbia, the fight for
democracy in Eastern Europe, the eruption of gang violence in New York City, the destruction
of rain forests in South America, the struggle over our resources in the Middle East, and the
growth of Japan's economic superiority are the issues of education in America. Their cameras
will be in our classrooms, but perhaps it will be too late. It is difficult to interest
students in ancient history, and, thus, few know much of the fall of the Roman Empire.
. 11 .
VII. The Teaching Profession - (three double-spaced pages)
A. Do you recommend that your students enter the teaching profession? If yes, why? If no. why
not?
B. As a teacher, what do you do to strengthen and improve the teaching profession?
C. To what extent should teachers be accountable for the outcomes of their students?
Donald Trump probably wouldn't have made a very good teacher. He does appear to have the
cunning mind necessary to develop student creativity to an apex, and his solid, silver-spoon
upbringing would relieve him of worry over his salary. However, I think it fortuitous that
little Donald didn't idolize one of his teachers and martyr himself in the classroom. He just
doesn't seem to have the "right stuff." On the other hand, Rose Kennedy would seemingly have
made a very good teacher. She shares with Mr. Trump a quick wit and financial security, but
there the similarity ends. Rose Kennedy fits the physical stereotype of a school marm, but more
importantly, she appears to have the "right stuff."
I have often found myself scrutinizing the lives of public figures, listening to their
stories and trying to determine if each, in his own way, has the "right stuff." Would he have
made a good teacher? Why didn't he choose the most important of professions? Likewise, I
envision my students as adults. I dream with them about what they want to be when they grow up,
and I see the "right stuff" peeking through the emerging personalities of many of them. To
these individuals I have said, "I think you would make a terrific teacher!"
The "right stuff" is the urge in an individual to fulfill the paradox of selfless enrichment
the desire to give of yourself unselfishly in the selfish knowledge that you are doing something
noteworthy. Teachers without this desire find the classroom boring, their students cynical, and
the system failing.
The criteria for a "good job" in our society is a job with a big paycheck that can buy you =
desires of your heart. Teaching cannot buy you much, but it can give you the desires of your
heart. It can give you the opportunity to be a member of the select few who have the power to
mold the future. The more you give of yourself, the more you become empowered to enrich the live
of your students and your world.
- 12
is
(The Teaching Profession continued)
In today's changing society, being a teacher with the "right stuff" is more important than
ever. Society needs education's product, well-honed minds, but it does little to encourage our
system of production. Instead of encouraging the value of literacy, individualism, and integrity.
it propagates materialism, selfishness, and mechanization. Therefore, when students come to the
workplace desiring benefits without possessing needed skills, teachers get the blame. Part of
having the "right stuff" is having the willingness to stand up for the education profession in
the face of apathy and criticism.
I am proud to be a teacher; I wear the armour of a professional. I am not embarrassed to
vocalize the positive qualities of my profession, nor am I slow to defend it. It is not myself
that I seek to acquit, but the good that I do.
Throughout my teaching career, I have been involved in speaking to civic and community
organizations including the Lion's Club, Literacy Volunteers, and various PTA groups. I have
sent letters and articles to editors and seminar directors, expressing the urgency of my message:
do not be quick to condemn until you have shared in our mission. The school cannot be the only
agent responsible for developing reading and thinking skills in our young people. Our students'
lives are too entrenched in the outside world. The community at large must seek to educate.
Thus, I have held training sessions for parents, volunteer tutors, and civic leaders to aid
them in becoming mentors of learning and literacy. I have taught them that an act as simple as
reading the newspaper in public can serve to establish reading habits in our children. More
importantly, I have included them in my redefining of the educational system as a network of
people whose futures are inextricably linked. Therefore, we must all be held accountable for the
success or failure of our members.
I often stand vulnerable in such a forum. The teacher is an easy target when accountability
becomes the weapon. Invariably, the few among us who fail to portray the "right stuff" loom
larger than life in the public's eye. Indeed, it is unthinkable that individuals who do not carry
out the simplest procedures in lesson presentation are granted tenure to remain in the classroom.
Grading papers is not teaching. Making assignments is not teaching. Teachers who define their
roles by such simplistic characteristics should be held accountable for their students lack of
progress.
-13-
is
(The Teaching Profession continued)
However, where it is always appropriate to hold teachers accountable for doing their job,
which is teaching, it is not always possible to hold them responsible for doing the student's
job, which is learning. A student's ability to learn is influenced by too many factors outside
the teacher's realm: his innate ability, his environment, his family's support, his peer
involvement, and his reactions to the messages of society.
Teachers like myself, who have been told that we have the "right stuff," often become self-
righteous. We tenderly plant the seeds of knowledge and relish each new blossom. The gardening
of young minds enriches us and entices us to do more. However, when one of our charge withers
and fades despite our best tending, we want to blame ourselves. We cannot. The sun and rain are
out of our control.
. 14 .
VIII. National Teacher of the Year. (one double-spaced page)
A. As the 1991 National Teacher of the Year, you would serve as a representative and spokesperson
for the entire teaching profession. How would you fulfill the responsibility of communicating to
your profession and to the general public the importance of education to our society? What
would be your message to America?
I remember the Vice President of the United States looking me directly in the eye and
asking me about my dreams for the future. As a high school honor student and a Girls' Nation
Senator, I was meeting with other young leaders and then Vice President Gerald Ford in the Oval
Office of the White House. My reply: "I want to return to the hills I love and teach." He
batted my hand and read from my name tag, "That's nice, Miss Scanlon ... a nice profession."
Teaching is a nice profession. It makes one feel good to be nice to children. The time off
in the summer is nice. It's nice to get twenty-six Valentines every February. However, educatic
needs to be a priority in the eyes of our nation's leaders, not because it's the nice thing to do
but because it's mandatory for the survival of our culture.
It's nice for our children to have straight teeth, the right insignia on their jeans, and th
latest electronic games. It's imperative that they be able to read and compute, create and under
stand. Unfortunately, in our society, we let our children know how much we value something by th
amount of time and money we devote to it. By these standards, the American education system has
been appraised as no more than a dull trinket.
I do not make fast-paced films, nor do I play pro sports. I do not drive a fancy car or sig
autographs. However, I am rich in intellect and experience, and I have a strong desire to see ou
nation survive into the next century. I am a lucrative investment; I can turn your most precious
raw material into a refined, marketable product. I am your child's teacher.
I have often thought how different your child's life would have been if in 1974 the future
President of the United States would have said to me, "I've been waiting for you, Miss Scanlon.
Together we can change the face of America."
-15-
Dir. TOYA John Quam
City/State: Slanesville WV
#
Gov. Caperton Marock Henry R
Event: Teacher Stue year
Supt Pres of schools 4t. Bd of REduc James Jandson Mac Callum
Date: 4/5/91
Virginia Rae Siarlon
OFFICE OF PRESIDENTIAL ADVANCE
time
VP
Edgar Jaes Scanlon
audience intro Idais
CONTACT SHEET
1/B. Mckee's
students, parents, faculty, comm, state people, family
spot
Name
Office
Phone Number
Presidential Advance Office
202/456-7565
Presidential Advance Fax Number
202/456-2820
up Tomen Presidential Advance 202/456-7565
Peg Havings
"
"
:
Rick PHARR
11
11
11
Thank you
Charlie DeVite
USSS
PPD
202 395-4011
I'm honored
Lucy muckerman
WH Press Advance
202-456-7565
Doug Adair
WH Cabinet Affairs
456-2800
Kim Fuller
WH Press Advance
301-724-8800
Lisa Bartaglra
Public Liaison
456-7845
PeRay Dooley
WH Speechwriting
202/456-7750
Jack L. Rohmer
Street Service
202/395-4011
JAY FARMER
HM HMX-1
203-640-2364
Kevin JmcHale
WH Comm Agency
(202)3955206
LARRY FEAST
WH Communica bons Agency
(202) 395-4040
Jake Ross
MILAIDE
(202) 395 1747
PAUL RAGLAND
USSS
304/347-5188
RICHARD THOMAS
WH SITE ADVANCE
202/456-7565
Lynn LAWGOR
OUH Political Affairs
2024566510
SCOTT R. Foust
WH SITE ADUANCE
202/456-7565
Gary O. Kidwell
Slonesville School
304/496-7069
304/492 - 5242
Hni-MAY INN 2081 /724-8800
sheraton Carlton Sun-Fri. 638-2626
304/496-7958 (h)
McGroarty/Dooley
April 5, 1991
4:00 pm
[TEACHER]
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: TEACHER OF THE YEAR AWARD
SLANESVILLE, WEST VIRGINIA
APRIL 10, 1991
XX:00 am?? 9:55 a.m. cld bedeleyed
Thank you, Mr. Secretary {Alexander}, for those kind words -
- and thanks to all of you for this warm West Virginia welcome.
I'm especially pleased today to be here with our new Secretary of
Education, because next week, back in Washington, we're going to
unveil our new national education strategy -- a strategy to spark
a nationwide movement that touches every school and every student
in America. //
CARERTON. School Principal
[Additional introductory acknowledgements.] // Now, let me
introduce someone you already know -- the 1991 National Teacher
of the Year, Rae Ellen McKee. //
[[Last time I went to a school -- just a few miles away from
the White House -- I had a 3rd-grade boy ask me to prove I was
the President. // I finally had to show him my American Express
Card. // This time I came prepared. First, I brought the
Secretary of Education. Second, I flew down on Marine One.
Third, when we're done here, I'm going to take Mrs. McKee back up
to the White House. ]]
[[I heard a story about one of Mrs. McKee's reading students
-- about a boy who'd been watching me almost every day on
television, back during the war in the Gulf, making speeches and
making statements to the press. This boy asked Mrs. McKee: "Are
you really going to go to Washington and meet the President?"
2 He doesn't need you.
She said yes, she was. He said: "You don't need to. He can
already read. "]]
This is a proud day: For Rae Ellen's husband, John McKee -
Zachary+
- and their children, Molly a second-grader here at
Slanesville -- for and Zachary For all the children of Slanesville
por RacEllen's parents.
Elementary School. And for every hard-working teacher in America
-- who sees the future, and shapes that future, every day our
children walk into that classroom. ///
Being here today to honor this special teacher reminds me of
my own days in school -- all the way back to 1941. I remember my
high-school history teacher: Dr. A.B. Darling. He was demanding
-- disciplined -- and I learned from him. I don't know how much
I remember of the history he taught me -- but I know I won't ever
forget his example. // Years from now, you'll all remember Mrs.
McKee the same way. //
Our national teacher of the year grew up in Levels, just 10
miles from here. Rae Ellen McKee is West Virginia born and bred.
She comes from a family of teachers -- 5 generations, to be
exact. And she's still a student herself -- working now on a
educational supervision
second Masters degree in education at West Virginia University:
proof that learning is a life-long process.
Rae Ellen McKee knows that teaching is more than giving
tests and assigning grades. Teaching, she says, is the "impact
of mind upon mind --and heart upon heart."
There are plenty of schools bigger than Slanesville's.
Plenty of towns with more people. But in this small school,
3
great things happen.
//
Every day -- these children, your
children, take a step forward, toward their future. That's a
testament to this teacher and this school.
And above all, it's a testament to the strength of this
community and its values. Our children learn from all of us --
not just from teachers. What happens at home -- and in the
neighborhood -- matters just as much as what takes place in the
classroom. //
I know that many of the kids here today learned to read with
Mrs. McKee's help. I've just spent a little time with some of
you in her classroom -- asking questions, watching you learn. //
Let me ask a question: How many of you have ever read a
story or a book that's been made into a movie -- and then you
watch that movie, and you say to yourself: the book was better.
// When you read, the power of your imagination paints the
picture in your mind -- and there isn't anything in the world
stronger than the power of your imagination.
That's why reading is so important. It's more than picking
out the words on a page. Reading is one way we learn how to
think. // When you open a book -- you open your mind to a world
of experience. Right here in a classroom in West Virginia -- the
world comes to you. //
Let me say to all the kids here today: I hope you won't
mind that we're going to borrow Mrs. McKee. For the next year,
as Teacher of the Year, she will travel across the country -- to
share with all our schools the secrets of her success here in
4
Slanesville. We need to learn from her how we can teach all kids
just as well as she's taught you. //
Pretty soon, you'll be back in class. I'm going to ask you
to do something for me -- today and every day. Work hard. Ask
questions. Have fun. And learn. That's what school is all
about. //
Once again, my thanks for this warm welcome, for the chance
to spend some time in your classroom -- and for the opportunity
to share this proud moment for Slanesville. // And now, I am
honored to present this crystal apple to the 1991 Teacher of the
Year -- Rae Ellen McKee.
# # #
APR-08-1991 11:11 FROM SLANESVILLE WV STAFF ADV TO
P.01
1-202-456-6218.
91 APR 8 P12: 35
OFFICE OF
PRESIDENTIAL ADVANCE
COVER PAGE
TO: Dan me GRUARtUR.
FROM: Rick PhaRR
TOTAL NUMBER OF PAGES:
2
(including cover page)
DATE:
4-8-91
TIME:
12:15 P.M.
MESSAGE:
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR PROBLEMS WITH THE TRANSMISSION PLEASE CALL.
TELEPHONE NUMBER:
APR-08-1991 11:11 FROM SLANESVILLE WV STAFF ADV TO
P.02
DAN, A144 INFO you NEED PURASA FREE
FRRE To CALL
MILE
5 MINE
PONNT
S317121 01
PRIESS
X
16
PHYSICAL DIRECTIONS AND DISTANCES IN
WHICH SLANKSVILLIR BLEITAFARY PULLS
IN ITS STUDENTS: THIS IS IN RELATION
To WHARE THIS PRESIDENT is SPEAKING.
POPULATION OF SLANKS UILLIR APPROVITATLY
( 50 PROPLIE)
APR- 1-91 MON 15:09 CCSSO
P.02
- D - R - A - F - - T -
Not for release until April 10, 1991; 10:00 am
In An Awards Program
Now In Its 40th Year
READING SPECIALIST FROM APPALACHIA
NAMED 1991 NATIONAL TEACHER OF THE YEAR
President Travels to West Virginia To Present Award
WASHINGTON, DC -- APRIL 10, 1991 -- A remedial reading instructor from West
Virginia, chosen from among the nation's more than 2.5 million elementary and secondary
public school teachers, has been named the 1991 National Teacher of the Year.
The award winner, Rae Ellen McKee, 32, teaches at Slanesville Elementary School
in Slanesville, WV. President Bush travels today to her school where he will present
McKee a crystal apple, the traditional symbol of teaching. McKee will then travel with the
President back to Washington where national recognition continues in a series of events
introducing her to the national educational and policy-making communities.
The National Teacher of the Year Program is the oldest and most prestigious
awards program to focus public attention on excellence in teaching. The program, now in
its 40th year, is sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers in partnership with
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
More.
APR- 1-91 MON 15:09 CCSSO
P.03
1991 National Teacher of the Year
Page 2
"My new title as National Teacher of the Year makes me prouder than ever to
proclaim myself a teacher," said McKee, who is a fifth generation teacher. "I wear the
armor of a professional. I am not embarrassed to vocalize the positive qualities of my
profession, nor am I slow to defend it. It is not myself that I seek to champion, but the
good that teachers do."
She was born and grew up in the small West Virginia Appalachia community of
Levels, about ten miles from where she now teaches. Most of her ancestors, who settled
in the region in the late 1700's, were teachers; in one branch of the family, 10 of the 13
offspring became teachers.
However, she credits her father, an elementary school teacher and administrator in
the area for 40 years, with giving her the desire to teach and the special interest in helping
disadvantaged children in rural areas. Through his example," McKee recalls, "I learned to
be more than a teacher--I learned to be an educator. In my father's classroom, all children
were equal because all had the ability to learn, perhaps not at the same pace or in the
same language, but all could partake. Through his dedication, he showed me how much
could be done to help all people, regardless of their situations, if interest and energy were
directed toward alleviating barriers that kept them from reaching their full potential."
"He taught me that any job that demanded much time was not worth doing unless
you were bettering the existence of another human being. He insisted that his students,
of which I was one, never stop growing or learning."
More
APR- 1-91 MON 15:10 CCSSO
P.05
1991 National Teacher of the Year
Page 4
A colleague of McKee's at the school credits her with reviving her own flagging
enthusiasm for teaching. "In a brief year," she says, "I feel like a teacher again."
Through her use of such props as purple cows, popcorn and pizza, McKee's first to
sixth grade students have discovered that reading can actually be fun and are motivated to
read.
In her role as National Teacher of the Year, which will have her traveling across the
country to speak before numerous educational and business organizations, McKee will
stress the importance of all sectors of the community working together to bring about
quality education for America's children.
"The school cannot be the only agent responsible for developing the skills and
character of young people," she says. "The community, too, must seek to educate." This
is why she also is involved in a welter of after-school activities. In addition to serving as
a literacy volunteer, Sunday school teacher, and pianist and organist at her house of
worship, she is also active in the local extension homemakers club, library foundation, Red
Cross, American Legion Auxiliary, and many other community groups.
"While my children are very young, my primary support for the community must be
to instill in my own the values that I can only hope to instill in my students," she says.
Married to John McKee, an electrical lineman, she is the mother of a seven-year-old
daughter, Mollie, and a two-year-old son, Zachary.
More.
APR- 1-91 MON 15:11 CCSSO
P.06
1991 National Teacher of the Year
Page 5
The other finalists in the 1991 National Teacher of the Year program were: Beatrice
Kramer Volkman, a special education teacher/arts facilitator at Old Shell Road School for
the Creative and Performing Arts, Mobile, AL; Shirley A. Hopkinson, a Pre-Kindergarten
teacher at Brightwood Elementary School in Washington, DC; and Shirley A. Rau, a 12th
grade English teacher at Nampa High School, Nampa, ID.
This is the 40th year that the National Teacher of the Year has been chosen from
among the State Teachers of the Year from the 50 states, five extra-state jurisdictions, the
District of Columbia and the Department of Defense Dependents' Schools. The State
Teachers of the Year are submitted to the Council of Chief State School Officers in
Washington, DC, where a blue-ribbon panel of representatives from a 12 leading national
educational organizations reviews the data on each candidate and selects four finalists. The
selection panel personally interviews each finalist before naming the National Teacher of
the Year.
Contacts for further information:
Jon Quam, National Teacher of the Year Program, CCSSO, Washington - 202/393-8168
Lisa Kendell, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., Chicago - 312/347-7163
Carl Bakal, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., New York - 212/725-0365
APR- 1-91 MON 15:12 CCSSO
P.07
props?
one thing
Thoughts on Teaching and Education
thort
by
How many of 170
important
Rae Ellen McKee
have leaned to
to leaving?
read w/
1991 National Teacher of the Year
Ms. like ??
On her approach and style of teaching:
I teach little children to read. I hold the values of our culture and the history of
our world before them like a sweet confection. I make them reach out and grab
their education from me. I possess the power to lace their intake with arsenic or
opium, creating their self-esteem or destroying it. I shudder under the burden of
such a responsibility.
Few people in our society hold as much power in their hands each day as do
teachers. We are mentors and molders of human beings, which is not a mechanical
process, but the impact of mind upon mind and heart upon heart. Each child comes
to a teacher with the equality of opportunity to enable him to make the most of the
powers that are within him. We are guardians of that right.
On her philosophy of teaching:
I believe that the future of our nation depends upon our citizens' ability to think,
rather than repeat learned information. Thus, education must motivate students to
love the learning process. My classroom is a place where the learning process is
practiced. Students learn to monitor their own style and pace, experiment with their
own problem solving, and apply different strategies to better help them manipulate
new information. Such an environment spurs creativity and generates excitement.
APR- 1-91 MON 15:12 CCSSO
P.08
Rae McKee - Thoughts on Teaching
Page 2
I believe that each child is special, a product of an often disadvantaged
environment, whose needs are not determined by a state-adopted curriculum. His
or her need on a given day may be that of an empathetic ear to the feelings he or
she is experiencing or a pat on the back for a difficult task accomplished. My realm
of support is not limited to intellectual development; I take time to educate the
whole child and recognize the unique talents of each. My students leave my
classroom feeling good about themselves.
I believe that a school's curriculum must be linked to the child's experiential
background and tie that student to a future that he or she envisions for herself or
himself. A child fascinated by snakes doesn't see the need for reading about rice
farming in China. Yet, my lessons strive to intertwine the familiar with the new, to
weave interest and intrigue into practice and problem solving. A simple, colorful
book on snakes leads the same child into a study of environmental dependence, and
he finds that snakes are a natural pest control in the rice paddies of China! My
students see a relevance to their learning.
On educational issues, trends, and priorities:
Education doesn't catch anyone's eye. It isn't a sensationalized issues. The lack of
media attention to the status of teachers in West Virginia, or any other state, is a
reflection of our population's increasing apathy toward the role of education in our
society; this is the major issues facing our profession today.
This apathy has not developed overnight. It has been a gradual seduction into
oblivion by the very forces that have changed our society over the last half century.
Schools at one time lured students with that which was new and interesting: books
with colored photographs, audio-visual gadgets, and well-read teachers. However,
the ready accessibility of all forms of media communique, a materialistically minded
economy and a mechanized society leave our schools with little ammunition for
competition. When students who have grown up with satellites, computers, air
conditioning and heart transplants turn into the voting populace, it is little wonder
that it takes bigger and more fascinating issues than faculty renovation or "paper and
pencil" money to gain their tax dollars.
APR- 1-91 MON 15:13 CCSSO
P.09
Rae McKee - Thoughts on Teaching
Page 3
If we as America's educators are loud enough with our outcry, the media will come
to realize that the fight for democracy in Eastern Europe, the destruction of rain
forests in South America, the political and economic struggles in the Middle East,
the growth of Japan's economic superiority, and the drug-related violence of our
own urban areas are the issues of education in America. Their cameras will be in
our classrooms, but perhaps it will be too late.
