1110 1.4 111111-6- MICROCOPY RESOLUTIONr_TEST CHART NAION AL' BUREAU. OVSAMONIDS-1963!,- DOCUMENT RESUME ED 079 230 SP 006 016 TITLE Schools Are People..An Anthology of Stories Highlighting the Human Drama of Teaching and Learning. INSTITUTION National Education Association, Washington, D.C. PUB DATE 71 NOTE 203p. AVAILABLE FROMNEA Publication-Sales Section, 1201 Sixteenth Street, N. _W., Washington; D. C. 20036 (Stock Now 381-11960 $3.50) EDRS PRICE MF-$0.65 BC Not Available from EDRS. DESCRIPTORS Classroom Environment; *Fiction; *Literary Perspective; *Student Teacher Relationship; *Teacher Education ABSTRACT This is a collectiqn of stories written by novelists, educators, and short story writers._It is designed to allow the teacher to experience vicariously the successes and failures of their counterparts' through fiction. The stories are about students and teachers in and out of the classroom setting._Included are such noted writers as Shirley Jackson, Harper-Leer-James Michener, Claude Brown, Jesse Stuart, and others. (JB) r I FILMED FROM BEST AVAILABLE COPY NOV21 1972 An Anthology of Stories Highlighting the Human Drama of Teaching and Learning From TODAY'S EDUCATION: NEA JOURNAL and Other Sources nea NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION U.5 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THISCOPY. EDUCATION A WELFARE RIGHTEO MATERIAL HAS BEENGRANTED BY NATIONAL INSTITUTEOF , EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO 14/E4 DUCE() EXACTLY AS THE PERSON OR RECEIVED FROM ATING IT POINTSORGANIZATION OF ORIGIN TO ERIC AND ORGANIZATIONS VIEW OR OPINIONS OPERATING STATED DO NOT UNOER AGREEMENTS WITH THE SENT OFFICIAL NATIONALNECESSARILY REPRE NATIONAL IN- INSTITUTE OF STITUTE OF EDUCATION. FURTHERREPRO. EDUCATION POSITIONOR POLICY RUCTION OUTSIDE THE FRIGSYSTEM RE. CORES PERMISSION OF THECOPYRIGHT OWNER Copyright © 1971 National Education Association of the United States All Rights Reserved. Further reproduction in whole or in part by permission only. Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 70-150904. Single copy: paper, $3.50 (Stock No. 381- 11960); cloth, $5.25 (Stock No. 381-11958). Quantity discounts: 2-9 copies, 10 per: cent; 10 or more copies, 20 percent. All orders must be prepaid except for those on your official purchase order forms. Shipping and handling charges will be added to billed purchase orders. Make checks payable to the National Education Association. Order from the NEA Publications-Sales Section 1201 Sixteenth Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20036 Contents Page 1 Charles Shirley Jackson 6 The Ordeal of Lady Godiva Gwen Walker 15 A New Way of Teaching Harper Lee 21 Mama Breaks the Reading Barrier Lotta S. Page 24 The Snow Child Phyllis Reynolds Naylor 25 Hasta Luego, Gatito Marcella S. Rawe 29 The Children's Story James Clavell 39 Miss Anna's Asleep! Jesse Stuart 44 A Candle for Barbara Phyllis Reynolds Naylor 50 Travail Mary Gibbons 55 Ricardo Virginia H. Ormsby 58 Miss Lizzie Is a Old Crab Elizabeth Robinson Barton 63 The Sandwich Crisis Jean Kerr 67 The Martyrdom of Andy Ben F. Burton 70 Closed ... Eleanor Graham Levi 71 Freedom Is Freedom James Oliver Killens 75 The Shoes Paul E. Mawhinney v Page 78 Turquoise Trail Jessie Alford Nunn 82 The Voyager Louie Grace Eidman 87 Dark Splinters Helen B. Lobdell 91 A Lessomin Discipline Teresa Foley 97 Baseball Girls' Style Jack Cushman 100 Who Is Virgil T. Fry? James A. Michener 105 And the World Stopped, Waiting Jack Heimowitz 108 I Read All These Books ... Claude Brown 111 Cipher in the Snow Jean E. Mizer 114 First Day Bel Kaufman. 119 Grassy Jesse Stuart 123 Whatever Became of Agnes Mason? Anne Hobson Freeman 130 Billy the Kid Brownie Bernice Brown 133 The Professor's Punch Stephen Vincent Benet 142 The Roommate Lucile Vaughan Payne 154 Crisis at Rocky Hill Peter Schrag 158 All Protests Met at Goodcheer U. Art Buchwald 160 Flowers for Algernon Daniel Keyes 180 Thirty Days Had September Robert F. Young vi Introduction QCHOOLS are people. How can a kindergarten childtell about his Liday without mentioning his teacher and aroomful of five-year- olds? At the opposite end of the educational scale:How often can a graduate student discuss his dissertation withoutreferring to his major professor? Schools are curriculum too, of course. They are books and equip- ment. Also buildings, Budgets. Theseand more, schools arebut first and last, they are people. This is a collection of stories about the peoplewhose interrela- tionshipsteacher-pupil,teacher-colleague, teacher-parent con- tribute to the poignancy and the drama, the smilesand the heartaches, in that most fascinating of worlds theschool. Perceptive teachers will see their own reflectionsin the mirrors offered here- whether it be that of a Mr. Fry,praised by his students, criticized by adults; a Miss Anna, beloved bythree generations; a Miss Lizzie, generally regarded as "a oldcrab"; a Mrs. Cohen, who reached a young near-delinquent via the book route; aProfessor Carroll, who