An Indiana teacher who used a much lauded bestseller, The Freedom Writers Diary, to try to inspire under-performing high-school students has been suspended from her job without pay for 18 months.
The effective book ban by the school authorities in Perry Township has outraged teachers and education reformers.
The Writers Diary, a series of true stories written by inner-city teenagers, was put together by a teacher, Erin Gruwell, and has been celebrated as a model for transforming young lives. It was made into a film with Hilary Swank last year.
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US teacher is suspended for letting pupils read bestseller
Blog: A vocal minority speaks up once more
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Thursday July 3, 2008
The Guardian
An Indiana teacher who used a much lauded bestseller, The Freedom Writers Diary, to try to inspire under-performing high-school students has been suspended from her job without pay for 18 months.
The effective book ban by the school authorities in Perry Township has outraged teachers and education reformers.
The Writers Diary, a series of true stories written by inner-city teenagers, was put together by a teacher, Erin Gruwell, and has been celebrated as a model for transforming young lives. It was made into a film with Hilary Swank last year.
Article continues
Connie Heermann, a teacher for 27 years, sought permission to introduce the book to her students last autumn after attending a training workshop held by the Freedom Writers Foundation. "If you read the whole book you will see how these inner-city students grow and change and become articulate, compassionate, educated young people who want to do something good in their lives despite the environment in which they were raised," she told the Guardian. "I thought my students would very much relate to those kids."
Her head agreed and Heermann got written permission from nearly 150 parents, but the Perry Meridian high school board urged her to wait for its decision.
Teachers' union officials say that a single board member objected to swearing in the book. The school board member allegedly persuaded the other six officials to ban Heermann from teaching the book. It remains available in school libraries.
Heermann and the union say there was no explicit ban on the book when she handed it out to pupils on November 15. But later that day she received an email from the board advising her not to teach the book. "That was the pivotal moment of my life, when I saw how my students were taken with the book, how they loved it, and then I am told not to let them read it? I said no," she said.
After being threatened with dismissal, Heermann was eventually suspended. The union is deciding whether to take the case to court.
The school board denies book banning and accuses Heermann of insubordination. Barbara Thompson, the school board president, wrote in an email yesterday: "She knew she had defied her supervisors' direction in her work and that her defiance was 'insubordination' and 'neglect of duty'."
books.guardian.co.uk/news/ar...,00.html
The effective book ban by the school authorities in Perry Township has outraged teachers and education reformers.
The Writers Diary, a series of true stories written by inner-city teenagers, was put together by a teacher, Erin Gruwell, and has been celebrated as a model for transforming young lives. It was made into a film with Hilary Swank last year.
Atwood scoops Spanish literary prize
Medals for books of myth and mice
UP
US teacher is suspended for letting pupils read bestseller
Blog: A vocal minority speaks up once more
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Thursday July 3, 2008
The Guardian
An Indiana teacher who used a much lauded bestseller, The Freedom Writers Diary, to try to inspire under-performing high-school students has been suspended from her job without pay for 18 months.
The effective book ban by the school authorities in Perry Township has outraged teachers and education reformers.
The Writers Diary, a series of true stories written by inner-city teenagers, was put together by a teacher, Erin Gruwell, and has been celebrated as a model for transforming young lives. It was made into a film with Hilary Swank last year.
Article continues
Connie Heermann, a teacher for 27 years, sought permission to introduce the book to her students last autumn after attending a training workshop held by the Freedom Writers Foundation. "If you read the whole book you will see how these inner-city students grow and change and become articulate, compassionate, educated young people who want to do something good in their lives despite the environment in which they were raised," she told the Guardian. "I thought my students would very much relate to those kids."
Her head agreed and Heermann got written permission from nearly 150 parents, but the Perry Meridian high school board urged her to wait for its decision.
Teachers' union officials say that a single board member objected to swearing in the book. The school board member allegedly persuaded the other six officials to ban Heermann from teaching the book. It remains available in school libraries.
Heermann and the union say there was no explicit ban on the book when she handed it out to pupils on November 15. But later that day she received an email from the board advising her not to teach the book. "That was the pivotal moment of my life, when I saw how my students were taken with the book, how they loved it, and then I am told not to let them read it? I said no," she said.
After being threatened with dismissal, Heermann was eventually suspended. The union is deciding whether to take the case to court.
The school board denies book banning and accuses Heermann of insubordination. Barbara Thompson, the school board president, wrote in an email yesterday: "She knew she had defied her supervisors' direction in her work and that her defiance was 'insubordination' and 'neglect of duty'."
books.guardian.co.uk/news/ar...,00.html
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Ahhh, nothing can quite crush idealism like our public school system~!!! This will teach her to try and make the world a better place. Back to your uninspired mumblings of "Grapes of Wrath" Mrs. Gruwell
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Why in the world would they ban this book? For telling the truth!!!! I lived 5 blocks from that HS and even after several years when the story happened it is still a fed up school. Most of the teachers don't give a shit about anything other than surviving anther day. The administration just wants to get by until the day they can retire, most of the students are future wastes of America born to a parent (or parents) of past American waste -- with and without good paying careers / jobs.
What a shame that the majority of Americans would rather keep silent and force others to stay slient instead of trying to fix the problem.
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More clear proof that the educational system is over run by politically biased leftists.
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I almost agree...everytime someone wants to ban a book from being read in our school systems, it is because it was religiously influenced...there are many books and ideas that have been taken out of educational circulation due to it "conflicting" with religious beliefs. I think this has a lot to do with it.
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