Teaching is a nice profession. It makes one feel good to be nice to children. The
time off in the summer is nice. It's nice to get twenty-six valentines every February.
However, education needs to be a priority in the eyes of our nation's leaders, not
because it's the nice thing to do but because it is mandatory for the survival of our
culture.
On the perception of teaching as a profession:
The "right stuff" is the urge in an individual to fulfill the paradox of the desire to
give of yourself unselfishly in the selfish knowledge that you are doing something
noteworthy. Teachers without this desire find the classroom boring, their students
and the system failing.
In today's changing society, being a teacher with the "right stuff" is more important
than ever. Society needs education's product, well-honed minds, but it does little to
encourage our system of production. Instead of encouraging the value of literacy,
individualism, and integrity it propagates materialism, selfishness, and mechanization.
Therefore, when students come to the workplace desiring benefits without possessing
the needed skills, teachers get the blame. Part of having the "right stuff" is having
the willingness to stand up for the education profession in the face of apathy and
criticism.
However, where it is always appropriate to hold teachers accountable for doing their
job, which is teaching, it is not always possible to hold them responsible for doing
the student's job, which is learning. A student's ability to learn is influenced by too
many factors outside the teacher's realm: his innate ability, his environment, his
family's support, his peer involvement, and his reactions to the messages of society.
APR- 1-91 MON 15:14 CCSSO
P.10
Rae McKee - Thoughts on Teaching
Page 4
When I walk into my school building each fall and smell the freshness and sense the
newness, I remember why I teach. It renews my spirit and gives purpose to my
being. What other profession offers one the satisfaction of knowing you have lit a
spark in the mind of the next generation and nurtured a fire that will burn long
after you've gone? The power and warmth of that fire is its own reward; the power
enables me to say to a little child, "Yes, I can teach you to read," and the warmth
formulates her response, "I love you, Mrs. "Kee."
9:00 AM - TUES
Bruno Mano Slamerville, WV
Stanessill, mustange
hel w/yellow rebbons in hall
map - passport to used world = reading
an. 9:20 a.m.
n 9:30 - Mrs. McKee's classroom, 15 min.
9:50-10:15
mr. Kidwell intro
touot letern blue gove
present award
h. 10:25 a.m.
Fish fand, Patato, Brocoli, milk
australia
new Zealand
Spain (2)
Kunya
Bahamas
Hawaii
Fifth grade pic of pen pal friend Lt. Haffman
Harduy
W/Dan Ruther Staff lgt. French
Leavitt
113/847-3867
impationce w/thous qui don't want A
Mrs. Roman second trade
8:30-9 hit
9-9:30 Rdg
9:30-10 Rdg
10-10:30 Rdq
10:30-11 Warkhooke/Free Rdg
11-11:30 Spelling
Lunch 11:30-12
12:12:30 Planning hunch
12:30-1:30math
1:30-2 Eng
2-2:30 Writing
2:30-3 Soc st/Suine
3:15 Dismisal
Rt. 29
This Slane - cemetery
prehause, store, P.O., few churches few houses
Anthia Rylant - Whind Was young dn the Mtno.
Calduott award Winnes
molly g - giri book to POTUS
Potamas Edvans computers all donated no
computers provided by goset.
community parents, retured people
703/836 -8589
d never Daw a purple cow
I never hope to all one
But I can tell you this nght now
I'd rather all than be one
background -school hunnes
pleachers
Kidwell intro alehander
alexander intro POTUS
POTUS
award
Mrs mcKw -2 min remarks
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU ILL NO.
HPr. 5,91 20:55 P.UZ
from Rantch:
Ask any successful person who was the person that
influenced them the most. Most of them will remember a
favorite teacher. They will tell you about a teacher in the
fourth grade who listened to them and encouraged them, or a
teacher of history or chemistry or literature who first
recognized their potential. They will tell you about the
teacher who taught them to believe in themselves, the teacher
who said "Reach for the stars. Push yourself as far as you can
go. Go for the gold. You can do it." (Might help if the
President recalled HIS favorite teacher).
If we are serious about reaching the nation's education
goals--and we are--then we must recognize the important
mission of our nation's teachers. We are counting on them to
inspire our youngsters to be the best. We are counting on them
to spread the message that anything is possible in this great
land to those who work hard, study hard, and discipline
themselves for success.
Our children understand that a sports team cannot win
unless its members are dedicated. They know that successful
athletes work hard toward their goals, and their goals are
clear. And we all know that behind every great team is a great
coach, teaching youngsters how to use their talents to the
fullest and how to work with their teammates.
As we salute our teacher of the year, we thank all our
dedicated hard-working teachers. Day after day, they train
0000000000000000000000 TEL No.
Apr. 3,91 20:55 P.03
the minds that will shape the twenty-first century. They are
the coaches who will make the American education system once
again the envy of the world.
From Diane Ravitch
4/3/91
McGroarty/Dooley
April 5, 1991
3:00 pm
[TEACHER]
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: TEACHER OF THE YEAR AWARD
SLANESVILLE, WEST VIRGINIA
APRIL 10, 1991
XX:00 am??
Thank you, Mr. Secretary {Alexander}, for those kind words -
- and thanks to all of you for this warm West Virginia welcome.
I'm especially pleased today to be here with our new Secretary of
Education, because next week, back in Washington, we're going to
unveil our new national education strategy -- a strategy we hope
will spark a nationwide movement that touches every school and
every student in America. //
[Additional introductory acknowledgements.] // Now, let me
introduce someone you already know -- the 1991 National Teacher
of the Year, Rae Ellen McKee. //
[ [Last time I went to a school -- just a few miles away from
the White House -- I had a 3rd-grade boy ask me to prove I was
the President. // I finally had to show him my American Express
Card. // This time I came prepared. First, I brought the
Secretary of Education. Second, I flew down on Marine One.
Third, when we're done here, I'm going to take Mrs. McKee back up
to the White House. ]]
[[I heard a story about one of Mrs. McKee's reading students
-- about a boy who'd been watching me almost every day on
television, back during the war in the Gulf, making speeches and
making statements to the press. This boy asked Mrs. McKee: "Are
you really going to go to Washington and meet the President?"
2
She said yes, she was. He said: "You don't need to. He can
already read. "]]
This is a proud day: For Rae Ellen's husband, John McKee -
- and their children, Molly -- a second-grader here at
Slanesville -- and Zachary. For all the children of Slanesville
Elementary School. And for every hard-working teacher in America
-- who sees the future, and shapes that future, every day they
walk into that classroom. ///
Being here today to honor this special teacher reminds me of
my own days in school -- all the way back to 1941. I remember my
high-school history teacher: Dr. A.B. Darling. He was demanding
-- disciplined -- and I learned from him. I don't know how much
I remember of the history he taught me -- but I know I won't ever
forget his example. // Years from now, you'll all remember Mrs.
McKee the same way. //
Our national teacher of the year grew up in Levels, just 10
miles from here. Rae Ellen McKee is West Virginia born and bred.
She comes from a family of teachers -- 5 generations, to be
exact. And she's still a student herself -- working now on a
second Masters degree in education at West Virginia University:
proof that learning is a life-long process.
Rae Ellen McKee knows that teaching is more than giving
tests and assigning grades. Teaching, she says, is the "impact
of mind upon mind --and heart upon heart."
There are plenty of schools bigger than Slanesville's.
Plenty of towns with more people. But in this small school,
3
great things happen. // Every day -- these children, your
children, take a step forward, towards their future. That's a
testament to this teacher and this school.
And above all, it's a testament to the strength of this
community and its values -- because kids learn from all of us --
not just the teachers -- and what happens at home and in the
neighborhood matters just as much as what takes place in the
classroom. //
I know that most of the kids here today learned to read with
Mrs. McKee's help. I've just spent a little time with some of
you in your classroom -- asking questions, watching you learn.
// Let me tell you something I learned a long time ago: Reading
is more than picking out the words on a page. Reading is one way
we learn how to think.
Let me ask a question: How many of you have ever read a
story or a book that's been made into a movie -- and then you
watch that movie, and you say to yourself: the book was better.
// When you read, the power of your imagination paints the
picture in your mind -- and there isn't anything in the world
stronger than the power of your imagination.
That's why reading is so important. When you open a book -
- you open your mind to a world of experience. Right here in a
classroom in West Virginia -- the world comes to you. //
Let me say to all the kids here today: I hope you won't
mind that we're going to borrow Mrs. McKee. For the next year,
as Teacher of the Year, she will travel across the country -- to
4
share with all our schools the secrets to her success here in
Slanesville. We need to learn from her how we can teach all kids
just as well as she's taught you. //
Pretty soon, you'll be back in class. I'm going to ask you
to do something for me -- today and every day. Work hard. Ask
questions. Have fun. And learn. That's what school is all
about. //
Once again, my thanks for this warm welcome, for the chance
to spend some time in your classroom -- and for the opportunity
to share this proud moment for Slanesville. // And now, I am
honored to present this crystal apple to the 1991 Teacher of the
Year -- Rae Ellen McKee.
# # #
Nov. 3 / Administration of George Bush, 1989
Continuation of Victor H. Frank, Jr., as United States Director of
forgot those wor
For 211 years
the Asian Development Bank
bodied the quali
alluded to. And
November 3, 1989
"one nation und
sified unit, 1978-1980; vice president for
into its sons and
The President today announced that
finance of the Best Foods unit, 1973-1978;
ice to country
Victor H. Frank, Jr., will continue to serve
as U.S. Director of the Asian Development
and tax counsel, 1966-1973. In addition,
others-each day
Bank, with the rank of Ambassador.
Mr. Frank served in the private practice of
is the message
message with w/
Since 1987 Mr. Frank has served as U.S.
law in New York City, 1954-1966.
Director of the Asian Development Bank.
Mr. Frank graduated from Yale Universi-
Prior to this, he served in various capacities
ty (B.A., 1950; LL.B., 1953) and New York
with CPC International, including corpo-
University Law School (LL.M., 1960). He
rate vice president of government relations,
Remarks to"t
was born April 4, 1927. Mr. Frank served in
1986-1987; corporate vice president of in-
the U.S. Navy, 1945-1946. He is married,
Massachusett
formation resources, 1982-1986; special as-
has three children, and resides in Manila,
sistant to the chief executive officer, 1980-
November 5,
1982; vice president of the consumer diver-
the Philippines.
Thank you all.
was out there tal
dover's victoriou
Remarks at the Bicentennial Convocation at Phillips Academy in
man. I don't kr
with us. Is he the
Andover, Massachusetts
to you guys that
November 5, 1989
but fast-{laugh
where he went.
Thank all of you very much on this beau-
that vein, legend says that he kissed a
here now. I need
tiful fall day. My thanks to our headmaster,
young girl at the Andover Inn. [Laughter]
my being late. ]
Don McNemar. I was accompanied here by
It is reported that she never washed that
him. Stay there.
two Members of the United States Con-
cheek again. [Laughter] But now, I can't
I single him
gress, fellow alumni of Phillips Academy,
bear living testimony to his visit, but I can
poor guy, which
Congressman Tony Beilenson and Congress-
speak very briefly of my time here. I loved
but to make a P
man Andy Ireland, who are out here some-
those years. They did, indeed, teach the
of the things that
place. But I just want to introduce them.
great end and real business of living. And
out of was the at
And to the board of this great school, to our
even now its lessons of honesty, selflessness,
my old mentor,
outstanding faculty, to the students, admin-
faith in God-well, they enrich every day of
in the front row
istrators, the entire Andover family and
gosh, I haven't el
our lives.
community, and friends, I am just delighted
You remember, I'm the guy that said
just the same as I
to be back here. I'm sorry Barbara isn't
Pearl Harbor Day was on September 7. I
competitive days
with me. I know that's why this crowd is so
But I want to
big. [Laughter] But she didn't feel so hot.
want to clear that up-[laughter-because
McNemar for arr
She's doing okay, but she just had a bad day
it was right about here, where that guy in a
a fine reunion, if
yesterday. And so, she couldn't make it, but
red coat is standing, that I heard that our
single out the tw
she sends her love and affection.
country was at war on December 7th, 1941.
here with me, ba
I want to thank you for this chance to
And it was over there, in Cochran Chapel,
Tony Beilenson,
visit-and revisit-the site of so many won-
that in June of 1942 a graduate of Phillips
there, as enthusi
derful memories for me and to celebrate
Academy gave our commencement ad-
to Andover Hill
such an historic moment in the life of this
dress-Henry Stimson. He was then Secre-
board and to Tin
academy, because as Don said, it was 200
tary of War, and he observed how the
lot of the plannin
years ago to this very day that the founder
American soldier should be brave without
the schedule-ol
of our country visited one of this country's
being brutal, self-reliant without boasting,
David Underwoo
oldest academies. And George Washington
becoming a part of irresistible might with-
years, fellow Hot
would later write fondly of Andover. And in
out losing faith in individual liberty. I never
unselfishly as chai
1458
CATALOGUE OF
PHILLIPS ACADEMY
ANDOVER, MASSACHUSETTS
PHILLIPS CADEM COCUP
ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FOURTH YEAR
1941-1942
PHILLIP
SINIA ADANA vur. SIGIL ACAD.
PHILLIPS ACADEMY
PHILLIPS ACADEMY
book, specially prepared to train students to use the Library and to
students may know the origins of the conditions in which they
depend no longer upon a single text. This material is divided top-
live. The careers of eminent men are studied in relation to these
ically, with a summary to introduce each major subject, and the
problems. Purely military events are minimized. Problems of
topics thereunder have specific references to various texts and to
literary, intellectual, religious, and philosophical import are
books of more mature opinion. The students are taught to take
indicated but left for study in college.
their own notes from these references. Subsequent discussion in the
HISTORY 5-Contemporary History. This one-hour elective
class-room is based on these notes, and the students are then en-
course for Seniors is designed to give a quick survey of recent
couraged to draw conclusions.
affairs. For this purpose there are introductory discussions of the
The detailed study of Great Britain starts with her emergence
first World War, the period following Versailles, and events lead-
from medieval times into the modern era, beginning with the
ing to the present crisis. The students are asked to read in histori-
Tudors. Certain incidents are studied to bring out general
cal works and current periodicals, but the major part of the study
changes in Western Europe. More emphasis is then laid upon the
consists of discussions in class and note-taking from lectures.
development of Parliament and institutions representative of the
English people. The course proceeds to elaborate upon social and
economic changes, colonial expansion through the period of
HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION
Cromwell and the Restoration, and rivalry with France for world
supremacy, into the period of American rebellion. From the
This one-hour elective course, for a limited number of boys,
middle of the eighteenth century on, the course then deals with
tries to acquaint the participants with the background of our own
the development of industrial society and its influences upon
culture and civilization by giving a concise but reasonably ex-
political movements, the rise of modern imperialism, and aspects
tensive synopsis of the aspect and aims of the Greek civilization
of England's policies in the world of today.
and its development through the Roman, Medieval, Renaissance,
HISTORY 4-The United States. This final course builds upon
and Modern adaptations of its principles. It is mainly a lecture
the study in the previous year. It begins, therefore, with the
course, with one examination a term.
causes of the American Revolution. It proceeds through the
period of transition from Confederation to Federal Union, the
westward advance of the American people, the rise of the nation
MATHEMATICS
out of sectional conflicts and the Civil War. It surveys then the
development of industrial society and the attendant growth of
MATHEMATICS 1A. The prerequisite of this course is an ele-
the United States as a world power. It closes with events of the
mentary knowledge of algebra through the solution of simultane-
present time.
ous linear equations of two unknowns. The study of the subject
Public affairs, both domestic and foreign, are the central theme
begins with a review in the fundamentals and continues progres-
of this course. Particular stress is given to geographical, economic,
sively throughout the Junior year in a program which generally
social, governmental, and institutional problems, in order that the
completes Milne-Downey's First Year Algebra (American Book),
(60)
(61)
0000000000000000000000 TEL No.
Apr. 3.91 20:55 P.02
Ask any successful person who was the person that
influenced them the most. Most of them will remember a
favorite teacher. They will tell you about a teacher in the
fourth grade who listened to them and encouraged them, or a
teacher of history or chemistry or literature who first
recognized their potential. They will tell you about the
teacher who taught them to believe in themselves, the teacher
who said "Reach for the stars. Push yourself as far as you can
go. Go for the gold. You can do it." (Might help if the
President recalled HIS favorite teacher).
If we are serious about reaching the nation's education
goals--and we are--then we must recognize the important
mission of our nation's teachers. We are counting on them to
inspire our youngsters to be the best. We are counting on them
to spread the message that anything is possible in this great
land to those who work hard, study hard, and discipline
themselves for success.
Our children understand that a sports team cannot win
unless its members are dedicated. They know that successful
athletes work hard toward their goals, and their goals are
clear. And we all know that behind every great team is a great
coach, teaching youngsters how to use their talents to the
fullest and how to work with their teammates.
As we salute our teacher of the year, we thank all our
dedicated, hard-working teachers. Day after day, they train
0000000000000000000000 TEL No.
Apr. 3,91 20:55 P.03
the minds that will shape the twenty-first century. They are
the coaches who will make the American education system once
again the envy of the world.
From Diane Ravitch
4/3/91
' 89
Administration of George Bush, 1989 / Apr. 5
peace and develop-
We value your cooperation, especially at a
White House, to honor a teacher who epito-
time when we are exerting great efforts in
mizes excellence in education.
celebrated, as you
order to achieve both economic reform and
What goes on in the schools is important
lent, the 10th anni-
growth. Our cooperation in various eco-
to me, and I like to get out of the office and
treaty which was
nomic fields is essential for achieving our
talk with the kids whenever the chance
gton. That event co-
goal of improving our economic perform-
presents itself. Last week I was over here in
sful conclusion of the
ances and enhancing productivity.
James Madison High in Vienna, Virginia,
help and assistance.
In our discussions yesterday, Mr. Presi-
and had lunch in the cafeteria there. I
e a living testimony
dent, as in our previous meetings in Wash-
found the students interested and well-in-
remises that nations
ington, Cairo, and elsewhere, I have sensed
formed, the teachers engaged and energet-
ferences throughout
the depth of your sentiments towards the
ic, but the pizza-[laughter]. Enough said.
peaceful means. On
friendship that binds our two countries. We
But to the business at hand. The 1989
epresent a tribute to
in Egypt share those feelings. We are both
National Teacher of the Year has made the
a peacemaker and
nations that attach a great value to friend-
ship and loyalty to our friends. Together,
journey to Washington from Bethel High
lecades, four distin-
we have an opportunity to make the Middle
School in Hampton, Virginia, many times
before to give her social studies students a
mely former Presi-
East a much safer and more stable place, to
the benefit of all its people and that of the
firsthand look at how government really
Gerald Ford, Jimmy
agan-and their as-
entire world.
works. But in a more important respect, the
tal role in order to
Let me, Mr. President, extend my invita-
journey for this year's winner, Mary Bicou-
Middle East conflict
tion to you and to Mrs. Bush to visit Egypt
varis, began almost 30 years ago and 5,000
when you find it convenient and at a suita-
miles away. Mary, or Mrs. Bic, as her stu-
e grateful to these
ble time for you, Mr. President and Mrs.
dents call her-and I will, too-was born in
rican for their genu-
commitment. Today
Bush. We share with you a great vision of
Greece, came to the United States as a col-
eady begun to put
the future for a better and safer world
lege student, and then chose to stay. Ms.
process, only a few
which is within our grasp. We count on
Bic was inspiring good citizenship in her
students before she herself was an Ameri-
med office. We have
your partnership and on your leadership to
Bush, his sense of
sail together to that bright destination.
can citizen. And her secret is using the real
gment. Your leader-
In conclusion, permit me to ask you,
world as her classroom: getting her students
d your commitment
ladies and gentlemen, to raise in tribute to
involved in programs like the model U.N.
President and Mrs. Bush, who are leading
and in political campaigns and bringing
1 the peace process
heart of every Arab
this great nation in a new era of hope and
people involved in politics in to speak to
for peace. No one is
dynamism, in tribute to all friends present
her students.
yourself, Mr. Presi-
here, and in tribute to each American on
And so, now I'd like to ask Barbara to
this land, and in tribute for the good friend-
bring Mrs. Bic up here and present this
course of events in
ship between the United States of America
award. Congratulations.
k hand in hand with
and Egypt.
[At this point, Mrs. Bicouvaris was present-
at worthy goal. With
ed with a crystal apple.]
ion, we can develop
Note: President Bush spoke at 9:35 p.m. in
the State Dining Room at the White House.
And now let me just take this opportuni-
higher plateau of
In his toast, he referred to President Mubar-
ty, with so many distinguished educators,
common interests.
vision of a Middle
ak's wife, Suzanne.
and Governors, Members of Congress
present, to lay out a plan for what we on
S and people coexist
the Federal level can do to improve our
rate as good neigh-
nation's schools.