cast an early stone on the college campus. You as a teacher may be happy to be remindedthat you have often lightened a little girl's burdens, as Freda'steacher did the spring after the winter she had pneumonia. You maybe pleased to think that, like 01' Man Weber, you gave a boy what waseasily the happiest day of his life. You may rejoice to recall your partin the triumph-of many a Billy the Kid. You may suffer a stab of self-recognition whenMr. Marston's preoccupied "Haven't time now" dm.troys a fragilebridge of com- munication. You may ruefully remember your ownineptitude when Miss Fisher ruins Scout's first day in the firstgrade. You may relive your chagrin at jumping to an erroneousconclusion with the obtuse- ness of Miss Walmsley, the dorni matronwho knew the words but not the melody of student relationships. Vicarious experiencing of the successes andfailures of their counterparts in fiction and autobiography canhelp teachers set their professional thermostat to a higher degree ofcaring. Even more, it can aid prospective teachers in developing,sensitivity. Begin- ning with Charles in kindergarten and proceedingchronologically throughout this volume from Penny in the first grade to ArtBuch- weld's protesting students at Goodcheer U., future teachers will meet vii the boys and girls who will teach them lessons that can influence their teaching in the years to come. We therefore hope that profes- sors of education will make a point of introducing their students to the youngsters who come alive in this anthology. Though designed priniarily for teachers and future teacheis, this volume has relevance for parents also. The stories may help them understand not only their own childrer: but their children'i class- matesRicardo, the dashing young Cuban refugee in the fourth grade; Ramon, the little migrant, and his friend, Gatito; Nat, the black high school boy who seemed too good to be real; the Indian children of the Turquoise Trail; brilliant Grassy, who jumped higher than his teacher realized; Edward, the slow learner whose mother did not want him "put in with the dumb kids" and the ways in which teachers work -with all of them. And parents will find in Jean Kerr's "Sandwich Crisis" a common adventure in light - heartedness. For the thoughftil reader of any persuasion, the stories present today's school in microcosm. Interested in the frustrations of urban education? See Bel Kauf- man's "First Day" from Up the Down Staircase. Curriculum enrichment for children of minority groups? Read the episode from John Oliver Killens' Youngblood, in which Robby grows in self-respect as he learns about Harriet Tubman and the free- dom railroad. Education of the handicapped? Spend time with Charlie Gor- don, and don't let the fact that Daniel Keyes' "Flowers for Algernon" is science fiction mislead you into underestimating the plight of the mentally retarded. The power of education for good or evil? Don't miss James Cla- vell's tale about the method by which a teacher trained as puppeteer manipulated the thinking of Johnny and his fellow second-graders. But when all is said and done, the stories which are gathered together here are not primarily instruments of in-service or preser- vice education. Nor are they vehicles for interpretation of the schools to parent or public. They are, above all else, good reading that we hope you'll enjoy. We the NEA Journal staffpresent for your en- joyment this anthology of stories we have carried in Today's Educa- tion as well as additional ones we especially want you to seestories about the people who are the schools. Mildred-Sandison Fenner Editor Today's Education: NEA Journal viii Credits Positions given for teachers andother authors are as of the timeof of the NEA Journal waschanged to To- original publication. The title rule, day's Education: NEA Journal inSeptember 1968. As a general and teachers have been changedin pieces portray- names of children winners ing true incidents. An *indicates, stories Which were prize in NEA JournalReader's Digest Teachers'Writing Competition. Charles: Shirley Jackson, novelistand short story writer. Copyright © 1948 -1949, Shirley Jackson.Reprinted from The Lottery by Shirley Jackson by permissionof Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc. NEA Journal, October 1960. The Ordeal of Lady Godiva: GwenWalker. Copyright ©1957, Downe Publishing, Inc. Reprinted from theJanuary 1958 issue of Ladies' Home Journal by permissionof Downe Publishing, Inc.NEA Journal, October 1961. A New Way of Teaching:Harper Lee, Pulitzer Prizewinning author. Copyright © 1960, Harper Lee.Reprinted from To Kill aMocking- bird by Harper Lee by permissionof J. B. Lippincott Company. *Mama Breaks the Reading Barrier:Lotta S. Page, bUsiness education and stenography teacher, QuincyHigh School, Quincy, Massa- chusetts. Copyright © December 1966,NEA Journal. The Snow Child: Phyllis ReynoldsNaylor, author of numerous chil- dren's books and magazine articles.CopyrightDecember 1961, NEA Journal., *Hasta Luego, Gatito: MarcellaS.