W era in which the
Six years ago this month, this report that
become partners in
Remarks at the Presentation Ceremony
all of us remember, "A Nation At Risk," was
I prosperity.
for the National Teacher of the Year
first published, and America awakened to
lateral relations and
Award
the crying need for fundamental change in
growing over the
April 5, 1989
our educational system. We're at a point
erday about the con-
today where there's an emerging consensus
ration in all fields. I
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, Gover-
on education reform and an energy of pur-
our relations have
nor, distinguished Members of the Con-
pose to take up the challenge. The stakes
that our cooperation
gress. Well, it is my pleasure to welcome so
could hardly be higher. Today's first graders
and very smoothly.
many distinguished guests here to the
will be high school graduates in the year
479
Apr. 5 / Administration of George Bush, 1989
2000, a generation on the threshold of a
tive to encourage other schools to follow
Drug-free schools-
new century. And so, we ask ourselves what
their lead.
volves funding urba.
can we do today to build accountability into
Second, merit awards for our top teach-
help our hardest h
our education system to make sure we don't
ers-I'm asking Congress to fund a Presi-
themselves of drugs.
pass the problem kid who need extra help
dent's Award for Excellence in Education,
can't succeed in th
up through the system, out of the schools
to recognize first-rate teachers in every
drug dealing in the (
and then into the society without the skills
State and reward them for a job well done.
be to get the drugs
that they need? What can we do to make
Third, science scholarships for our best
and let students and
sure our children stay in school, graduate,
high school seniors-these awards will go to
the business in ar
and get that diploma instead of dropping
570 of the best young scientific minds, at
learning can take pla
out and falling into a cycle of chronic job-
lessness?
least one from every congressional district
And the last and
across the country. National science scholars
tives is expanded Fe
I had lunch yesterday with Secretary [of
will receive up to $10,000 a year for 4
torically black colle.
Education] Cavazos and talked about some
the form of matchi-
years, to be used at the schools of their
of the problems in the severely disadvan-
endowments at thes
choice.
taged areas and some on reservations and
dowments that are la
others where the dropout rates are simply
Encouraging excellence means more than
other schools. Hist
intolerable. What can we do to make sure
rewarding successful schools and teachers
have served as an av
America has the additional 400,000 scien-
and students: It means introducing into our
millions of young I
tists and-the National Science Foundation
educational system elements of flexibility,
they do deserve Fed.
say that we're going to need by the year
choice, and competition that will help pro-
Each of these sev
2000? What can we do to guarantee that
mote quality education. And that's the idea
to make a difference
graduates in the year 2000 have the skills
behind the next two initiatives: magnet
quickly three more
and knowledge to make this nation com-
schools and alternative certification for
program for disadv:
petitive in the global marketplace? And all
teachers.
dren; the tax-free cc
of these are good questions. And then
Magnet schools are an important instru-
gram to help our lo
there's the one I often hear when education
ment of choice, a means of promoting
families cope with
is the issue and budget constraints becloud
healthy competition to attract students and
child to college; ano
everything on the horizon. And the ques-
create an incentive for educational innova-
the Carl D. Perkin
tion is: Well, what are you going to do
tion. My initiative calls for $100 million a
Act.
about it? A fair question. We're going to
year for each of the next 4 years to help
The budget I ir
take action to make excellence in education
with magnet school start-up or the expan-
months ago calls for
not just a rallying cry but a classroom reali-
sion costs.
to expand Head Stai
ty. And we can start by rewarding what
Alternative certification is a way to
from disadvantage
works. We can help those most in need. We
expand the pool of talented teachers and
school ready to lea
can promote choice and flexibility for par-
administrators. Not all people who can
that the House has
ents and school administrators. And we can
teach are teachers by training. Whether
approve the increa:
raise expectations and hold ourselves ac-
you're an acclaimed author like Alex Haley
bond plan that I cal
countable for the results.
or John Updike, who aren't certified to
a half ago is already
These four simple ideas-rewarding ex-
teach the literature courses in which their
a tribute to the for
cellence, helping those in need, choice and
books are read, or a businessman from
Members of Congre
flexibility, and accountability-are at the
Odessa, Texas, anxious to go into the class-
And the legislation V
heart of the legislation that I'm sending to
room to share what you know, our schools
voc-ed, for vocation
the Congress today: Educational Excellence
ought to offer that opportunity. And that's
vance the principle
Act of 1989. And I want to take a moment
why my education package includes $25
flexibility and excel
to detail this seven-point plan.
done in the 100th (
million to fund State efforts to encourage
First, merit schools-if our aim is excel-
build on that work
more flexible certification systems for teach-
lence in education, we've got to single out
reform another step.
ers and principals.
These education
excellence and reward it, whether that
Above all, our children deserve a chance
tute a cure-all, a qui
means raising test scores, lowering that
to learn, especially the least advantaged
dropout rate, or making progress of another
our education syster
among us. And the final two initiatives,
kind. My merit school proposal will provide
improvement, occur
then, are aimed at securing that change for
one student at a tim-
cash awards to schools with a proven formu-
children in schools plagued by the drug
And I don't have
la for success and serve as a powerful incen-
problem and for college-age minority youth.
current Federal bud
480
Administration of George Bush, 1989 / Apr. 5
Drug-free schools-now, this initiative in-
tight. And we wish that more funds were
volves funding urban emergency grants to
available to spend on all levels of education.
help our hardest hit school districts rid
I'm one who recognizes the Federal role
themselves of drugs. The plain fact is: Kids
and, I think, got it properly in my mind
can't succeed in the classroom if there's
that the States and local governments and
drug dealing in the corridors. Our aim must
private institutions across the country bear
be to get the drugs out, get back to basics,
the significant responsibility. But the Feder-
and let students and teachers get down to
al Government has a role. It's important
the business in an environment where
that we measure our success, though, not
learning can take place.
simply by the resources that we put into
And the last and not the least of initia-
the effort but by the kind of students that
tives is expanded Federal help to these his-
our schools turn out. For our schools, that's
torically black colleges and universities in
the only test that counts.
the form of matching grants to build the
I've said before that education is long-
endowments at these vital institutions, en-
term planning at its best. And we'll see the
dowments that are lagging far behind many
payoff from the work we do in schools
other schools. Historically black schools
today years from now. But there are few
have served as an avenue of opportunity for
tasks that demand more urgent attention
millions of young men and women, and
than the education of our kids.
they do deserve Federal help.
Each of these seven initiatives are going
Let me share a story with you, a story
to make a difference. Let me just mention
about two ways to look at the future, told
quickly three more efforts: one, Head Start
by the French. The master of a house was
program for disadvantaged preschool chil-
planning his garden and told his gardener
dren; the tax-free college savings bond pro-
to plant a certain kind of tree. And the
gram to help our low- and middle-income
gardener objected. And he explained that
families cope with the costs of sending a
the tree was slow-growing and would take
child to college; and the reauthorization of
100 years to reach its full growth. It's the
the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education
master's response that I find interesting. "In
Act.
that case," he said, "there's no time to lose.
The budget I introduced a couple of
Plant it this afternoon." [Laughter]
months ago calls for a $250 million increase
And that's why I really do believe that's
to expand Head Start so that more children
the way we ought to look at education. As
from disadvantaged backgrounds enter
the teachers here today know, the work you
school ready to learn. I'm pleased to say
do, the seeds you plant, bear fruit across a
that the House has moved very swiftly to
lifetime. And there's no time to lose in
approve the increase. The college savings
shaping the next generation and no better
bond plan that I called for over a year and
time to begin than today. And so, we're
a half ago is already on the books, and that's
taking a step forward, and I ask all of you to
a tribute to the foresight of many of the
work with me to advance excellence in
Members of Congress that are here today.
education in every possible way.
And the legislation we will soon propose for
Secretary Cavazos, why don't you, if you
voc-ed, for vocational education, will ad-
would, sir, bring Senator Kassebaum and
vance the principles of accountability and
Congressman Goodling, and our distin-
flexibility and excellence. Good work was
guished Governors up here. And Mrs. Bic, if
done in the 100th Congress. The 101st can
you'll join us, too. And we will sign this, and
build on that work and advance education
then I'll have a chance to say hello.
reform another step.
These education initiatives don't consti-
tute a cure-all, a quick fix for whatever ails
Note: The President spoke at 11:41 a.m. in
our education system. Real reform, lasting
the Rose Garden at the White House. In his
improvement, occurs one step at a time,
remarks, he referred to Governors Thomas
one student at a time.
H. Kean of New Jersey, Michael N. Castle of
And I don't have to tell you about the
Delaware, Rudy Perpich of Minnesota, and
current Federal budget situation. Money is
Gerald L. Baliles of Virginia. At the close
481
Apr. 5 / Administration of George Bush, 1989
of his remarks, the President signed the
ing parental choice, providing greater flexi-
comprehensive rang
message transmitting his legislative propos-
ate to the needs of i
bility to local school districts in the imple-
al to the Congress.
mentation of bilingual education programs,
(6) A National Sci
enhancing parental involvement in pro-
would provide schol
seniors who have e:
grams for disadvantaged children, and stim-
and mathematics. T
Message to the Congress Transmitting
ulating education innovation and reform.
to $10,000 a year, V
the Educational Excellence Act of 1989
My proposals have distinct differences from
ents' academic achie
April 5, 1989
current law, but complement in numerous
them to continue the
ways the important work of the 100th Con-
mathematics, and e
To the Congress of the United States:
gress in pursuing educational excellence.
dent would select re
I am pleased to transmit today for your
The Educational Excellence Act of 1989
ing recommendatio:
immediate consideration and enactment the
includes seven specific legislative initiatives
and Members of the
"Educational Excellence Act of 1989," a bill
aimed at fulfilling these important princi-
tives.
to provide incentives to attain a better-edu-
ples:
(7) I am proposing
cated America. I believe that greater educa-
(1) The Presidential Merit Schools pro-
endowment matchin
tional achievement promotes sustained eco-
gram would reward public and private ele-
ly Black Colleges an
nomic growth, enhances the Nation's com-
mentary and secondary schools that have
tions that occupy a
petitive position in world markets, increases
made substantial progress in raising stu-
have a major respon:
productivity, and leads to higher incomes
dents' educational achievement, creating a
of American higher e
for everyone. The Nation must invest in its
safe and drug-free school environment, and
I urge the Congre
young people, giving them the knowledge,
reducing the dropout rate. This program
favorable action on
skills, and values to live productive lives.
would provide a powerful incentive for all
together, these seven
The "Educational Excellence Act of 1989"
schools to improve their educational per-
have proposed addin-
would move us toward this goal.
formance.
1990 budget, would }
The initiatives included in this bill
embody four principles central to my Ad-
(2) A new Magnet Schools of Excellence
the goal of a better-e
ministration's policies on education and es-
program would support the establishment,
In addition to the
sential for further education reform. These
expansion, or enhancement of magnet
proposed a budget ai
schools, without regard to the presence of
lion in new funds for
principles are:
desegregation plans in applicant districts.
collection in support
1) Recognition of excellence. Excellence
Magnet schools have been highly successful
am also asking the (
and achievement in education should be
at increasing parental choice and improving
the authorization in
recognized and rewarded.
educational quality.
Homeless Assistance
2) Addressing need. Federal dollars
million to fund for th
(3) The Alternative Certification of
should be targeted to help those most in
Teachers and Principals program would
plary Grants program
need.
assist States interested in broadening the
additional funding fo:
3) Flexibility and choice. Greater flexibil-
homeless adults.
pool of talent from which to recruit teach-
ity and choice in education-both for par-
ers and principals. Funds would assist States
ents in selecting schools for their children
and local school systems' choice of teachers
to develop and implement, or expand and
The White House,
and principals-are essential.
improve, flexible certification systems, so
April 5, 1989.
4) Accountability. I support educational
that talented professionals who have dem-
accountability, and toward this end, I am
onstrated their subject area competence or
committed to measuring and rewarding
leadership qualities in fields outside educa-
progress toward quality education.
tion might be drawn into education.
(4) President's Awards for Excellence in
White House Fact S
This legislation builds on the accomplish-
Education would be given to teachers in
Educational Excelle
ments of the last Congress, which enacted
every State who meet the highest standards
April 5, 1989
into law the Augustus F. Hawkins-Robert T.
of excellence. Each award would be for
Stafford Elementary and Secondary School
$5,000.
The President outli
Improvement Amendments of 1988. That
(5) Drug-Free Schools Urban Emergency
for fostering excellen
law took significant steps toward improving
Grants would provide special assistance to
need for reform is evi
elementary and secondary education by im-
urban school districts that are dispropor-
America is in an
proving program accountability, reauthoriz-
tionately affected by drug trafficking and
tive world, wh
ing the magnet school program and expand-
abuse. These funds would be used for a
people, in humar
482
go
Administration of George Bush, 1990 / Apr. 4
the first step on
I regret that another Passover is here
last month. The President expressed his
with Leonid still in the Soviet Union. I wish
conviction that Prime Minister Kaifu de-
y to freedom. All
lemn pride of mil-
that he were here with you in America so
serves a very large share of the credit for
that he, too, could experience the freedoms
settling the specific trade issues and for
nen, and children
ommemorate the
we enjoy. And we ask that you convey a
achieving substantial progress on SII.
V of courage and
message to Leonid and all others who still
The President emphasized that SII is an
m of a better to-
await freedom: They are not forgotten.
ongoing process and that he hopes both
The Nobel laureate-a friend to so many
sides will take further steps in the final SII
in this room-Elie Wiesel said: "Just as de-
report in July and the resulting follow-on
ple all throughout
spair can come to one only from other
phase. Bringing about structural adjust-
that epic journey,
human beings, hope, too, can be given to
ments will not be easy on either side of the
iberty and peace.
one only by other human beings." Zev, you
Pacific, but both governments are commit-
r struggle for de-
have given us hope. For that, we admire
ted to achieving a positive interim SII
1 for the strength
you. And together, we look forward to the
report as well as a more comprehensive fin-
for their success.
day when no nation interferes with the
ished product in July. We have had very
rejoicing for the
faith of any of its people.
substantial success to date, but we must
Jews who have
So, thank you all for being here with us
continue our efforts because neither the
his year. We are
on this very solemn and special occasion.
Japanese consumer nor the American
ng hand, over the
And once again, I rejoice in your happiness,
public will be convinced until they see con-
historic emigra-
and we're so pleased you're here. And now
crete results.
on of those who
I will sign this.
The President emphasized the vital im-
e. The modern
portance of maintaining excellent relations
or all those who
Note: The President spoke at 10:50 a.m. in
with Japan not only in trade but with
m. The United
the Roosevelt Room at the White House.
regard to security and the growing global
pen up this life-
partnership between the United States and
to do everything
Japan. In particular, the President compli-
sible for Soviet
mented the Government of Japan for its
ding continuing
assistance efforts in Eastern Europe and in
irect flights. We
Statement by Press Secretary Fitzwater
Central America. In all of these matters, the
II celebrate the
on the President's Meeting With the
President praised the forthright and asser-
going to keep
Special Emissaries of Prime Minister
tive leadership demonstrated by Prime
: can join them.
Toshiki Kaifu of Japan
Minister Kaifu and credited him with
xodus, it is my
April 4, 1990
having created a new spirit of cooperation
:ev Raiz to the
between the United States and Japan.
of waiting. Zev
President Bush met with former Ambas-
d your children
sador to the United States Matsunaga and
ness together in
Deputy Foreign Minister Owada, who are
For nearly two
Special Emissaries of Prime Minister Kaifu
been a brave
of Japan. The Special Emissaries delivered a
Remarks at the Presentation Ceremony
id we acknowl-
letter from Prime Minister Kaifu to the
for the National Teacher of the Year
the dramatic
President which contained details on the
Award
be in the Soviet
efforts made by the Government of Japan
April 4, 1990
"emigration of
since the Palm Springs meeting on March
t to leave. But
2-4. The discussion focused on the progress
Well, to the Members of the Congress
ire you we will
made in trade and economic matters.
and Senate that are here today, thank you
ft behind.
Agreements have been concluded on su-
all for coming, and welcome to the White
!come Natasha
percomputers, satellites, and telecommuni-
House. Secretary Cavazos, Senator Pell and
I admire the
cations; and substantial progress has been
Representatives Lowery and Hunter, and
that you and
achieved in the ongoing SII [Structural Im-
Bill Keene and Gordon Ambach, Robert
shown through
pediments Initiative] process. In addition,
Gwinn, Norman Brown, and specially to our
1 have become
Prime Minister Kaifu has said that he hopes
distinguished Teacher of the Year, Jan
mmunity, and
an agreement will be forthcoming to re-
Gabay, Barbara and I are honored to have
een invaluable
solve the forest products issue. The Presi-
you all here.
ice the Soviet
dent was very appreciative of all of the
The kind of people Jan represents are
work that has been accomplished over the
ambassadors to the most powerful province
ses.
521
Apr. 4 / Administration of George Bush, 1990
mankind might command, that great undis-
may be America's most seasoned scholar,
system is being
covered realm right under your hat. For
John Morton-Finney. Would you stand up
districts gaining C
almost 40 years, the Teacher of the Year
please, Mr. Morton-Finney? [Applause]
and individual scl
program has singled out the few, really be-
One lesson we might take from Mr.
omy overall. The
cause they represent the many. The pro-
Morton-Finney is this: If he's still ready and
system of reward:
gram's goal is not to identify "the best"
willing to learn, so can we all be. And if
trators, including
teacher but the best in all teachers. All
he's always looking for new ideas and new
$8,000 and leavir
teachers are different, of course, but the
ways of thinking, so must the entire system
the local districts.
best have a special kind of energy that
of American education.
That kind of c
ushers ideas to minds, and ideals to souls.
They unleash the imagination and turn
A year ago this week, here in the Rose
ment's best role
young eyes toward brilliant constellation of
Garden, across the way, I sent legislation up
providing incenti
human aspiration and experience.
to Congress to help reform and restructure
accountability. B
America's schools. Today I want to appeal
ernment is, we
Maybe it's the pace of history, the pulse
to the Members of Congress to move on
real action is: it's
of the natural world, or the power of
those initiatives.
ers. And that's
reason; but whatever, America's best teach-
ers are teaching. They all understand that
We've already moved in concert to bring
recognize a tea
learning is not a spectator sport. The value
a sense of direction to education reform.
best.
of knowledge is not in the having but in the
We've held the first-ever summit with the
Her story bega
sharing. And wisdom is not received: it is
Nation's Governors, and we've set ambi-
books spread ou
pursued.
tious goals for our students, our schools, and
neath a wooden
ourselves-rallying points for the progress
You might have heard it said that knowl-
school with he
we all know is greatly needed now. But
edge isn't found in books. In one sense,
what we must remember, above all, is that
Gabay, those b
true. There's nothing intrinsically helpful
life of seekers,
about a book-just black marks on a few
education is more important than politics.
white pages. But in hands that know how to
And while our '91 budget request for edu-
Jan has since ch
hold them, how to embrace their ideas and
cation is the largest in American history,
self and the stud
past 17 years sh
deliver them whole, a book can change a
our progress won't be measured by bu-
life forever. Those who breathe life into an-
reaucracies built and dollars spent. It will
to motivate mii
cient texts have seen that power, seen those
be measured by results and by what our
wonder and ble
words explode in brilliance in a young
children learn and accomplish.
bilities unimagii
mind. Through teachers and their students,
If we judge our students by their think-
She says her
the ideas of the past are sustained, and the
ing, we must judge ourselves by our own.
find and refine
ideas of the future are defined.
And there are cases of very creative think-
talent that the:
And if the life of the mind is one of both
ing about education going on right now,
But she unders
ideas for reform that hold promise for the
goes far beyon
work and wonder, I'd like to introduce a
rest of the Nation.
lifelong love of
man among us today who's lived that life
better and longer than anyone else. He was
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, because of a
competence," S
born in 1889, the son of a former slave. He
grassroots movement made up largely of
what I believe
served in the First World War, became
poor, inner-city parents, a new experiment
ending quest 1
fluent in 6 languages, earned 11 degrees,
in choice is applying the leverage of compe-
using one's min
and taught school until he was 81. That
tition and stimulating change. Thanks to
by knowing on
alone would be impressive enough. But at
Polly Williams, once a welfare mother of
Jan always to
the age of 100, he still practices law and
four and now a State legislator, low-income
succeeded beca
still attends law school seminars with the
parents can choose to send their kids to
is also true th
eagerness of a first-year student. Try to
private nonsectarian schools, with money
because of peo
praise him, though, and he'll bawl you out,
from the public school system's budget
saying, There's nothing extraordinary about
paying $2,500 in tuition for each student.
So, it is an h
me. And he told me that I was the second
Choice empowers people, and it puts com-
Gabay, and to
President that he's met; the first was Frank-
petition to work, improving schools for
Teacher of the
lin Delano Roosevelt. [Laughter] But having
every student.
you're doing fc
met him, I know this is a risk to praise him,
In Kentucky, an entirely new philosophy
but I have to disagree with him. I hope
of management is being put into place
Note: The Pres
you'll join me in commending a man who
which is based on accountability. The school
the Roosevelt I
522
Administration of George Bush, 1990 / Apr. 4
seasoned scholar,
system is being decentralized, with local
uld you stand up
Remarks on the Clean Air Bill at a
districts gaining control over our operations
v? [Applause]
Meeting With Members of the Senate
and individual schools gaining more auton-
and an Exchange With a Reporter
t take from Mr.
omy overall. The State is managing a new
e's still ready and
April 4, 1990
system of rewards for teachers and adminis-
.ve all be. And if
trators, including biyearly awards up to
W ideas and new
The President. Let me just say at the
$8,000 and leaving curriculum questions to
the entire system
outset of this meeting that I appreciate
the local districts.
everybody's coming down. And I want to
That kind of creative thinking is govern-
congratulate the Senate on the Clean Air
here in the Rose
ment's best role in education: setting goals,
Act Amendment of 1990. Senators Mitchell,
sent legislation up
n and restructure
providing incentives, and then demanding
Dole, Baucus, and Chafee have shown real
I want to appeal
accountability. But as crucial as good gov-
leadership in helping us at last break the
ress to move on
ernment is, we all understand where the
legislative logjam on clean air. And at the
real action is: it's in the hands of our teach-
same time, I think everyone here would
concert to bring
ers. And that's why we're here today: to
agree that a lot of work lies ahead.
ducation reform.
recognize a teacher who represents our
Last year I submitted a bill that ensures
best.
that future generations in this country will
summit with the
breathe clean air; and we propose to do this
we've set ambi-
Her story began with a little collection of
through cleaner factories and power plants,
our schools, and
books spread out on hardpacked earth be-
cleaner cars, cleaner fuels. And we felt, and
for the progress
neath a wooden stairway, where she played
we still feel, that we can achieve our goal
eeded now. But
school with her younger sister. To Jan
without major harm to the economy and
above all, is that
Gabay, those books revealed an imagined
without a massive job loss. And our legisla-
int than politics.
life of seekers, sages, and students-a life
tion and the agreement we've worked out
request for edu-
Jan has since chosen to make real for her-
was very carefully balanced. The bill passed
merican history,
self and the students she teaches. Over the
by the Senate last night reflects and is
leasured by bu-
past 17 years she has developed her power
based on bipartisan consensus in support of
irs spent. It will
to motivate minds, to give kids a sense of
that balanced approach: that we can have
nd by what our
wonder and bless them with a life of possi-
cleaner air and a growing economy which
ish.
bilities unimagined in ordinary moments.
continues to produce jobs for the American
$ by their think-
She says her goal is to help her students
people.
ves by our own.
find and refine the "knowledge, skill, and
In that respect, there is no question that
y creative think-
talent that they do not know they have."
the Senate bill is a major step forward, but
on right now,
But she understands that a real education
it is only a first step. And more progress is
promise for the
goes far beyond acquiring skills: it instills a
going to be needed if we're to achieve the
lifelong love of learning. "Accepting simple
balanced bill that I feel is essential. We're
1, because of a
competence," she says, "is the antithesis of
going to work to ensure that the bill pro-
3 up largely of
what I believe education really is: an un-
duced by the House, and ultimately by the
new experiment
ending quest to understand the world by
conference committee, does not compro-
erage of compe-
mise the environmental benefits or the eco-
using one's mind and to understand the self
nge. Thanks to
by knowing one's heart."
nomic balance contained in my original
Ifare mother of
proposal, and certainly contained in that
tor, low-income
Jan always tells her students that she has
agreement with the Senate leadership.
d their kids to
succeeded because of them. In that spirit, it
So, with our friends here, I just want to
Is, with money
is also true that our schools will succeed
thank each and every one of you who has
ystem's budget
because of people like her.
played a constructive role in what I think is
r each student.
So, it is an honor to have you here, Janis
a major breakthrough, Mr. Leader. And I
nd it puts com-
Gabay, and to name you the 1990 National
know Bob and I have talked about it a lot,
ng schools for
Teacher of the Year. God bless you for all
and I think we all agree to that.
you're doing for those kids.
Assistance for Nicaragua and Panama
new philosophy
put into place
Q. Mr. President, will you ask Senator
Note: The President spoke at 2:15 p.m. in
ility. The school
Mitchell to break the logjam on Panama
the Roosevelt Room at the White House.
and Nicaragua aid?
523
I received this too late
to use in the Westinghouse
speech-
passing it on for anyone
to use in the next
science or education or
volunteer event.
-CC
02/28/1991 13:09 FROM SUNDSTRAND CURP. ADQIRS. IU
1124 Post Drive
Rockford
IL 61108
31
1991
Ms. Carolyn Cawley,
Office of Communications,
The While House,
Washington D.C. 20500
Fax No: (202) 456-6218
Dear Ms. Cawley,
Earlier this week, my daughter Rowan and I met with the publisher of
'Fortune' magazine, Mr. James B. Hayes, to discuss a new industry-
college volunteer program called SMArT, for the Science and Math
Achiever Teaming program, that she is piloting at Yale in the New
Haven schools.
Mr. Hayes suggested that the White House might be interested in this
program as a part of its Points of Light program, because it addressed
the twin national needs, as he saw them, for more volunteers and for
an effective, business-led, method of 'going national' with a program
to fulfil the President's pledge for the U.S. to lead the world in
this area by the next decade.
Rowan, as an ex-Westinghouse winner, was going to be in Washington
D.C. this weekend, March 2 & 3, for the 50th Anniversary Science
Talent Search Awards, and she knew the President would be involved in
the STS functions. She therefore thought she should let the Science
Advisor, Dr. Bromley, know about SMArT, because we had submitted an
article to 'Fortune' in the form of an open letter to the President
and because the White House might be interested in this initiative.
I faxed her letter and FedExed the material to Dr. Bromley's office
yesterday, but, in following up today, found that it hadn't reached
anyone yet. Accordingly, I contacted your office and, per your
office's request, am faxing herewith her letter, the draft article and
a Yale Daily News article on the New Haven/Yale pilot program she is
running for your information. I have also faxed this material to Ms.
Janice Howell at the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
If you feel the White House may be interested in this, please give me
a call at (815) 226 7913 (business) or (815) 397-0584 (home) and I
would be pleased to discuss it further with you.
Thank you for your interest.
Yours sincerely,
Muland John G. Lockwood
02/28/1991
13:09
FROM
SUNDSTRAND
CORP.
HDQTRS.
IU
91
Scientists Help Youngsters Get SMArT
By Bob Datta
from professors and scientists who
in order to do real science you must
she said.
will let the students visit their labs
YDN Staff Reporter
have five years of study," she said.
She spent most of her summel
and workplaces.
"I think that you learn the most as
working closely with the New
The students will work in all
Rowan Lockwood '93 wants
you go along, picking up skills
Haven school board and with
kids to get SMArT.
sorts of fields, ranging from solar
along the way"
Dwight Hall to get SMArT rolling.
Lockwood's efforts don't involve
power to DNA research to
Bruce Guenin, a scientist at Olin
she added.
Max and Agent 99, but the Science
dinosaurs and evolution, using the
and a volunteer for SMArT said the
Jack Hasagawa, coordinator of
and Matb Achiever Teaming pro-
lab space at Troup.
program will do much more than
Dwight Hall helped her to design
gram. SMArT, which will begin
"I want the kids to get a good
make the kids interested in science.
SMArT this summer. "I know that
next semester, will allow students at
view of what science really is, and
"It enhances their self-esteem if
unless someone does something
Troup Middle School to research
know what it is all about," Lock-
people are interested in them," he
about getting children interested in
wood said.
fundamental science with help from
said, adding that industry should
math and science, American society
Yale student mentors, Yale profes-
Students are frequently turned
play a role in New Haven education
will go down the tubes," be said.
sors and New Haven industrial sci-
off from science by bad textbooks,
"10 give kids an 1dea of the skills
Kasagawa pointed to recent
entists.
or "A single lousy math or intro-sci-
they have, and need, to succeed"
demographic surveys which indi-
Twice a week after school, the
ence class." she said, adding that
Lockwood said the idea for
cate that American children get
Yalies will visit Troup to help the
hands-on experience can teach stu-
SMArT came from her experiences
good science grades until the fifth
dents as much as can classroom
students design and reseach their
in high school. "I did research at a
grade, when a "bottlencck" occurs.
time.
OWD science projects. The Troup
local college, published a paper, and
"At the upper levels of eduation.
students will also receive guidance
"There is this misconception that
I learned lot from the experience,"
See SMArT, Page 4
,
(
a
a
r.
a
$
f
1
&
e
Is
d
D
Marian Harris '93 and Rowan Lockwood '93, co-coordinators of the
is
Science and Math Achiever Teaming program plan how to get middle
school students interested in science.
Students, Scientists
Work With City Youth
SMArT, from Page 1
of SMArT, concurred. "The kids'
there is a devaluation of math and
attention span will determine how
science in our schools," he said.
much work they do," she said. "The
The program will begin in Jan-
projects will, for the beginning,
f
uary, when the second semester at
only last a semester. It will give the
Troup begins. For the first week,
kids a feeling of getting something
the SMArT student-volunteers will
done," Harris said.
,
present a "smorgasboard of sci-
The Troup school already has
ence" to offer the kids the broadest
pretty good science facilities, Lock-
possible picture of what they can
wood said, because it is a math-sci-
do.
ence magnet school for the sixth
The students themselves, with a
-grade, anid because NASA gives H
little guidance from theis SMArT
resources for its Young Astroneut
mentors, will then choose the sort
program.
1
of project they would like to do.
SMArT is be partially funded by
"This program is, and has to be,
the Howard Hughes grant, which is
and
02/28/1991 13:10 FROM SUNDSTRAND CORP. HDQTRS. IU 8 5094 91 2024565218 F.00
P.O. Box 2285 Yale Station
New Haven
CT 06520
February 26, 1991
The Hon. D. Allan Bromley,
Assistant to the President for Science and Technology,
Old Executive Office Building,
17th. St. & Pennsylvania Ave. N.W.,
Rm. 358,
Washington D.C. 20506
Dear Dr. Bromley,
Earlier this week, I met with the publisher of 'Fortune' magazine, Mr.
James B. Hayes, to discuss a new industry/college volunteer pilot
program we have started in the New Haven Troop school, which is funded
by the Hughes grant. It is called SMArT, for the Science and Math
Achiever Teaming program.
This weekend, I will also be attending, as a 1988/89 Westinghouse
alumnus, the Westinghouse Science Talent Search Reunion in Washington
D.C. on the occasion of the 50th STS Awards, where I am also hoping
for an opportunity to make a presentation on SMArT.
Given your Office's interest in science and mathematics education and
the efforts this Administration is making to encourage volunteerism
through the Points of Light program, I thought that you may be
interested in this program. I am enclosing an article my father and I
have written on it and submitted to 'Fortune', along with materials on
the New Haven/Yale pilot program.
The program was jointly devised by my father and me. I drew on the
latent interest I thought college science students would have in
increasing their hands-on involvement in science. My father, who
works in international business development and innovation for a
company in Rockford IL., drew on the franchising techniques of the
Junior Achievement organization that he felt strongly had to be
applied to math and science if an effective national effort was to be
mounted.
2
02/28/1991 13:11 FROM SUNDSTRAND CURP. HDQTRS. IU X 5054 51 2024900210
I am very grateful for his interest to Mr. Hayes, who was, I think,
enthused by both ideas; the first that college students could supply
the numbers of volunteers that are needed but are lacking in industry,
and the second that SMArT could be 'seeded' rapidly and effectively
throughout the nation, using incentivization, formularization, and
franchising business techniques. I am also grateful to Dean Kagan,
Dean Judith Hackman and Jack Hasagawa at Yale, who have been very
supportive of the program.
If you are interested in following up on this, my telephone number at
Yale is 203/436-0801. However, it may be easier to contact me through
my father, Mr. John Lockwood, at my home address, 1124 Post Drive,
Rockford, Il 61108, (tel. 815/397-0584), or at his business telephone,
815/226-7913. During my stay in Washington this weekend, March 2 and
3, I will be staying at the Washington Hilton 202/483-3000.
Thank you for your interest in the program and for your time.
Yours sincerely,
Rowan Lockwood
Rowan Lockwood (Ms.)
P.S. We have changed the front page of the attached article from the
copy we faxed earlier. I regret any inconvenience.
02/28/1991 13:11 FROM SUNDSTRAND CURP. MUSTRS. IU 0 0024 71 20C4J00L10 now
13/26/71
FRANCHISING SCIENCE AND MATH ACHIEVER TEAMS - A SMArT GAMEPLAN,
MR. PRESIDENT.
John G, Lockwood, 1124 Post Drive, Rockford, IL 61108, and
Rowan Lockwood, Box 2285, Yale Station, New Haven, CT 06520,
1990
Telephone:
Bus. (815) 226-7913
Home (815) 397-0584
02/28/1991
13:11
FROM
SUNDSTRAND
The State of the Union addresses of the past two years have been long
on educational goals but short on specifics. Of particular interest
to business is just how our students are supposed to lead in the big
world league of math and science by the year 2000? Clearly Mr. Bush
wants to coach a team effort, with business a prime player, but
where's the drawcard for the kids? Where's the game plan?
Commentators place long odds on a win whatever the gameplan. To them,
simply increasing science education spending will not stem the decline
in numbers and skills of teachers and students alike. The problems
are universal, the solutions piecemeal. To meet Mr. Bush's goal, a
national classroom program must reconcile too many institutional
interests in government and the educational establishment in too short
a time. Always pitching short, the experts leisurely walk the players.
Outside the classroom, however, at the local level, science education
is more fun than a pickup game at recess. All over the U.S., unsung
but effective, ever more players - industry volunteers as mentors,
college students as tutors - are inventing ever more plays to help out
- science clubs and fairs, enrichment and application programs,
internships, field trips. The rush of industry support could fill a
grandstand. Outside the classroom, it is clear that opportunity and
achievement, those uniquely American values that once built the little
red schoolhouse and made Johnny run, still endure.
But to win in ten years, the U.S. needs a drawcard, a gameplan and a
players league at the national level. One drawcard with that poten-
tial is the opportunity for kids to try out in science offered by the
Science and Math Achiever Teaming (SMArT) program being introduced at
Yale for New Haven schools, funded by a Hughes grant. Its gameplan is
to build early achievement in science: its 'league' will be franchised
community volunteer teams with their own organization and awards.
SMArT aims to motivate middle and high school pupils in science and
math through early achievement in original, long-term, research pro-
jects, supported by volunteer teams from industry and academia. Team
techniques, as developed, will comprise a rulebook for franchising new
teams. Teams will be sponsored by industries and colleges cooperating
with the pupils' schools, and, importantly, will be open to all comers.
02/28/1991 13:12 FROM SUNDSTRAND CURP. HDGTRS. IU
Offering opportunity to all in science is important. Early effort
counts more than perceived ability. Science programs have to look
hard at their mission through kids' eyes or risk attracting only those
already drawn to science. SMArT wants the many with potential in
science to try out, not just the few committed to it. Science is one
discipline, (languages another), where a hard grind sharpening the
tools of learning usually precedes any fun in using them. Its future
in the U.S., now the baby boom is over, depends on motivating the many.
Learning by doing is also key to math and science. If achievement is
to spark motivation in those subjects, then it must be meaningful, and
result from long-term, original research projects that require more
effort for longer than, say, the average science fair project, and
correspondingly reward participants with a greater sense of discovery.
Finally, achievement, to thrive in science as in life, must start with
taking control and end with recognition. All SMArT projects will be
chosen and controlled by the junior team members and will be eligible
for local incentive awards and entry in national competition.
The SMArT guidelines reflect these concepts:
Projects will be devised and managed by the school pupils and must
involve original or creative work in results or methodology.
Projects will be not less than one school year in duration and
require a pupil/parent written commitment to timely completion.
Industry volunteers will commit to provide project guidance,
research resources and logistics support for the students involved.
College volunteers will commit to provide hands-on help to, and
pursue sources and technical resources for, the school pupils.
Cooperating industries will provide schools liaison, project
resource, logistics support, and local incentive awards.
Cooperating colleges will provide project source access, staff
advisory services and incentives complementing the industry awards.
A national center will provide organizing help, project resource,
program research and a state and national awards structure.
02/28/1991 13:13 FROM SUNDSTRAND CORP. HDQTRS. TU 8 5094 91 2024566218 P.08
The core SMArT concept is its three-way, volunteer-based teaming of
schools, industry and colleges. This expands the resources needed for
an effective program and creates important complementary benefits.
Colleges can directly address their declines in enrollments and
graduations in math and science while their students take advantage of
volunteer service, job opportunities, hands-on research and teaching
experience well beyond the lectureroom and lab. Industries and
universities can cooperate more in recruiting, innovation and contract
R & D, while contributing significantly to competitiveness. Industry
volunteers will find working with youth recharges their on-the-job
energies, and, should they flag, the college students can bring their
own youthful enthusiasm to bear. Science teachers can have some
respite and their pupils can have a foretaste of their college and
workplace futures. Even the local science fair - now dreaded alike by
students without ideas, parents without time and teachers without
help, - can become an opportunity instead of a chore.
In 14,000 schools, a national model for this program already exists.
Junior Achievement, the leading business-education partnership in the
country, has drawn students to business for over seventy years. The
name Junior Achievement came from the original JA concept of business
volunteers helping students achieve success by starting their own
businesses on their own time. Millions of parents know how effective
that wellspring of achievement has been in motivating their children.
Equally effective but less well known has been JA's pioneering use of
that quintessentially American business tool, franchising, to expand
its winning concept across the U.S. In this, JA has not only played
to an American business strength but has demonstrated the potential in
private bodies 'going national' with innovations in education. The
SMArT gameplan draws on the same national strengths, opportunity,
achievement, volunteerism in higher education and in business to offer
a real chance at a come-from-behind world victory in science and math.
How about a tryout then, Mr. President, Coach, Sir? Call on the heavy
hitters on your science team from industry and academia. How about a
tryout for SMArT as America's farm team in the big league of world
science and math education?
02/28/1991 13:13 FROM SUNDSTRAND CURP. HDQTRS. IU 8 5094 91 2024565218 P.09
ROWAN LOCKWOOD, (Ms.),
Home address: 1124 Post Drive, Rockford, Illinois 61108, U.S.A.
Home tel.: (815) 397 0584.
Birthdate: 7 June 1971
EDUCATION
1989-91 Attending Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.A.
My first year courses primarily consisted of the inter-disciplinary
Directed Studies Program (Western civilization philosophy, history
and literature), but also included Evolutionary Biology and
Chemistry. My second year studies have included Mineralogy,
Geology, and Anthropology courses, directed towards a double major
in Geology and Anthropology, along with History and French.
1986-89 Charter Class Member, Illinois Mathematics and Science
Academy (IMSA),
1500 W. Sullivan Rd., Aurora, IL 60506-1039, U.S.A.
IMSA is a three-year, residential, state-supported high school with
competitive admission for all Illinois sophomore-level students.
1985-86 Completed Grade 9, Rockford East H.S., Rockford, IL.
ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS
1989-91 - Publication of paper, "Evidences of Bipedalism in (Larger)
Pterosaurs Derived from a Biomechanical Methodology" in
BASE journal, Vol. 8 No. 1, (Spring, 1990)
- Admitted to the Yale Directed Studies Program, (1989)
1986-89 - Winner, the Illinois State Academy of Science Frank H.
Reed Award, best Westinghouse report, (May, 1989)
- Winner, 48th. Annual Science Talent Search for the
Westinghouse Science Scholarships, (January 1989).
- Presented abstract at the annual meeting of the Society of
Vertebrate Paleontology at Drumheller, Alberta, Canada,
(Oct. 1988).
- Interned in the Dept. of Paleobiology, the National Museum
of Natural History, Washington D.C. (Aug. 1988).
- Presented INTECH 88 paper to the DOE location research
team for the U.S. Super Collider facility, (May 1988).
- Won First Prize, the INTECH 88 Science Competition for
Chicago High Tech Corridor Area Schools and the American
Nuclear Society (Chicago Section) Award for an energy-
related project, (May 1988).
- Admitted to the Charter Class of the Illinois Mathematics
and Science Academy, (1986).
- Rockford East High School Academic Honor Roll (1985-86).
02/28/1991 13:14 FROM SUNDSTRAND CURP. HDQTRS. IU 8 5094 91 2024555218 F.10
ATHLETICS & EXTRACURRICULAR PARTICIPATION
1990-91 - Won Dartmouth Diving Meet 1M & 3M Events (Feb. 1991)
1989-90 - Versity Letter, Yale Swimming & Diving Team.
- Won Harvard-Yale Diving Meet 1M Event (Dec. 1989)
1988-89 - 17th. place, Illinois High School Association (IHSA) State
Diving Meet, (Nov. 1988).
- Won IHSA W. Chicago Sectional Diving Meet, (Nov. 1988).
- Captain, IMSA Diving Team.
- Section Leader (Flutes), IMSA Concert Band.
- Cast Member, IMSA Drama Club 1989 production.
1987-88 - 5th. place, Scholastic Women's 1M Diving Competition,
Prairie State Games, (July 1988).
- 18th. place, IHSA State Diving Meet, (Nov. 1987).
- 2nd. place, IHSA Waubonsie Valley Sectional Diving Meet,
(Nov. 1987).
- Certification in Advanced Lifesaving and CPR.
1986-87 - 5th. place, IHSA Waubonsie Valley Sectional Diving Meet,
(Nov. 1986).
1985-86 - Elected Student PE Leader for Sophomore year.
- NASTAR Silver medal in skiing, (April 1986).
COMMUNITY WORK SERVICE
1990-91 - Conceived and initiated the New Haven/Yale Science and
Math Achiever Teaming (SMArT) pilot program at Troop
public school in New Haven. SMArT is a volunteer program
designed to encourage students in math and science and
funded by Yale from the Hughes Foundation.
1988
- Volunteer lifeguard at Rockford College pool, Rockford,
IL, for summer swims for children and the handicapped.
1986-88 - IMSA work-service, including Foreign Language Department
assistant, lifeguarding and other duties.
PERSONAL STATEMENT
At Yale, I am pursuing a double major in Geology and Geophysics and
in Anthropology. However, I would like to supplement these courses
by undertaking interdisciplinary work involving paleoanthropology
and paleontology.
PUBLICATIONS & PRESENTATIONS
"Evidences of Bipedalism in (Larger) Pterosaurs", (with Dr. Virginia
Naples, Northern Illinois University), presented at the 48th. annual
meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology at Drumheller,
Alberta, Canada, October 1988; abstract published in the Journal of
Vertebrate Paleontology, Supplement to No. 3, Vol. 8, Sept. 23, 1988.
Fredench
Donglass
-5-
programs, you have returned to a focus on the League's orgininal
concern -- employment opportunities for minorities. But, as Steven
Sims [Director of Planning] has pointed out very firmly, all of
your employment programs are integreted with education. Mr. Sims
has said that skills must be brought into line with aspirations,
and the New York League provides for the acquisition of skills SO
that each person's aspirations can be met.
The theme of education as liberation has repeated itself
throughout history, but it has had very dramatic illustrations in
our sweet land of liberty. These include two of my personal heroes
-- one a Black man and the other a white woman.
I find the example of Frederick Douglass as powerful an
inspiration as any I have had in my life. This literally
self-made, self-taught, self-reliant man took himself out of
slavery to become one of America's great orators, publishers,
statemen, entrepreneurs. He was also a staunch believer in
goodness of America for all its people. And it all began when à
brutal master made him understand that "slavery and education were
-6-
imcompatible. " Douglass said, "if a man is
without education, he
is
at best half a man
Education
means emancipation; it
means light and liberty. "
And, during the same period, a woman whose early
enslavement was of a very different sort, said "[Books]
are my
Utopia. Here I am not disfranchised [sic].
I have depended on
books not only for pleasure and for
wisdom
but also for that
knowledge which comes to others thourgh their eyes and their ears.
my darkness has been filled with the light of intelligence. "
That woman's name was Helen Keller.
As Henry Brougham ["Broom"], a British friend and colleague
of Douglass's, said, "education makes people easy to lead, but
impossible to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave. "
A century later, it is shocking to discover that tens
of millions of American adults are functionally illiterate. It is
especially disturbing because we Americans expect a great deal of
ourselves, and our standards get higher with every advance of our
highly advanced society. And while illiteracy does not
C:SG
Oxan Dean Becker
AND RECORDS
Herbert Hoover Library
rilie
anna
NATURAL 1985
West Branch, Iowa 52358
November 14, 1990
The White House
Ms. Susan Porter Rose
Chief of Staff to Mrs. Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Ms. Rose:
By now you should have received the Moon Bag and dog dish ys so
generously loaned to us by Mrs. Bush for our exhibit,
"Mrs. President: From Martha to Barbara." No object among the
nearly 200 on display drew more interest or generated more
curiosity than these.
You might be interested to know of an incident in which one of
our docents, winding up her tour, asked a group of
schoolchildren what they already knew about our current First
Lady. Someone volunteered that she had a famous dog named
Millie. Someone else said that she and her husband owned a
big house by the ocean. A third youngster, no more than eight
or nine, said that Mrs. Bush had a special cause - illegitimacy.
We corrected him on that. He was just one of 82,000 visitors
who went away from "Mrs. President" enriched in their
knowledge of American history and the changing role of women
in our society. Please extend our deepest thanks to Mrs. Bush
for helping to make the exhibit such an overwhelming success.
With warm regards,
Sincerely
RICHARD NORTON SMITH
Director
A Presidential Library Administered by the National Archives and Records Administration
192
Onen
FC
PS
White Oaks Elementary School
FAIRFAX COUNTY
6130 Shiplett Boulevard
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Burke, Virginia 22015
November 14, 1990
Mrs. Bush's Office
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mrs. Bush,
One of our goals at White Oaks is to promote and encourage
every child to become a lifelong reader. We know you share
that goal. Dale Johnson, past president of the International
Reading Association, once wrote: "Literacy represents more
than a reading score, a statistic, or a percentile. It is an
individual's hope, a dream for the future, a ladder to an
individual's success."
To help achieve this dream, our students are participating in
the school-wide reading incentive program called "Dream No
Small Dreams." Our goal is to read a million pages.
We would be honored if you could come to our school to
emphasize the importance of reading by speaking briefly at an
assembly for our upper grade students and reading a short
story to our primary children. We realize your schedule is
very tight and we would welcome you to our school at any
time. We have 840 students and house a center for gifted
students as well as six sections of learning disabled
students in addition to our base school. Our population is
quite diverse.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Alerdifapalas
Wendy Papalas, News Liaison
(703) 644-9447
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
If a man
empties his purse
into his head no
man can take it away
from Lim. in Cs
investment
know bdge pays the
best interest
Ben Tranklin
28
READ WITH ME
Sounds We Can See
29
that used symbols for the individual sounds of a spoken
forget the ordeal of the classmate at the next desk who
language. That great invention evolved many times over the
couldn't grasp the alphabet as quickly, who fell behind. A
centuries-from the original Proto-Semitic, which has been
few minutes with Sonia Linton, of Hyattsville, Maryland,
lost in antiquity, through the North Semitic to the Canaanite
might help us to remember and understand.
to the Greek, from which evolved the Latin-and we still
use it. We call it an alphabet.
Sonia is a divorced mother of two whose large brown eyes sparkle,
The alphabet is a set of symbols-letters-each of which
whose smooth brown cheeks widen quickly to a smile when she
stands for the most elementary units of sound, phonemes.
speaks. Now in her early forties, she has supported her family by
The letter a is a phoneme, as are b, c, d, e, and the rest. The
working as a maid, a seamstress, and a nurse's aide. Born and
problem is, the system is imperfect. Adapted from Latin for
raised in Jamaica, where she failed to learn to read, she emigrated
English, our alphabet is badly flawed. Too often things just
to England when she was fifteen and lived there for nearly fourteen
don't fit right. To begin with, spoken English has more
years, arriving in the United States when she was twenty-eight,
sounds, or phonemes, among its various dialects than the
in 1974. Though she herself was illiterate, she insisted that both
twenty-six letters of our alphabet. We're missing at least six
her children learn to read and graduate from high school, which
such phonemes, the sounds we can hear at the end of words
they have done. Sonia estimates that when she sought help from
like cling, flash, path, lathe, rage, and/such. To accommodate,
the Literacy Council of Prince George's County, three years before
often we write digraphs, pairs of letters that combine to ex-
this interview took place, her reading skill was at about a first-
press a simple sound: the ng in cling, the sh in flash, the th
grade level. Today, reading at a level at least four grades higher
in path and lathe, the ch in such. But unfortunately, we're
and rising, Sonia is working toward a high school equiv-
not consistent. The 8 in rage is not a digraph, and it sounds
alency diploma-and studies with her tutor two nights a week.
nothing at all like the 8 in get. Similarly, the ch in such is
Vivacious and passionate, she has become an inspiring leader, a
pronounced k in chorus. The sh sound in flash is ch in chiffon,
Pied Piper, a founder of support groups for adults in Maryland
ti in station, c in ocean, and S in sugar. We're taught that there
who cannot read. Her joy is contagious, but perhaps its height is
are five vowels in the English language-a, e, i, o, which
best measured in contrast to the depths of pain and shame she has
seems simple enough until we consider how different a
endured.
sounds in bar, bat, ball, skate, and many. Listen to the e in
"I was raised in Jamaica," she says, "the only child in a
seat as opposed to the e in bet, the i in light and in mitt, the
family of five who couldn't seem to learn to read. Worse for
o in boat, ought, and root, the и in suit and in butter. To confuse
me, not only could my two brothers and my sister read,
matters further, we have no need for the letters in some
they could read well. I was frustrated, ashamed. I was a
words. We could drop the a in weather, the e in height, the
slow learner when it came to reading, which was odd, be-
S in island-and on and on.
cause there was so much else I seemed able to do. Also,
Is it any wonder that millions of Americans have difficulty
because I was a star athlete, a sprinter, I was very popular
learning to read? For anyone fortunate enough to unravel
in school. So I got by. I learned very quickly to pretend to
these paradoxical puzzles in childhood, it might be easy to
be a reader and at the same time to persuade others to read
Sounds We Can See
30
READ WITH ME
31
for me. My mother would write out anything I needed.
varied, but like Sonia, none of them was able to grasp the
Other students would fill out papers for me-but that once
written sounds of English as a child-and neither did any
led to a terrible joke. A girlfriend wrote terrible things about
escape what Sonia describes as her silent place. To be illit-
our teacher on a paper I had to hand in. She thought I'd
erate in the United States in the twentieth century is painful,
laugh, then throw it away. Of course, I couldn't read it. So
a cold reality that emerges clearly when Sonia recalls the
I innocently handed it in-and I was caned hard. When I
event that inspired her finally to admit her illiteracy and
grew older, if I had to go to a job interview, a family member
seek help.
would accompany me and fill out the forms. I hid my prob-
lem for years, and though I tried many times in Jamaica,
"I was sitting alone, very frightened, in a hospital room,
later in England, and finally in the United States to learn
waiting to have a major operation, when a nurse came into
on my own and in schools, I always managed to quit."
the room and handed me a sheet of paper.
How did you feel?
" 'Read this, then sign it,' she ordered.
"I'd fool people, educated people; then I'd cry. I'd find
"Very slowly, I tried to make the words out. I couldn't,
what I call my silent place, a place hidden deep inside me,
and the nurse became impatient.
and I'd cry, alone, because I could not read. After I was
" 'Today!' she said.
divorced, I had a boyfriend in England who was well ed-
" 'Could you read it to me?' I asked.
ucated, a college graduate. He read constantly. I'd watch as
" 'No,' she said. 'You have to read it, then sign it. Now,
he enjoyed a book-sometimes he'd laugh aloud at some-
please.'
thing he had read-and I'd want to strangle him. What I
"I started to cry. I was dying inside. Then I told her, 'I
felt was anger-no, rage. I remember how humiliated I felt
can't sign this. I'm signing my life away.'
when someone passed around written jokes at a party. I
"She left, and the doctor came in. 'What's the matter?' he
laughed the hardest, pretending I understood the little piece
asked.
of paper in my hand.
"I told him that I couldn't sign what I didn't understand,
"Then there was the time my friend's son had written a
and as much as I needed the operation, I wasn't going to
beautiful report that his teacher had praised. My friend gave
undergo surgery unless someone could explain to me what
it to me, then noticed that I was crying. Confused, she asked
was on that piece of paper.
why.
" 'I'll read it to you myself,' he said.
" 'Oh, this is so beautiful,' I said. 'It is just so moving, I
"It turned out to be a simple form, and when he finished
have trouble reading it. Will you read it to me?' And she
reading, I signed it. I also made a silent vow: Somehow, I'm
did. Of course I had lied, and I was crying because I couldn't
going to learn to read."
read what my friend was so proud of."
At the beginning of the twentieth century in the United
Later in this book we'll hear from other adults who have
States, little pieces of paper like the one that was so fright-
learned to read. Their lives and their paths to literacy are
ening to Sonia did not exist. Things were different then. No
32
READ WITH ME
Sounds We Can See
33
one had seen a color movie or an airplane, heard a radio
the beginning of this chapter would have lived no differently
broadcast, listened to jazz music or rock 'n' roll, watched a
from the generations who preceded them and many of the
television, lunched in a cafeteria, walked through a super-
generations who followed.
market or shopped in a mall, eaten frozen yogurt, or paid
What helped to accelerate change for our species was the
income tax. As late as 1944, when I was born, there were
invention three to four thousand years ago of the alphabet,
still no personal computers, nuclear submarines, soft contact
the device, though flawed, that allows us to record our ideas
lenses, birth control pills, digital watches, hand calculators,
and our discoveries and thus to communicate with precision
fax machines, electronic copiers, plastic garbage bags, dis-
over time and distance. Astonishingly, this invention was
posable diapers, polyester sweaters, CAT scans, laser sur-
nearly discarded in Western Europe. During the period from
gery, heart transplants, space rockets, or satellites.
A.D. 500 to 1000, sometimes called the Dark Ages, only a
The editorial director of Condé Nast magazines, Alex-
few hundred people, mainly Benedictine monks, learned to
ander Liberman-an eminent artist and sculptor who has
read-and it was they who preserved in their monasteries
written about Cézanne, Picasso, and Matisse, a man whose
much of what we know today as the past. These monks
ability to reduce complex ideas to clear images is leg-
laboriously copied manuscripts day after day, year after
endary-notes that in the rapidly changing world of the
year, century after century, filling their libraries with what
late twentieth century, we are submerged in messages, from
later generations would know as the classics.
blinking traffic lights to billboards to television. He suggests
If Sonia had lived in 990, at the tail end of the Dark Ages,
that "a new language is being invented as we speak, perhaps
instead of in 1990, reading would not have mattered to her.
even a new alphabet. The invention of the computer has
But she lives, inescapably, in the present, in a time and a
inspired new words, but even more significant, when we
place where reading is indispensable. Of course, there are
take a closer look at the letters on a computer screen, we
other ways to communicate, but none of them will help a
find signs that didn't exist only a few years ago. Even the
patient alone in her room to decipher a hospital form. The
shape of the computer letter, I suspect, is different in its
value of reading can only grow in a modern society- point
impact on the eye."
underscored by a friend, a sensitive man who successfully
Because of the diversity in our lives today, it's easy to
teaches children to communicate without words.
forget that for most of the history of humankind, change
came slowly. Until about a century ago, people cooked food
Jacques D'Amboise, one of America's finest classical dancers and
over open fires, and the only way to light a room at night
the founder of the National Dance Institute, joined George Bal-
was with a flame.
anchine's New York City Ballet when he was fifteen and later was
If, as some scientists suggest, human beings first appeared
a principal dancer for more than three decades. He also appeared
on earth about 100,000 years ago, then what we call civili-
on Broadway in shows like Shinbone Alley, in movies like Car-
zation probably has existed for less than a tenth of that time.
ousel, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and The Best Things
It's likely that the cave-dwelling teenagers I mentioned at
in Life Are Free, and on television in The Bell Telephone Hour.
To Be Another Person
39
blazers, leaders like the legendary Frank C. Laubach, who
have gone before.
To get a better sense of the man who created Laubach Lit-
eracy International, an organization determined to help peo-
ple throughout the world learn to read, I asked Dr. Norman
Vincent Peale to tell me about his late friend Frank C. Lau-
3
bach. Norman, the distinguished minister who preached in
Manhattan's Marble Collegiate Church for many years and
To Be Another Person
who wrote The Power of Positive Thinking, described him this
way:
"One Sunday morning, while I was seated on the pulpit
platform, my eyes ran over the congregation. The sun
I remember a misty summer morning thirty-five years ago,
seemed to spotlight a man far to the side whom I could see
when I was ten, walking with my Uncle George through
only in profile. The thought came to me that this man had
some woods on his dairy farm in Malta, New York.
a saintly look, and I was fascinated. He was apparently taller
"Look behind you," he told me.
than average and rather rugged of stature, but there was
Curious, I turned, then asked, "What am I looking
holiness in his total aspect. When he turned full in my di-
for?"
rection, I recognized the man, Frank C. Laubach, a noted
"The way back," he said.
missionary and the greatest exponent of literacy in the twen-
"What do you mean?"
tieth century. Frank was instrumental in teaching millions
"When you go into the woods it looks a certain way-"
to read, and his primary textbook was the Bible: As a person
I followed his arm as he pointed.
learned to read, he would absorb the teachings of the Holy
"-but when you try to find your way back, it won't look
Book.
the same. See the other side of that maple, and over there,
"I had the privilege of knowing this great man rather well.
the birch
I was a member of a group that included Frank and several
I nodded, and I began to understand.
other Christian leaders prominent at the time, and we would
If we apply the wisdom of my uncle to the field of literacy,
meet in Washington each year on New Year's Dar to pray
if we look around and behind us, the first thing we'll notice
together and to think about how a deeper spiritual TCH
is that we're not alone. The trail we follow has been hewn
itment could be made. by us personally and by our country
by others: Most of what we know, we've learned from someone
generally. I recall how he reiterated that we should never
else. A new path always can be created, of course, a new
part in politics but that we should pray dailv for our
way found the wise scout listens first to the trail
ders. Frank was a profound believer in prayer, and he
Charles Gillikin
67
Dredging is a job that has not been written," he states.
a craft handed down from father to son. My dad and
my uncles were dredge operators. When I came along, I fell
in with the same group, and I just wanted to be the best. I
received my captain's license the same way I received my
driver's license. There was a grandfather law in effect for
5
those of us who could not read. I remember we went up
on a ridge, and one of the company men who could read
Charles Gillikin
went over the written rules with us. Then we went down
and we all aced the exam."
How were you able to read a nautical chart?
"I could chart a course to any spot in the world. I know
figures, how to use a compass, and I have a watch. If I know
Charles Gillikin of Morehead City, North Carolina, is in his late
the speed of a vessel, I can get anywhere. Because I went
fifties, a robust, burly man who is quick to smile, gregarious, broad
far as fourth grade in school, I could make out some
shouldered, and self-confident. When he was fourteen, with one
mes, and I could find an island on a map. I could figure
a fourth-grade education, he left home to work as a deckhand on
maps and charts and find drawings, pictures, and num-
dredge, the large and complex machinery that moves earth un
Then, using what else I knew, I'd navigate a course.
water. Three years later, when he was seventeen, he operated
here was something that I had to read for navigation, I'd
equipment. By the time he was twenty-three, he was workins
to
someone who could read, 'Hey, I don't read so fast.
Venezuela in charge of dredging. Eventually he returned to
be here all day reading this. Read it for me, will you?'
United States, became a field engineer, and directed operat
would-and nobody ever minded."
around the world for a dredge-building firm, ultimately beco
Vere you embarrassed that you could not read?
superintendent of dredging for a company that had a contract
More later, as I was learning to read, than before. Let me
the Army Corps of Engineers. When he retired after a num
When I couldn't read, I didn't see that I had a real
operations for a serious back injury, he was that company's
I had to support a family, and I didn't think I had the
superintendent. A licensed ship captain who ran his own dre
to learn. Plus, because I had started working so young,
consulting firm, Charles was functionally unable to read six
fault myself a lot for not having learned to read. Also
before this interview, when he first enrolled in a Laubach
my captain's license and was a successful dredger; I
program in South Carolina. Five years later, after he had
good money-maker for the company, valued for what
to North Carolina, he received his high school equivalency dip
able to do, for my skills, and I was proud of that. What
on the same day his daughter received her bachelor's degree.
back in my seat sometimes, though, was when some-
the navigators who, centuries ago, circumscribed the globe, C
with a college background was promoted over me. I
Charles Gillikin could read the stars but not words.
dn't get angry-although I wasn't pleased when that
68
Charles Gillikin
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69
happened-because usually the fellows they promoted
"Absolutely!"
couldn't last very long. It takes years and years of experience
Do you think experience will help you be a little easier on your-
to really know dredging and how to dredge when there are
self?
complicated problems. Anyway, as I said, because I was
"I think I hope so."
good at my business, supported my family, and could ex-
What happens to you when you read?
cuse myself for not reading, I was only a little embarrassed
"I get into a book and I travel places. I can actually see
at times. When I started to learn to read, though, I kept my
what the writer is writing about. I read someone else's fan-
time with my tutor a secret, and I worried whether my
tasy, and I put my dreams into it. There's a whole world
neighbors knew. You see, the more I learned to read, the
there, right in a daily newspaper!"
more important reading became to me. The thing was, some
It allows you to imagine-
folks knew I couldn't read, but there were even more people
"A world of beauty!"
who didn't know. I was very much aware of how others
When did you know you could read?
put you in a category, stereotype you, when you can't read."
"Actually, I surprised myself. I read a book and I thought,
When did you begin to learn to read?
'I must have missed a lot of words,' so I read it again. And
"It has taken a long time. About eighteen years ago, when
again. Then it struck me: I read a book!"
our youngest son was a small boy, he had trouble reading,
Did you cry?
so my wife hired a tutor at $10 an hour to help him. Well,
"Yes, I did. I can't describe more than that what I felt,
as I watched the tutor work with our son, I got into it, and
but I felt a lot."
I determined that I would learn to read, but then, with my
What would you like to do now?
responsibility at the company, I wasn't able to do it. I just
"I don't know if I'll be able to finish college at my age,
didn't have the time, and I couldn't relax enough to learn.
but I want to try, now that I have my GED. I'd also like to
It was another twelve years before I was able to begin in
learn another language. And maybe as much as anything I
earnest, and that was about six years ago."
can think of, I'd like to learn to read well enough to be a
Do you still have problems?
tutor myself. A tutor inspires. A tutor is very special."
"Sure, particularly when I read out loud. Sometimes I
switch words, reverse them, or I insert a word that's not
there. Then, because I've gotten myself off track, I begin to
Karolyn Cleveland, also of Morehead City, North Carolina, a 1929
stagger my words, or because I can't fix the mistake I've
graduate of Marion (Indiana) High School who attended Battle
made, I jabber along. When I read silently, I correct it all."
Creek College in Michigan for a year, was a seventy-three-year-
You lack the confidence to be imperfect
old great-grandmother only recently widowed when a friend sug-
"Yes, that's true."
gested to her in 1984 that she volunteer as a tutor to fill her time,
because you believe that a reader reads every word perfectly
to help ease the ache.
and you do not.
"Because I had lost my husband," Karolyn explains, "my
Charles Gillikin
70
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71
friend thought that becoming a tutor might help me
ds me of my husband. He fills quite a gap in my life.
out of myself, to start thinking about somebody els
mily is like a second family to me. I went to a class
that I might enjoy it. So I took the training, and
last summer, and the funniest thing I heard was
thereafter, in the summer of 1985, my friend, who was
woman who had just had a great-grandchild, her
self a literacy volunteer coaching an adult named Charl
one. Somebody was asking her how she felt about it,
Gillikin, moved away, and I was asked to be his tutor.
she said, 'It was perfectly wonderful until all of a sudden
What have you gained?
appened to think that I'm the mother of a grandfather.'
"First, I'd have to say that I've gained some wonde
that's me too. I have four grandchildren and three
friends, not only Chuck but his wife and children too.
grandchildren. My life is full, and being a tutor is right
I've learned an awful lot. I really have. I'm seventy
there near the top. It has been an immensely rewarding
now, and I can tell you that so much of what I've learn
rience for me, and I am grateful. Yes, grateful, glad it
in the past four years has been eye-opening. I don't th
too late for me."
I'd recognize a dredge if I stepped on one, but neverth
Why wasn't it too late for Chuck?
it has been quite an education working with Chuck
Because he didn't want it to be. He has tremendous
maybe, little by little, I'm learning how to be a better
and a genuine willingness to learn."
Look, you can study all the statistics in the world
Why were you able to help him?
literacy- a lot of people do-but the truth is, all
Maybe because I love learning. I've been curious all my
fades when you see one adult actually learn to read.
and I think that's what Chuck is-curious. Many of
fulfilling.
tutors in our literacy program here have undergraduate
"I asked Chuck once during a session what he
frees; others have advanced degrees in reading and
learned, and he told me that he could now read the
therapy. I think some of them can recognize prob-
along the road. 'And,' he said, 'I can read a menu.'
that I might not see right away. I attended college for
"
'What did you do before?' I asked.
a
year, so if I had more of an education, 1 might have
"
'I always ordered steak,' he replied.
better. But I really believe, after working so long with
"So, what have I gained? As I said, friendship first.
that the most important aspect of all this is not
cried a little, and I've laughed a lot. Chuck and his fam
rees or courses at all. What matters most is for a tutor
have helped to fill the emptiness left by my husband's de
be standing there with the student, really with the stu-
I think I've become more perceptive about people,
and caring."
better understand a variety of different problems. But
Have you worked with other students?
know what it really is, what I can't seem to describe
No. Only Chuck, for four years."
right? It's that warm feeling inside me that maybe,
are there particular moments that come to mind?
I make a difference, even now, at seventy-eight.
Several. Just this morning he had me laughing. I've been
"Chuck came at a time when I needed somebody,
ng for so long to get him to shut his eyes and try to see
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Charles Gillikin
73
the words we're working on. I said, 'Now look at that word,
forming. Intrigued, the 1953 graduate of Osnaburg High School
then shut your eyes and tell me what you see.'
(East Canton, Ohio), who studied nursing prior to her marriage
"When he closed his eyes tightly, I asked, 'Okay, what
and later took courses at various local colleges, decided to find out
do you see?'
more.
'Pretty women!' he told me.
"We had always been a reading family," she says. "I read
"Like I said, he gets me laughing so hard at times. Just
to the children when they were small, and we always had
the other day, though, there was a different kind of moment.
books in our home. Our youngest son had some difficulty
Chuck described to me how, for the first time in his life, he
reading, and I worked with him. So when I met my first
was able to visualize a word. I was thrilled. What a sense
student, my mind flashed back to our youngest son, and I
of accomplishment for him!
suspect that has a lot to do with why I'm involved. Now,
"I remember one day when he wasn't doing so well and
having been at it for five years, I can say that the rewards
he looked through the window at the water-my home is
are absolutely immeasurable, especially the friendships that
right on the sound-and he said, 'I bet the fish are biting.
build. There's a light bulb you see turn on when you teach
Let's go see.' The next thing you know, he had fishing tackle
someone to read. There's the first time you place letters on
out. We walked to the water's edge, and sure enough, we
a table and watch an adult make words out of them. It's
caught seven or eight gray trout. I've never caught that
hard for me to describe how thrilling, how fulfilling that is
many fish before or since. We had a wonderful time, and
to see. And through it all, the tutor learns. Every student
I'll remember it as long as I live.
you meet teaches you something.
"In addition to such good moments, though, there have
"From Chuck Gillikin, I was reminded again how difficult
been some frustrating ones, mainly when Chuck hasn't
it is to be an adult who cannot read. Chuck felt real pain.
done his homework. He'll tell me, 'Oh, someone called, and
Fortunately, though, he had a wonderful, patient tutor, Ka-
I couldn't get to it' or 'I had to check the stock market.'
rolyn Cleveland; she and Chuck asked me to help tutor him
Something creative each time. But I understand. He drives
for his GED exam. I remember that on the first three dates
himself. When he's ready, he moves. I could never push
we scheduled the test for, he was so anxious that he took
him as hard as he pushes himself. The best I can do is to
two trips and made an appointment with the dentist instead.
be there when he needs my help, and to be supportive. He's
I believed he'd pass the test if he could just get over that
so advanced now, I don't think he needs me-but he tells
threshold. So I asked the school to allow me to sit in the
me he does, and he still pops in twice a week to go to work.
classroom with him when he took the exam. I was given
permission. Well, that made Chuck more comfortable. He
look the test, completed it, passed it-and later graduated
Cathie Yennie, who is today the president of the Carteret Literacy
ith his daughter."
Council in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, the mother of six,
Have there been disappointments?
grandmother of ten, was fifty when she read in a church bulletin
Sure. And the deepest disappointments have not been
five years before this interview, that a local literacy council we
students who have quit, though that can hurt, but those
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Charles Gillikin
75
students who sincerely strive for more than they can reach,
today, the same age as our oldest daughter. She was thirty
who want to do more than they may be capable of doing.
when the county social services department recommended
For example, consider a retarded student, an adult with
her to the literacy council. When I started as her tutor, she
abilities just beyond trainable but not quite educable. He
was at a second-grade reading level, and seven months later
sees what appears to him to be the most glamorous job, but
she had her GED!"
it requires some facility with written language. Now, he
How did that happen?
thinks, 'All I have to do is improve.' So he tries. And tries.
"We worked and worked and worked. She was so intel-
And tries. He really tries. His effort is heartbreaking. But
ligent. When that light bulb came on for her, she was like
the results don't come. There's a sadness in this that hurts
a sponge. I remember one day when we were at her house,
more than any other."
a week after I had given her a lot of work, work we did not
How have you handled the hurt?
review. I had not gone over the material again with her on
"I'm not sure I've handled it all that well. When I faced
purpose. What I was really doing was testing her retention.
this very problem with a student of mine, a young woman,
So I presented completely new material to Truie, then tested
I blamed myself. I kept thinking, if only I could find the
her on what she had previously learned. She remembered
key, the right way to communicate with her. Then, after
it all, everything!
several unsuccessful efforts, I began to think, 'If only I knew
" "Truie,' I told her, 'you have so much in your head. I
more.' I ended up crying, frustrated. Then, after my student
don't think you realize just how intelligent you are.'
was observed by someone else, I was told to terminate her
"At the time we were working together three days a week,
training. It was explained to me that she could go no further.
two hours each session. It was then that I gave Truie a book
I was assured that I had done all I could. It still hurt, and
that I knew was beyond her ability. Yet even though there
it does to this day."
were words she could not recognize, she understood what
Why be a tutor?
she read, the gist of the book. I decided to work with her
"For the pleasure of seeing a nonreader learn how to
one day more a week, for four sessions. Truie asked for five
read-and the rewarding feeling you get when you help
days, five hours a day.
someone. Right now I'm working with my fifth student, a
" 'Why?' I asked her.
young man who is twenty-three, a high school graduate
" 'I've promised myself a Christmas present. I want to
from Alabama. I started with him when I finished the GED
give myself a GED for Christmas.'
training with Chuck. This young man is about to enroll in
"I agreed, but to be honest, I didn't think anyone, Truie
the Grassroots English course at Coastal Community Col-
included, could accomplish such a feat. But as we got into
lege in Jacksonville, so that he can go further with business
it-five days a week, at least five hours a day-I slowly
courses. He reminds me that it takes great courage for an
began to believe that she could do it. She ran me ragged.
adult to come forward and say, 'I can't read.'
And by Christmas she had her GED. That was the most
"Now, let me tell you about Truie Pettaway, the mother
remarkable gain I've seen."
of two girls, who was my second student. She's thirty-three
Did she go further?
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Charles Gillikin
77
"Yes. In fact, she's enrolled in a community college in
at these people, and you assume they are stupid or retarded.
Baltimore now, where she's studying to be a medical as-
How wrong you are. They are people like you and me-
sistant. She works in a hospital there. Truie started in the
only they can't read.' As I spoke, I pictured Truie, who
lowest possible job in the hospital and, not surprisingly,
worked herself off the welfare rolls and away from that
worked her way up, at the same time trying to organize a
terrible stigma, and I thought about Chuck and his courage,
literacy council to help those employees who cannot read.
and I hoped that the people at that seminar could hear me,
Both of her daughters are straight A students, and one of
really hear me."
them has already been awarded a college scholarship."
What motivates Truie?
"She's an extremely talented and perceptive person, and
what bothered her more than anything in the world was
that she was on welfare. She wanted to get off it. Her ex-
perience was different from Chuck's. He's a worldly man,
and though he had to leave home very young and work
very hard, he was tremendously successful at business. He
could take pride in his achievements, although he could not
read. His heartaches were real, and they hurt-make no
mistake about that-but they were different from Truie's.
He was white, male, independent, relatively secure in his
work. Truie was black, female, dependent on welfare, rais-
ing two children alone.
"I just had a close-up experience this week of what Truie
must have faced in the welfare system. I attended a three-
day conference in Raleigh that was sponsored by the food
stamp authorities, the same people who forward clients to
us at the literacy council. As part of the seminars, they
decided to work with role-playing. I was asked to participate
as the literacy person. In rehearsal they had a person ap-
proach me with what was supposed to be the demeanor of
an illiterate person. The person walked as if she were club-
footed, twisting her hands and arms as if she were severely
retarded, then crossing her eyes. I was horrified, and I told
the participants that their actions were offensive: 'You look
Rose Marie Semple
87
When I was about fifteen and in the eighth grade, we
oved to New Jersey. I was one of eight children, the oldest
five who were still living at home with my mother and
my stepfather, and I had to drop out before the ninth grade
to care for my mother, who was an asthmatic, and the oth-
ers. I had to give up school so the little ones could go. Might
7
well, I figured. I had already been placed in a special
class anyway.
"I'll remember all my life the day the teacher told me that
Rose Marie Semple
would never be able to read or write, that I would never
mount to anything. But, she said, because I was entitled
to an education, she would do the best she could with me.
It was easy for me to believe the worst of what she said:
Rose Marie Semple, of Pennsville, New Jersey, is a mother of five
that I'd never be anything, that I was there only because
children in her mid-forties. Her light brown hair falls easily above
the state said I had to be there, that I wasn't as good as
her blue eyes, and her white skin is creamy and unblemished, cut
everyone else. Yes, I believed her. I had no friends, because
only by laugh lines and a wide smile. A first marriage, from which
I wouldn't allow anyone to get that close. I'd talk to no one.
she reported physical abuse, ended in divorce when she was much
rd even avoid parties. Other kids, as you might expect,
younger. She'd been married for thirteen years to her second hus-
thought I was stuck up. Understand, it wasn't that I didn't
band when she enrolled as a student with the Literacy Volunteers
want to be popular or loved-I did! What terrified me was
of New Jersey. When she started with her tutor, her reading ability
my fear that kids my age would find out that I couldn't read
was measured at a second-grade level. Now, four years later, she
write."
reads at a seventh-grade level; her overall comprehension is higher,
Did your mother know you could not read?
at an eleventh-grade level. Additionally, she has been certified for
"Yes. 1 found out only recently that my mother herself
cardiopulmonary resuscitation, has qualified for the Red Cross
was illiterate. She had a great memory, and she made sure
Multi-Handicapped Unit, works for Easter Seals as an aide to the
that I had a great memory, teaching me all that her mother
handicapped, is studying to acquire a GED, the high school equiv-
had taught her. Now I understand that our problem goes
alency diploma, and hopes to achieve a college degree as a physical
back three generations. The problem has to stop with me.
therapist's aide. Passionate and eloquent, Rose Marie Semple is a
I have a seven-year-old daughter who is going to read. I
human being whose character has been tested by dark days, dis-
don't want her to have to face what I've lived through. We're
appointment, and near-crippling insecurity. Her story is about
going to break the chain that's been in my family for too
human values and character, and finally it's about self-discovery.
any generations. It stops now."
"I was raised in Carlisle, Pennsylvania," she begins.
What got you started?
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Rose Marie Semple
89
"I was forced into it. My son became an addict and was
the library. But when I saw the books, I couldn't breathe. I
jailed; when he was released, he started in Alcoholics Anon
couldn't breathe! It was as if a hand were squeezing my
ymous. We attended a support group for him called Al-
heart. I hurt. It was terrible. I turned to race from the room
Anon, where a little blue book was passed around during
when a woman suddenly stopped me, calling, 'Rose Marie!'
the meetings. When it was handed to me, I'd just pass it
And that's how I met Betty Husarik, who would become
along. One day a woman told me, 'You really have to read
my tutor and be my friend to this day."
this book.'
What happened next?
" 'I can't,' I admitted.
"Betty asked me to follow her into a room at the rear of
"She laughed.
the library, and she told me, 'I don't know how well you
" 'I can't!' I said again.
can read or write, but I'm here to help you the best that I
"Suddenly she stopped laughing. She understood. 'But
can."
you're so smart,' she told me. 'You have great ideas.'
How well did you read?
"I said, That may be true, but I still can't read.'
"At a second-grade level. I could distinguish the ABCs
"She wrote out a telephone number, the local number of
and 1 could write my name and some words that I had
the Literacy Volunteers of America, and she handed it to
nemorized-but if those words were taken out of context,
me. I put it away and held it for two months, because I was
be lost. Using my memory, I had also developed a system
afraid to dial the number. I knew if I called LVA and the
which I'd read every other word on a page, sometimes
couldn't teach me, then my eighth-grade teacher would
umping five or six words to find a word I knew, then say
proved right and the worst nightmare of my life would
that the book was about. That ability blew Betty away. She
true. As long as I didn't know for sure, I was okay.
d never seen anything like it. My memory had become
"But I couldn't let it go. I kept thinking about my seve
by strong, in the same way that the other senses of a blind
year-old, how I had never been able to read to her or to
strengthen. You do what you have to do."
of my other children, how I had always made excuses
How difficult was it to learn?
finally my husband, who knew I was illiterate, would
The first year was hard, but everyone was supportive.
to them. I wanted to read so badly to my daughter Reb
husband chipped in, gave my daughter her baths, and
I knew she was the last child, and the last chance I'd has
helped in other ways. We had two foster children, and
My need to read a little book like The Three Little Pigs
helped too."
so great that finally I called the telephone number, and
After the first year?
was told to go to the library two blocks from my home
Things began to change. My husband began to object.
did, but I just sat in the car. I broke out in a cold swe
always been the type of wife who never left the house.
I wanted to go home, to say the heck with it, but someth
had no friends-my life had been solely my children,
stopped me. I just stayed there, frozen in the car, neith
family. My husband would go camping, fishing, or hunt-
willing to open the door nor willing to drive away. The
with his friends on the weekends, and I'd stay home
in an instant, I did it. I opened the car door and walked
the kids. Because I'd also never finished anything in
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Rose Marie Semple
91
my life-I had always found it easier to quit, to give up
M didn't know how,' I said.
my husband expected me to quit again. When I didn't quit
Then how did you make them this time?'
when I kept going at the end of that first year, we started
Suddenly it came to me. I picked up the telephone and
to argue. Even more surprising, I started to stand up for
called Betty, and when she answered I announced, 'I can
myself. 'I want to learn to read,' I said, 'and I'm doing
read!' I described what I had done-I had read the recipe.
something about it.' My husband didn't like that. He said
We had been working together for a year and a half. It was
he was sick and tired of me not being home two nights a
then, in that moment, that I knew I could not quit. No longer
week, that he didn't want me to go out anymore, that
it a matter of reading The Three Little Pigs to my daugh-
didn't need to learn anything else, that I knew enough al
ler. It was more. It was my life. I thank God to this day that
ready, that if I wanted to, he'd let me get some kind of part
that happened, because I was going to quit LVA."
time job when the kids were older."
How did your husband respond?
What did you do?
"He kept insisting that I had to choose between him and
"I continued to see my tutor, and I joined a support group.
my lessons. Then finally, when I didn't quit, he left. That
I learned that I had rights. And some of the girls there
very difficult for me, particularly the first year. Later I
volunteered to watch my daughter. I thought that would
accepted into a vocational school for some training I
help."
needed to work with handicapped people. Betty helped me.
Did it?
thought I'd learn something in the course, but I didn't
"No. It got worse. My husband told me that I was bein
think I'd actually be certified, because I was still thinking
brainwashed, that I was not the girl he had married year
the old way. It turned out that on the final exam I had only
earlier, that I was different. He said I'd have to choose be
three wrong out of fifty questions. Not only did I pass, but
tween him and the LVA. That's when I told Betty that rd.
that meant I would be certified! When the teacher called my
have to stop. What else could I do? Having never held
I couldn't move. I just sat there. The nurses in the
job, how could I support myself? I had to quit.
encouraged me: 'Get up, get up!' Finally I did-and
"About this time, though, a woman in my support group
lived one of the proudest moments of my life. In time I
asked me to do her a favor, to bake some brownies she
went further, studying the multihandicapped, even work-
needed for an anniversary. Like my mother, I had no recip
for an association for retarded citizens."
book. Everything was memorized. I tried to figure out
Was there another turning point for you?
brownies, and nothing came to me. So, while shopping
Yes. I was asked to speak at a meeting of literacy vol-
the supermarket, I found a package of brownie mix, and
nieers in Atlantic City, and I was seated next to a man
brought it home. After I baked the brownies, both my hu
the was wearing a jogging suit and a baseball cap. We
band and my stepfather said they were delicious, the
arted talking, and I found him very interesting. We were
brownies they had ever eaten.
into a conversation when I realized who he was-
" 'How come you never made these before?' my
Vally Famous' Amos, the cookie millionaire.
father asked.
exclaimed, 'You're Famous Amos!'
92
READ WITH ME
Rose Marie Semple
93
"He laughed and said, 'And you're Rose Marie Semple,
it was fifteen hours, divided into five three-hour sessions,
and I can't wait to hear you speak today!'
once a week for five weeks. About a month later I attended
"Later he gave me a copy of his book The Power in You,
the final three-hour session to complete a total of eighteen
which is the first book I ever read. Wally's wise words in-
hours of training. The final three hours are usually sched-
spired me, helped me to become more determined. When
uled after you've had a student, encountered some prob-
the time came for me to face a job interview, I acted on the
lems, or had some experiences you can share with the others
advice he had written in a chapter about selling yourself,
in the class."
and I was hired. Now I have a job, even benefits. I pay my
Was Rose Marie Semple your first student?
bills. For the first time in my life, I have dignity.
"No, I had another student before Rose Marie. It did not
"I know I can't change my husband-and it's clear we're
work out, and I was devastated. I was as full of enthusiasm
heading for divorce. Divorce hurts, but I thank God that I
as all new tutors are, and like most new tutors, when it fell
won't be spending another twenty years in a relationship
apart, I blamed myself. I felt terrible, certain that another
that's wrong for both of us. Like I said, I know I can't change
tutor could have done better. Later, with more experience,
the way my husband is, and neither can I change my son's
could look back and understand better. I had tried my very
addiction. What I can change is me. By changing me, I
best. The student was a woman with a background similiar
change my world. Maybe someday I'll have somebody in
to Rose Marie's. She was in her forties and had had a very
my life who believes in me. That would be wonderful, but
hard life, and at that time she had three generations living
if it never happens, I can live with it-because I believe in
in the same house, a small house, no privacy, no way to do
me. For the first time in my life, I believe in me. I have dig-
homework or find the necessary time. She was working
nity."
nights, and she met with me in the morning, after her shift
ended. She didn't drive. While we were meeting one morn-
ing her electricity was turned off, because she hadn't paid
Betty Husarik was sixty-two, a Pennsville, New Jersey, housewife,
her bill. She had mountains of problems, and she just
a former dietetics major and a graduate of Saint Joseph's College
couldn't handle all of them. She couldn't learn to read at
in West Hartford, Connecticut, a mother of four, and a grand-
that moment, but I kept thinking she could, and I convinced
mother of six when in 1984 she read a small item in a local news-
myself that I was the one who was going to make it possible.
paper about a newly formed group called the Literacy Volunteers
So when she quit, I was disappointed. Then I got another
of Salem County. "I have no formal experience teaching," she
call. I was told to go to the library to meet a new student."
thought, "but I'd like to teach." She called the telephone number
That was Rose Marie?
published in the article.
"Yes, and she told me about her family, how her children
"I was told I'd be contacted when there were enough
had gone to school. how she had done her best to bring
people to start a class," she says. "Subsequently, through
them up, and it was now her time to learn to read. She said
the Literacy Volunteers of America, I was trained. Initially
she was tired of hiding it, tired of not being able to read.
94
READ WITH ME
Rose Marie Semple
95
She had come to the point where she was going to do some
Marie, but each will have her own qualities. And that's the
thing about it. I believed her."
beauty of it, isn't it?"
What have you gained from her?
"Confidence, and friendship. I also think that Rose Marie
was such a good student, so eager to learn, to do her best,
Wally "Famous" Amos, the renowned "cookie man," is the author
that she made me a better teacher. I had to be fully prepared
of The Face That Launched a Thousand Chips and the coau-
for each lesson, which I like to be- but Rose Marie was so
thor, with his son, Gregory, of The Power In You. His trademark
demanding a student, she made me work even harder. Her
Panama hat and embroidered Indian pullover shirt are on per-
comprehension is beyond her ability to read. The teacher
manent display at the Smithsonian Institution in the nation's cap-
who told her she would never be able to read could not
ital. He is the recipient of the Horatio Alger Award, the Napoleon
have been more wrong. After working with Rose Marie
Hill Gold Medal, and the President's Award for Entrepreneurial
these last couple of years, I believe that if she had had the
Excellence, and is host of the national GED on TV series, produced
chance to stay in school and apply herself, she could have
by Kentucky Educational Television. He has been the national
been a valedictorian. She has a very good mind-that's why
spokesman for Literacy Volunteers of America for more than a
her comprehension level has always tested higher than her
decade.
actual reading level. She comprehends, and she remembers.
"I wouldn't be as fortunate as I have been if it weren't for
What a memory! I have no doubt she'll obtain a GED. I am
hundreds of people throughout my life who have lifted me,
so proud of her. She has worked very hard for everything
guided me, or pushed me forward," he explains. "We are all
she has. Getting to know Rose Marie has been a very special
connected. I've come to see life as a relay race, in which
gift for me."
every one of us at some point is handed a baton. When it's
Is that why you continue to tutor?
your turn, I believe you have to use all your skills, all your
"I continue because I, like so many tutors, have been
abilities, to give back what you have gotten. Look, we do not
able to feel a satisfaction that can't be equaled, a feeling
climb alone. The other day I was listening to a minister,
of having helped someone in a way that no one else has.
O. C. Smith-who, you may remember, recorded the song
It is something wonderful that you can actually see hap-
Little Green Apples' use a phrase that will stick with me
pening. When it's working, the relationship between a stu-
forever. He said, 'We are each other.' His words clicked for
dent and a tutor is magic. Today, because I also teach
me, because as I suggested, I've learned that we live in this
tutors, I believe more than ever that being a tutor is some-
world to serve one another. The most important question
thing you do from your heart. It's not like writing a check,
any one of us can ask is 'How can I serve?' When we give to
mailing it off somewhere. What you do as a tutor does not
others, we give to ourselves. I know, as I've said many
come out of your billfold but out of yourself. I don't think
times, that volunteering is reaching with your hand into the
I can ever give up being a tutor after the experiences I've
darkness to pull another person's hand back into the light,
had-and I know my future students will not be Rose
only to discover that the hand you hold is your own."
96
READ WITH ME
Do you remember Rose Marie Semple?
"I sure do! We met in Atlantic City, and I remember
she made me cry when she stood up to speak. Her
made everyone cry. The pride in her voice as she told
story, recounted how she had learned to read, moved
audience beyond description. There wasn't a dry eye in
place. Now, Rose Marie's experience is another good
ample of why reading is so important: It is the found
on which a person builds a life. If you cannot decode
language, you are its prisoner; you are a slave, at the
Linwoo
of everyone else around you."
Whom have you helped?
"What's incredible is that when I first became invol
with Literacy Volunteers of America, I said I was goin
Earl Johnson of
help the organization, its students and its tutors. It
services department
out, the person I helped most is Wally Amos. How
mid-thirties when, ti
describe what the experience has meant to me? In D
lled in the Metro V
port, Iowa, a seventy-four-year-old gentleman who had
many adults who ai
passed the GED exam after watching the GED on TV
rously denying that /
stopped me to say, 'Wow, I've spent many a day
others. Within a y
you, Wally Amos.' There's nothing-no money, no
assiduous practice
nothing-that can replace what he gave me, how his
now further. Ht
made me feel. I made a difference. When a student tells
neatly trimmed bear
he's in a literacy program because he heard me speal
of his remarkable 1
radio or on television-well, then I know I'm passin
appeared in televised p
baton, I'm making a difference."
filed in Jerry Dahmen's
All, and has been an hon
the success and the n
grew up in the Miss
nton," he explains.
in the way of mor
used to say about P
have family. In o
126
READ WITH ME
Common Threads
127
"Why?" I asked her.
failing in high school-common threads do emerge. Fear,
"You'll never be an academic student," she explained,
vulnerability, and humiliation persist as painful themes in
"and you should learn a trade so that you can earn a living."
the lives of adults who cannot read-but so too is the vi-
"I'm not stupid!" I declared.
sionary declaration of Frank C. Laubach validated when
"I didn't say you were," she replied. "In fact, I think you
they learn: "A literate person is not only an illiterate person
can show how smart you are by volunteering for vocational
who has learned to read and write, he is another person."
training."
The lives of the adults cited in these pages have been
"How much do you know about me?" I demanded.
changed-and so too have the lives of their tutors been
"I know your grades," she replied.
changed, as markedly as that of dental student Brian Kis-
tenmacher, as tenderly as that of Karolyn Cleveland, who
Functionally illiterate adults are unable to use reading skills
at seventy-eight can say, "I make a difference." The student-
in everyday life for a variety of reasons. Some, like Captain
tutor relationships are founded in, and forged by, a single
Gillikin, left school early. Others, like Elaine Williams, have
dynamic understanding: Each depends on the other.
language-learning disabilities. There are those who need
Martha Maxfield underscores the power of the alliance
eyeglasses or hearing aids, who have physical or emotional
when she describes the remarkable struggle of Elaine Wil-
disorders, or who, like Percy Fleming, have been taught by
liams: "I think a precious gift that Elaine gave me, one I'll
ineffective teachers. People like Robert Mendez and Diana
carry with me forever, is the example of her perseverance
Davies simply may not have been ready or able to learn
in the face of the inadequacy of the system she and I were
when reading classes began. As Linwood Earl Johnson dis-
applying. Most people would not, could not, endure what
covered, social problems such as poverty and racism can
Elaine did. She hung in there. Not only that, she partici-
diminish the opportunity. Sometimes, as with Rose Marie
pated, she helped to discover how to help herself. We found
Semple, illiteracy passes unintentionally from parents to
the solution together."
children. Or it can be encouraged, as one of television's most
Elaine's disability went unrecognized, but as Martha sug-
distinguished personalities, 20/20 co-host Hugh Downs, ex-
gests, her ordeal was no isolated tragedy: "Elaine's life ex-
plains: "Ignorance is more dangerous than poverty. If you
perience from the earliest years illustrates what a shame it
are born poor, you will always strive to escape poverty. But
is when dyslexic and other learning-disabled students are
if you are ignorant, you are likely to scorn learning. I re-
pushed into high school, whether they stay or drop out,
member a story my grandfather told me about a cranky
and no one helps them define what their problem is. They
farmer he knew who refused to allow his sons to learn to
fall through the cracks. Because their disability is not iden-
read. 'Book-larnin',' the farmer warned his children, 'ruins
tified, it's misunderstood, and they never receive the right
your shootin' eye!' So in fact he condemned his sons to
approach. Kind, well-meaning people may try to help, but
ignorance. And ignorance keeps you in poverty for keeps."
that often frustrates the students more, increasing their in-
Although the causes of illiteracy are many and varied-
security and diminishing their self-esteem."
and are often hidden as well as I hid my real reasons for
The World Federation of Neurology calls dyslexia "a dis-
sb
clipping
file
MAY/17-14
USA
WEEKEI
ND
AT 37,
SHE LEARNED
TO READ
'It changedzmy life,
says ex-steel wor! ker
Linda Fluharty: Monday,
the USA's top: authors: gather
to: help: others: like her
See: pager
PLUS:
'WHY i HELP,
BY: BARBARA BUSH
and
Puttr
28. "WEEKENDS
26 MILLION
CAN'T READ
THIS STORY
Monday, Barbara Bush joins top writers
at a fund-raiser in New York City.
The goal: Push literacy up the list of
national priorities. And create
more success stories like
Linda Fluharty and John Goosby.
bara Bush makes it her personal cause.
BY LAURENCE JOLIDON
Monday, the first lady is an honored
guest at 2 fund-raiser for Literacy Vol-
inda Fluharty, at 37, could read
unteers of New York. Some of the na-
L
and write only a few simple
tion's best writers - Larry McMurtry,
words.
Joan Didion, Fran Lebowitz, Tom
That was good enough for a
Wolfe - will read aloud from their
job in a steel mill. But the mills
own works to 2 theater full of people
shut down. Then her life
who've each given $150 to the cause.
seemed to shut down.
A conservative estimate says 26 mil-
"I felt like I was a blank in the world.
lion adults, about 1 in 7 of us, read at or
Like I didn't belong. Like I was in the
below elementary school level. Illitera-
dark." That was before she grasped the
cy costs the economy $225 billion a
power of words and, with that power,
year, takes a devastating toll on human
the importance of her own life.
fulfillment and exacts 2 delayed price
Now, after four years in a Beaver
from the children of illiterates.
County, Pa., adult literacy program,
Jonathan Kozol, author of Illiterate
Fluharty has a high-school equivalency
America and one of the first to bring
certificate and a new confidence.
illiteracy into the mainstream of con-
No longer trapped in the blurred
cerns, says "the good news is this issue
world of the barely literate, she realizes
is on the map." Most of all, "we recog-
mastering a language and feeling she
nize the devastating damage that it does
matters as a person are as inseparable as
to human beings."
the two sides of a leaf.
And the literacy movement is newly
"I'm not 2 back-in-the-shadows per-
unified, with hundreds of thousands of
son like I used to be."
people helping.
In this country, we carve the objects
Besides scores of community-based
of our caring into neat, trendy catego-
programs in many states, the battle
ries: the homeless, the jobless, the love-
against illiteracy is waged by the federal
less, the childless.
government (Adult. Basic Education
Today, many are choosing to help
programs enroll millions each year);
the most invisible group:-the wordless.
Laubach Literacy Action, the largest
The issue is moving to the top of the
private organization, with 85,000 vol-
national agenda. It's as though a note
unteers tutoring 125,000 students; and
has been taped to a White House refrig-
Literacy Volunteers of America, which
erator saying, "Fight Illiteracy," as Bar-
reaches 20,000 in 19 states.
i.
USA WEEKEND/MAY 12-14, 1989
20F5
Photographs by Dixie Verean
At the local level, "We're on
HIDDEN PROBLEM: John Goosby is so outgoing
the cutting edge of things that
that not even wife Sandra suspected he couldn't
can turn this whole nation
read. Now, she tutors him in Beaver County, Pa.
around," says Nancy Woods,
Above, he practices writing on his own.
who directs the Beaver County
literacy program.
Beaver County, population
187,000, in the green hills of
western Pennsylvania, is in the
illiteracy mainstream.
Woods' fervor and some
grassroots gumption by hun-
dreds of volunteer tutors show
how even a declining communi-
ty can find the resources to attack
the problem of adult literacy.
While the collapse of the steel
industry pushed people like Flu-
harty onto welfare, Woods be-
gan fighting back.
First as a tutor in a Lutheran
Church Women's program, now
as a fund-raiser, speaker and or-
ganizer of networks matching
students with tutors, Woods puts
words in people's mouths, and
into their lives.
She found the first step is to over-
who goes to church with us. All of us
come the shame, the stigma, of being
know a non-reader, but maybe never
wordless in a world where "doing your
realized it."
ABCs" usually is a child's task.
Linda Fluharty's escape from a word-
"We call it 'brushing up on your
less life came as she searched for a pas-
skills,' not "learning to read.' That can
sage from the Bible to be read at the
sound so harsh. It's about human digni-
baptism of her daughters, Sharry, 11,
ty, not just numbers. The illiterate is 2
and Patricia, 12. She struggled over the
next-door neighbor, a friend, someone
sacred pages. Finally she gave up, tell-
3.0E5
Continued from page 5
ly happened and has gotten worse. The
ing her minister she couldn't do it by
literacy skills could get factory work, be
condition of literacy in our country is
herself. He suggested Woods' program.
a seamstress or a tailor. Virtually none
poor, but it has been for some time
"The Bible's hard to read." Fluharty
of that world is left. Any person with
What's happened is, the fact has come
recalls. It can be. She still has no job, but
meager literacy skills has no way of en-
has completed a security guard training
tering the job market."
to the attention of pundits, experts and
the White House."
course. She's more outgoing, bravely
Many non-readers, says Woods, de-
The USA's illiteracy, Ohmann be-
submitting applications wherever she
velop amazing memories, writing notes
lieves, is tied to inequality. "Kids at the
hears they may be hiring.
using stick-figures and simple codes.
bottom quickly understand there's not
"I was so alone before. I was
John Goosby, 40, a student in
afraid to go out. I never left the house. I
Woods' program with a recognized but
much of a future for them, so they
feel a lot better because now I know I
untapped talent for drawing, was one of
don't learn. They go to lousy schools,
have some qualifications." And can
the legions of "secret" non-readers.
there's not much incentive." A high
help her children with homework.
illiteracy rate "is a political problem,
When he entered the literacy pro-
Woods' volunteers reach out to their
part of the same package as fewer thani
gram, he wrote: "I one to a art." Woods
community's most isolated corners.
50 percent of us voting for president."
translated it: "I want to be an artist."
Whatever the cause, the solution is
In Project Projects, students and tu-
Goosby is so outgoing and charming
costly. Even volunteer tutors need
tors went door-to-door in public hous-
not even his wife, Sandra, now his tu-
training and books to be effective. As
ing to seek out students and tutors. Re-
tor, suspected he couldn't read.
community efforts blossomed, Penn-
tarded non-reading adults - who bear
"I just tried to imitate my dad," says
sylvania's government took note and
a-double stigma and are considered un-
Goosby. "He got along with every-
reachable and unteachable by many
offered state funds to buttress private
body. That's what I tried to do."
grants.
programs - are part of Woods' effort.
Goosby is confident he'll make it to
But most important, says Woods, is
he quiet plague of illiteracy
art school one day. But without a "sup-
recognition for achievement. An
T
reaches every corner of the land,
port person" who reads, even poor
adult's learning to read should be cause
from farm-region migrant
readers with excellent people skills
for celebration, just as much as a high
shacks to Indian reservations,
can't fill out job forms, read 2 newspa-
school or college graduation.
from Bronx projects to St. Louis
per, help their
For those wanting to help others
slums to Los Angeles barrios. Il-
children with
learn to read, Elinor Tate, one of Linda
literacy is blamed on historical
homework or
Fluharty's tutors and an eight-year vol-
neglect, as in the rural South, and more
read grocery la-
unteer, advises: "You have to have
recent neglect, as in urban cores.
bels.
compassion, caring, and you have to be
In Macon, Ga., which has one of the
And their earn-
able to concentrate on the student, be-
highest illiteracy rates in the nation, a
ing power suffers.
cause most of them have problems be-
network TV documentary on illiteracy
Studies show
sides not knowing how to read."
18 months ago was a catalyst.
non-readers earn
Many, says Tate, "just need some-
Alarmed citizens hastily organized
NANCY WOODS:
less and save less
one to talk to. Not family, an outsider
Project Read, for non-readers 16 and
Reading leader
than the rest of us.
they can just talk to. A tutor has to be
older, with the help of the public
One study add-
willing to take all this in and not be
school district. The response, says di-
ed unearned paychecks, lost productivi-
judgmental. You have to be willing to
rector Cheryl Kelly, was eye-opening.
ty, lost tax revenues, welfare and unem-
go the extra mile." Literally an extra
About 100 chose individual tutors,
ployment payments linked to illiteracy.
mile, in the frequent cases where stu-
but just as many attend classes with
Annual price tag: $225 billion.
dents lack transportation.
computerized instruction. "Everyone
William Kolberg, president of the
The first time 2 neighbor's child
who comes in the door has a different
National Alliance of Business, tells stu-
confessed that his father couldn't read
story. I was worried they would resist
dents, "If you drop out of school, you
enough to help him with his home-
being in a classroom with so many oth-
commit economic suicide. If we don't
work, Tate laughed in disbelief.
ers, and we did it one-on-one, trying to
learn to educate all our young people
"We had no idea how many here
keep it private. What we're finding,
and ensure they continue to retrain for
needed help until the mills closed. We
though, is they help each other."
jobs in the next century, the results
all became enlightened."
As volunteers gear up, the task grows
won't show dramatically. They won't
Tutors arrange to meet their stu-
ever larger. Every new wave of immi-
be burning down cities. But people will
dents wherever it's convenient. In Bea-
grants includes many needing English
suffer and our society will be much
ver County, say Woods, that has in-
instruction. And each year, 1.5 million
worse off."
cluded offices, restaurants, bars,
more functional illiterates drop out or
Today, says Kolberg, "the top 25
churches, the jail, library, pool hall,
graduate from high schools with read-
percent of our work force is the best in
the Navy recruiter's office and a good
ing skills below eighth-grade level.
the world. Our universities are the envy
many kitchens and living rooms.
For years, we were lulled into think-
of the world, our post-graduates the
Kozol, now doing research among
ing of the USA as a super-literate nation
best, brightest. most innovative." But
the homeless, believes the most desper-
because "literacy" was linked to com-
the bottom 25 percent can't compete
ate cases are people whose illiteracy is
pleting the eighth grade. "Five years
with Japan and emerging countries.
buried beneath 2 pyramid of problems.
ago when I started writing about this,"
Some say the problem goes much
"A lot of people we want to reach are
recalls Kozol, "most people looked at
deeper than a lack of skills.
homeless, involved with drugs. Many
me with a straight face and said Ameri-
Richard Ohmann, literacy scholar in
are in despair."
ca is 98 percent literate."
Wesleyan University's English Depart-
For them, not only the benefits, but
Now literacy is defined in "function-
ment, says "crisis" is the wrong term
the very tools of society simple ones
al" terms, what it takes to live and work
because it "suggests something sudden-
most of us take for granted are hid-
successfully day-to-day. By that mea-
Continued on page 6
den behind a maze of markings.
sure, in an increasingly technical world,
"If you can't read enough to fill a
we're like poie-vaulters racing toward a
bar that keeps being raised higher.
To give or get help: The National
job that pays better than minimum
Literacy Hotline, 1-800-228-8813,
wage," says Kozol, "you can't pay the
Decades ago, says literacy expert
can direct you to local programs.
rent in America. It's as simple as that."
Evelyn Rothstein, "people with meager
6
USA WEEKEND/MAY 12-14, 1989
WHY I HELP'
By Barbara Bush
I
always loved
SPECIAL TO USA WEEKEND
I wish I could
to read, for as
tell you about all of
long as I can remember. When I
them, but let me mention a few of
was a little girl, one of my fa-
my favorite stories:
vorites was Little Women. As I grew
In San Francisco, a radio reporter
older, I loved any book written by
stuck a microphone in my face and
Emily Brontë. During the campaign
asked me to tell his live audience my
(I always packed my books first),
most touching story about literacy. I
Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities
drew a blank. So he told me his sto-
entertained me from coast to coast.
ry: When he and his brothers and
It breaks my heart, then, to see
sisters were growing up, they always
people who can't enjoy a good book.
took turns reading the newspaper to
How tragic to never know the magic
their father. He told them it would
of Alice in Wonderland or the sus-
help them with their school work.
pense of Agatha Christie.
Not until he got to college did he
But the problems of illiteracy go
realize his father couldn't read.
far beyond good books that will nev-
In Pittsburgh at an awards pro-
er be read. Maybe I can best explain
gram, I sat next to a woman who
by telling why and how I got in-
was to be honored for learning to
volved in the literacy campaign.
read. She was so nervous and shy
About 10 years ago, when George
about getting up on stage. She was
was preparing to seek higher office,
even too tongue-tied to talk to me,
I knew I should find a special cause. I
until I asked her about her family.
always had been a volunteer but now
She couldn't help but tell me all four
I had an opportunity to concentrate
of her children were honor roll stu-
my efforts.
dents. She was proud, and so was I.
The list of problems troubling
. In St. Louis, I was honored to ap-
our world was long - crime, drugs,
pear on stage with a retired construc-
unemployment, child abuse, teen-
tion worker who had learned to read
age pregnancy - but I couldn't help
at age 62. Together, we read the
noticing at least one common
Preamble to the Constitution.
thread. Many of the victims or peo-
Even after 10 years, it's always
ple involved had little or no educa-
special for me to read to a group of
tion. Many of them could not read.
children, or meet 2 mother who
I had my cause.
wants to learn to read so she can help
With experts leading the way,
her children with their homework,
I've learned so much and met so
or talk with an unemployed laborer
many wonderful people. But the
who's gone back to school so he has
students have touched my heart the
a better chance at life.
deepest - both because of their pain
Everyone can share that feeling.
and their successes.
That's because anyone can get in-
I remember a young man who
volved with literacy programs - ei-
couldn't read who told me he would
ther by donating their time, energy
never have children. He didn't want
or resources.
to pass on his "affliction."
Once in Boston, I saw a blind
And there was the elderly lady
man teaching two little boys how to
who was deeply religious, but never
read. I'll never forget it, and I hope
had been able to read her Bible.
you won't either.
"The problems of
illiteracy go far
beyond good
books that will
never be read
crime, drugs,
By Carol Powers, the White House
unemployment."
USA WEEKEND/MAY 12-14, 1989
5
5
NEW YORK CITY TRIBUNE
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1990
EDUCATION
An Open Letter to My Child's New Teacher
BY JOSEPH WALKER
Special to the New York City Tribune
ou and I have never met,
Y
but within a few months
we'll probably feel like we
know everything there is
to know about each other.
I'll know all about your
priorities, prejudices and peccadilloes;
you'll know about mine. Or at least,
we'll think we do. And all because we
have just one thing in common: my
daughter.
My wife and I have been trying to
teach her for almost nine years now.
Other teachers have been involved with
her at school and at church. It hasn't
always been easy, and we haven't
always been successful. But now it's
your turn. You get nine months to work
your magic on Andrea.
She's excited. And believe me, no one
wants you to succeed more than I do.
The way I see it, we're on the same
team. We just have different roles.
You're in charge of math, science,
history and how to turn a standard
sheet of paper into the world's largest
and most unusual snowflake. My wife
and I are in charge of character
development, values orientation, nu-
trition and personal hygiene.
The lines seem pretty clearly drawn.
But they do overlap from time to time.
For example, I'm not going to be able to
help Andrea much with math or science
- but I can diagram a mean sentence.
And even though I wouldn't want you
to teach Andrea how to pray, I do hope
you'll attempt to correct any dis-
afternoon or evening until the home-
authority or disciplinary decisions until
honesty, selfishness or thoughtlessness
work is done. You promise not to rely
Tve had a chance to talk to you about
you encounter in her along the way.
too much on the television in the
them. You promise not to question my
See what I mean? Teamwork. And if
classroom. Sure, I know it can be a
authority or child-raising decisions un-
we're both conscientious and do our
helpful tool. But it seems to me that an
less you honestly believe there's a
part, we can help turn this bright,
important part of the educational ex-
problem at home that is affecting her
energetic, enthusiastic little girl into a
perience is the give-and-take of human
performance at school. And then,
dynamic, capable woman who is well
interaction. And I'm concerned that it's
please, come talk to me first.
prepared to make a significant contri-
undermined the more we rely on TV as
I promise not to be defensive when
bution to society in whatever career she
the Great Dispenser of Information. If
you talk to me about a problem Andrea
chooses - including homemaking.
the educational program you want to
is having. You promise to be honest
But we could also mess things up for
show can take Andrea places where
enough to let me know when there is a
she's never been and show her things
her, which is why I wanted to write to
problem, and not to be offended if I
she's never seen, fine. But if it's just
choose to handle it in a different way
you.
another talking head, I'd rather she hear
Maybe if we work a few things out
than you suggest.
it from you.
right now at the start of the school year,
I promise to make sure she's at
we can avoid some of the difficulties
I promise to see to it that her
school every day possible, and that
that we might otherwise encounter.
religious instruction is taken care of at
she's ready to learn. That means I'll
Think of it as a Parent-Teacher Con-
home and at church. I won't expect you
make sure she gets plenty of rest, the
tract, with both of us making reciprocal
to fortify her faith, or to avoid subjects
kind of food that she needs and clothes
promises - and with Andrea eventu-
that might challenge her thinking. You
that will keep her warm and won't
ally emerging as the chief beneficiary.
promise not to assault her faith, or to
distract her fellow students. And I
make her feel embarrassed because she
I promise to take it easy on the
promise, no keeping her home to
believes that the world started with
sugar-coated cereals and sweet rolls for
babysit or attend some frivolous outing.
breakfast. How can you be expected to
something more than a Big Bang.
You promise to be there for her when
teach someone who is bouncing off the
I promise to teach her how to be a
she needs you - educationally and
walls on a sugar high?:Meanwhile, you
good citizen. We'll concentrate on
emotionally.
promise not to sugar-coat the edu-
things like sharing, being honest, work-
I promise to respect you. You prom-
cational process. The "Learning Can Be
ing hard, respecting authority and
ise to respect my child.
Fun" approach is great as long as the
getting along well with others. You
So, what do you think? Have we got
accent is on the learning, not the fun.
promise to do everything you can to see
a deal? Can we pull together to make a
Don't be afraid to make her sweat a
that she isn't taken advantage of by
difference in the life of this one little
little. Let her struggle through some
classmates who don't have the same
girl? Nine months isn't very long, you
tough problems on her own. And please
teaching at home.
know. But it's plenty long enough for
don't let her use the calculator until she
I promise to ignore half of what she
parents and teachers who communicate.
knows how to do the calculations on
tells us about you. You promise to
And who care.
paper.
ignore half of what she tells you about
I promise to keep the television off
us.
Joseph Walker is a bishop in The Church
before school. And no TV in the
I promise not to question your
of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Friday, Aug. 17, 1990
The Philadelphia Inquirer
13-B
nore involved in schools
rooms and less formality, but Comer put
ress on achievement tests.
more structure into running a school.
"If you looked at it generically as a school
ner
He set up in each school a "governance
improvement plan, used all the compo-
team" led by the principal, and including
nents, followed the guidelines, it's almost
cure for
the elected representatives of parents,
foolproof," the official said. "But you gen-
teachers, professional staff, and, in some
erally have not had a strong commitment
se who
cases, custodians. Its job was identifying
on the part of the principals. For a lot of
the school's needs, coming up with a plan
people, it's a pain."
is one of
to meet them and measuring the progress.
In some school districts, resistance has
The components of the plan may range
been so strong that Comer's consultants
from improving vocabulary skills, to boost-
have opted not to even try the program
ing attendance, to organizing social events
because they knew it would fail, said James
that will draw parents to the school.
Boger, coordinator of the Comer program
Belinda Brown acknowledges that she
says. "This is
at the Yale Child Study Center.
was "very hostile" when she first visited
Still, he said he had seen a marked rise in
her son's third-grade classroom in Benton
is not the cure
interest in the last few years.
Harbor, Mich., to see why he was complain-
ols, those who
ing. The teacher invited Brown to work
"People are beginning to understand
of their best
that a student will not achieve unless he or
with one particularly disruptive child who
had fallen behind in math, reading and
she is in a warm and caring environment,"
in our school
spelling. Now, the 30-year-old mother of
Boger said. "Schools are beginning to un-
walk a little
three is on the school system payroll, work-
derstand and appreciate that parents are
supervisor of
ing part time at minimum wage - such
the primary teachers."
ince George's
positions being a standard feature in the
Comer draws many of his ideas on child
Comer process.
development from his own experiences
all over," she
Brown says the Comer process has given
growing up in East Chicago, Ind., during
Arizona asking
her "a burden to get other parents in-
the 1930s and 1940s. He recalls attending an
her out there."
volved, because I see what happens when
integrated school with three other black
early, difficult
they don't."
youngsters, all of whom had similar back-
school system,
Mistrust and cynicism can exist on both
grounds and abilities. One ended up in jail,
between what
sides, particularly in troubled schools that
another died of alcoholism and a third
e and what is
have been buffeted by one reform fad after
lived much of his life in mental institu-
ly in disadvan-
another. "There were some schoolhouse
tions. Comer graduated from medical
0 often did not
people, I think, who were afraid that par-
school.
likely to feel
ents would take over everything.
There
"Why did my life turn out better?" he has
ard the school.
were parents who believed this would be a
written. "I think it was largely because my
it further in-
passing thing," Stocklinski said.
parents, unlike those of my friends, gave
In the economically depressed Benton
me the social skills and confidence that
en other educa-
Harbor area, the Comer process has had
enabled me to take advantage of educa-
g open class-
mixed reviews and produced uneven prog-
tional opportunities."
Speechpping
SEPTEMBER 2, 1990 PARADE MAGAZINE
It's International Literacy Year
filed
WhyReading
56/ks
Matters
Photos by Gwendolen Cate
Mr. Rivera
was a forceful
symbol
of what
can happen
when a young
person
fails to learn
to read
Alex Haley found in Joseph Rivera-at right, with his wife, Angela,
and daughter, Maria-a man who managed to turn his life around.
This is International Literacy Year, and next Saturday
The coincidence struck me as remarkable. since
is International Literacy Day. All across America, news-
PARADE had just asked me to write an article about
papers will be publishing articles focusing attention
the critical nationwide need for a higher level of literacy
on the problem of illiteracy in America and around
and reading. The obviously capable Mr. Rivera was an
the world, and what can be done about it. Thus, we
immediate and forceful symbol of whatcan happen when
asked the distinguished author Alex Haley to explore
a young person fails to learn to read-and, fortunately,
the significance of literacy in our society today.
he also symbolizes how those in need can take them-
selves in hand and do something about it.
WHILE SHOPPING IN A KNOXVILLE SUPERMARKET
We talked a little more, then bade each other good-
recently, I was startled when a smiling, personable clerk
bye. I was fascinated by our conversation, and intrigued.
came up and grasped my hand. "My tutor just assigned
There were a few more things I wanted to ask him.
me an article about you that's in my study book," he
exclaimed. "Sir, I'm studying to learn to read."
Functional illiteracy is the inability of an individual to
The young man, who identified himself as Joseph
use reading, writing or math skills in everyday life. While
Rivera, said he'd bluffed his way through high school
10F2
no one knows precisely how many Americans cannot
until he finally dropped out to work full-time because
read, many major agencies and programs that focus on
he saw no pressing need for reading or writing.
the problem have estimated the number at more than
BY ALEX HALEY
and the markers were situated at points cor-
27 million. Illiteracy connects to all sorts of problems,
responding to those years in the growth of
ranging from poverty to relations with spouses and chil-
READING MATTERS/continued
the tree.
dren to the simple inability to fill out a request for a
I was told that, if I'd read all I could,
ing that position, but I knew that every
fishing license.
whenever I found something notably his-
day a manager had to be reading all differ-
Several nonprofit organizations develop and establish
toric, then that could become another mark-
ent kinds of stuff. My heart ached, I wanted
programs to overcome illiteracy. They also train volun-
er in my slice of tree. From then on, I read
that position so bad. But I told them I didn't
teers to tutor adults and young people. Two leading organ-
every book I could handle, along with my
feel I was ready yet.
izations are Literacy Volunteers of America and Laubach
grandpa's newspapers for black people,
"The company's officials knew some-
Literacy Action, both based in Syracuse, N.Y. And the
which came by mail. Today, I absolutely
thing was wrong. Of course I could tell
First Lady heads The Barbara Bush Foundation for Fam-
believe that the reading inspired by the tree
that, you know, from how they looked and
ily Literacy, which identifies successful programs, awards
slice greatly influenced my becoming an
acted when they happened to be any where
grants and supports training for teachers.
author. It is also why I like most of all to
around me. And that's about when I started
In addition, many newspapers across the country sup-
write about historical subjects.
port literacy programs. In 1988, more than half the For-
coming home, real uptight and upset, and
I'd holler at Angela.
tune 500 companies offered literacy programs to their
Those questions I had in mind about
"One evening, she hollered back, 'You
employees. The most important thing to recognize, as
Joseph Rivera continued to tug at me, and
these programs teach us, is that the person we are talking
can do something about it, if you really
finally I returned to the supermarket. I
want to!'
about might very well be living right next door. And I
wanted to know more about how he had
"Do what?'
believe that, by helping him or her, we help ourselves.
reached adulthood actually unable to read
Finally, they ended up going to a teach-
Much also is being done in public libraries across the
and what his life had been like as a result.
ers' supply house and got a cassette and
country to awaken the joys of reading for individuals
We went to breakfast with his wife and
a book.
like Joseph Rivera.
baby daughter.
Rivera had brought along that first les-
In Harrisburg recently, I visited the "Propelling Read-
As I listened during our breakfast. Ri-
son to show me. The book's first page con-
ing" program developed by the Dauphin County, Pa.,
vera told me the story of illiteracy far more
tained a sketch of a bird and four words:
library system. This is clearly one of America's outstand-
vividly than all the statistics I'd read.
"This is a bird."
ing models of how first-graders are "propelled" into a
"Do you want to believe I couldn't have
love of books and reading.
Joseph Rivera was born in New Orleans
read that to save my life?" Rivera flipped
Richard A. Bowra, director of the Dauphin
on Oct. 26, 1961, one of four sons of a
through subsequent pages of the book. "This
County library system, noted that every first-grade
Puerto Rican father who could neither read
is a dish
This
is
a
girl
This
is
a
hand.'
classroom in the program contains a shelf of spe-
nor write English, "but he could repair any
said, 'All of this was about five years
cially selected books, and that teachers, parents,
washing machine ever made," Rivera said,
ago. And after this book, then, finally I
older students and school library staffers read
"and he could assemble an automobile's
did go to a reading tutor. That was the
aloud to the first-graders every day.
engine from its parts."
hardest thing I have ever done in my life
"We've found that our vital link to our pro-
"My mind was on hustling for some
-to go and admit to that woman, face-to-
gram's success is the immediate presence of the
spending money when I started school,"
face, that I had a problem, I couldn't read,
books in the classrooms," said Bowra. "Also we
Rivera said. "I'd stick a book up before
and I really had to do something about it.
publish tips for parents about new books, and
we have family-reading nights." The program
my face or make pencil marks on a tablet
Rivera paused. "At least that got me seri-
to look like I was reading or writing, and
ously started." He looked across the table
has achieved such success, he said, that one of
the nine branches has increased in use seven times
when I got too big to be in that class, the
at Angela, who was holding their daugh-
teachers would pass me on.
ter of 8 months, Maria.
since it was built in 1976.
"All the time, I was learning many ways
"I'm going to tell you the truth. Over
"Mainly, it has worked so well because our
to bluff it, so nobody would know I couldn't
four years with tutors, I had come along a
program fits into an ordinary elementary school's
read or write. One good result was I learned
good way. But when Angela told me she
curriculum and because it's fun for the kids, par-
to listen very closely to what other people
was pregnant, when it meant that I was
ents, teachers-especially because the kids feel
said, because that fed me with clues to
going to be the father of a baby, all of a
their reading was their idea."
help me cover up if somebody asked me
sudden I knew what I had to do with the
Another major success is in Fairfax County, Va., whose
something. Maybe it might involve some-
rest of my life. No more faking, no more
first library was a bookmobile that roamed the streets in
thing printed on paper. Well, I'd glance at
bluffing my way. And from that day to
1939. That system today has 22 branches, a $19.7 mil-
it real fast before I'd say, 'Yeah, right!'
this, I have been reading my head off. There
lion budget for 1991 and plans to build or expand 11 librar-
By this time, I'd learned I had to be real
is no way I'm not going to read at least an
ies. In some young people's departments, the libraries
careful whom I'd let know I couldn' tread,
hour every day to that little one you're
offer special attractions such as resident gerbils.
because plenty of people reacted as if you
looking at! Just like reading, and just like
These unusual enticements evoke a warmth in me
were afflicted with some catching disease.
her mother, this daddy's little girl has made
because they lead me to recall how my parents and grand-
"But by now I'd learned to fake. For
a big difference in my life. I mean, they'
parents came along with something different on the occa-
example, if I took a date to a restaurant,
all opened up for me a whole new world."
sion of my fourth birthday in my dusty little cotton-farms
always I'd order for myself something I
Joseph Rivera fell silent. His eyes had
hometown of Henning, Tenn. Sixty years later, I still
knew they had, like maybe the original
remember vividly how they presented me with a foot-
become moist with his emotion. I thought
New Orleans Po' Boy sandwich, which is
that it was maybe the ideal time to give
thick slice from a big California redwood tree. Small
fried oysters between French bread.
him what I had brought. I withdrew from
white markers were stuck in it at different places. With
"Working in a warehouse, if somebody
our family all solemnly gathered. my father used a point-
my bag a copy of Roots, which I opened
handed me an order list, well, at least I
er to illustrate how the tree's growth rings had come one
on the table, and signed-writing rather
knew my ABCs enough that I could care-
slowly-with him and his wife watching:
each year, that each white marker represented some event,
fully compare the letters on the list and
Joseph, Angela and Maria Rivera, with
match them up with the letter on a box in
Brotherly Love.'
the warehouse.
Then I handed it to Rivera. Such were
"I mean, I could do just about anything
the messages we both felt to be conveyed,
I wanted to do, except to read."
such were the significances-about the
It was around age 22 that he and Angela
great meanings and values of literacy, and
got married, Rivera said. She was from
of reading-that he and I both quite open-
Knoxville, she worked for a music com-
ly had moist eyes.
pany, she could read like a whiz and she
thought he was teasing when he told her
For more information, write to Literacy
he couldn't read.
Volunteers of America, Dept. P2, 5975
"Then I took a job at the Schwegmann
Widewaters Parkway, Syracuse, N.Y.
supermarket,' he went on. "After a while
13214; or Laubach Literacy Action, Dept.
I rose to assistant floor supervisor. Then
P, Box 131. 1320 Jamesville Ave., Syra-
they next offered me a chance to train to
cuse, N.Y. 13210.
be a store manager. Man, I could taste hav-
continued
2
OFZ
The National Teacher of the Year Program
National Teachers of the Year - 1952-1991
1991
Rae Ellen McKee - Remedial Reading
Slanesville Elementary School, Slanesville, West Virginia
1990
Janis Gabay - English
Junipero Serra High School, San Diego, California
1989
Mary V. Bicouvaris - Government/International Relations
Bethel High School, Hampton, Virginia
1988
Terry Weeks - Social Studies
Central Middle School, Murfreesboro, Tennessee
1987
Donna H. Oliver - Biology
Hugh M. Cummings High School, Burlington, North Carolina
1986
Guy R. Doud - Language Arts
Brainerd Senior High School, Brainerd, Minnesota
1985
Therese Knecht Dozier - World History
Irmo High School, Columbia, South Carolina
1984
Sherleen Sisney - History, Economics and Political Science
Ballard High School, Louisville, Kentucky
1983
LeRoy E. Hay, Ph.D. - English
Manchester High School, Manchester, Connecticut
1982
Bruce E. Brombacher - Mathematics
Jones Junior High School, Upper Arlington, Ohio
1981
Jay Sommer - Foreign Languages
New Rochelle High School, New Rochelle, New York
1.980
Beverly J. Bimes-Michalak - English
Hazelwood East High School, St. Louis, Missouri
1
NATIONAL TEACHER OF THE YEAR PROGRAM
Forty Year Facts
States with National Teachers of the Year
1951-1991
2
3
2
2
1
MM
2
2
2
E
2
3
2
Thirteen National
Teachers (31%) have
Three (9%) National
taught at the
Teachers have taught
Twenty-five (60%)
Elementary
at the Middle or
National Teachers
Grade level.
Junior High School
have taught at the
level.
High School level.
In the forty years of the program
In 1957 two National Teachers were
60% (26) National Teachers have
named 1 elementary and 1 high school.
been female and 40% (15) have
This is the only year in which this
been male.
occurred.
All National Teachers that remain in the workforce are still
directly connected with teaching, either in the classroom,
administration, higher education, or as education consultants.
The first National Teacher retired in 1989.
The National Teacher of the Year Program Sponsors
The Council of Chief State School Officers
in partnership with
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
ThCouncil of Chief State School Officers was founded in 1927 and since 1948
has been headquartered in Washington, D.C. The Council is a nationwide non-profit
organization comprised of the 57 public officials who head the departments of elementary
and secondary education in the 50 states, five extra-state jurisdictions, the District of
Columbia, and the Department of Defense Dependents' Schools. Because the Council
represents the chief education administrator, it has access to the educational and
governmental establishment in each state and the national influence that accompanies
this unique position. The Council seeks its members' consensus on major education
issues and expresses their views to civic and professional organizations, to federal
agencies, to Congress, and to the public. The Council creates and coordinates seminars,
educational travel and study programs that offer many opportunities for the professional
growth and development of chief state school officers and their management teams. In
addition to providing professional development opportunities for chief state school
officers, the Council undertakes projects which address areas of concern at the state level
and are designed to strengthen public education through each state education agency.
Herbert J. Grover, Superintendent of Public Instruction in Wisconsin, is the 1991
president.
Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc, publishes the 32-volume The New Encyclopaedia
Britannica. Introduced in 1768 The Encyclopaedia Britannica is the oldest continuously
published reference work in the English language. The recent major revision of the
landmark 15th edition is considered among the finest reference works of its kind. In
addition Britannica publishes Compton's Encyclopaedia and other reference works.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. is one of the world's largest producers of education films
through Encyclopaedia Britannica Educational Corporation. The film catalog of
Encyclopaedia Britannica Educational Corporation includes more than a half century of
educational films and is the most extensive of any film producer in the world. Other
elements of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., include Merriam-Webster, Inc., publishers of
Merriam-Webster dictionaries, and American Learning Corporation, which operates
approximately 100 prescriptive learning skills centers in many major metropolitan markets.
The company publishes other learning materials, including computer software which like
its educational films covers a multitude of subjects. American Learning Corporation's
Britannica Learning Centers offer both basic math, preschool reading, scholastic aptitude
test preparation, college learning skills, and Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics and Study
Dynamics. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
GENERAL INFORMATION
The National Teacher of the Year Program is the oldest and most prestigious awards
program to focus public attention on excellence in teaching. The program, now in its 39th
year, is sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers in partnership with
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Each year every chief state school officer is invited to nominate a candidate from his or
her jurisdiction. Method and materials used to select the state candidate may vary.
Scrapbooks or portfolios are not required at the national program level.
Candidates are expected to be skilled and dedicated teachers in any state-approved or
accredited school, pre-kindergarten through grade twelve, who are planning to continue in
an active teaching status. Since the purpose of the program is to recognize the
contributions of the classroom teacher, supervisory and administrative responsibilities are
of secondary consideration. The candidate should inspire students of all backgrounds and
abilities to learn. The candidate should have the respect and admiration of students,
parents and colleagues and should play an active and useful role in the community as well
as in the school.
Since 1980 the National Teacher of the Year has been released from classroom duties
during the school year. This has allowed the Teacher to travel throughout the country, and
increasingly throughout the world, speaking before a variety of business, community and
education groups. Therefore, the candidate must be poised, articulate and possess the
energy to withstand a taxing schedule.
A selection committee of national educational leaders selects four finalists from all
nominations received. The four finalists are brought to Washington, D.C., for individual
interviews with the National Selection Committee who subsequently select the national
winner.
Each year the National Teacher of the Year is honored and introduced to the nation at a
White House ceremony and at other special functions in Washington, D.C. All state
Teachers of the Year receive engraved citations signed by representatives of the National
Teacher of the Year Program sponsors.
1991 BRITANNICA
STATE TEACHER OF THE YEAR PROGRAM
GRANT AWARDS
The National Teacher of the Year and the State Teacher of the Year programs are the
premier teacher recognition programs for the United States. The Britannica State Teacher
of the Year Program Grant Awards, sponsored by the Council of Chief State School
Officers in partnership with Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., is a competitive grants award
program designed to enhance State Teacher of the Year programs by making available
funds to increase the visibility of the State Teacher of the Year during the year of their
recognition.
These grants are to cover the State Teacher of the Year's expenses for presenting at and
participating in conferences and events (ie. meetings with editorial boards, organizations,
community groups, business leaders or school visits, teacher preparation institutions,
education forums, seminars, workshops) that enable the teacher to share talents with
colleagues, the public at large, or prospective teachers and to give greater recognition to
the Teacher and the teaching profession. Grant funds may not be used for administrative
purposes, substitute teacher reimbursement or by anyone other than the State Teacher of
the Year.
Approximately 20 grants will be made ranging in size from $3,000 to $10,000 depending of
the population of the state. Application may be made by any state education agency that
participates in the National Teacher of the Year Program.
Review is based on the quality of the current State Teacher of the Year Program and of
the project plans, the level, quality and commitment of assistance provided by the state
education agency to the teacher of the year and by the teacher's local education agency;
and the characteristics of the state in terms of size and the area served.
Information may be obtained by contacting the National Teacher of the Year Program, 379
Hall of the States, 400 North Capitol Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001-1511, 202/393-
8168.