On July 6, 2006, Derek L. wrote:
"I just read your prologue and found it so uncannily close to my own experiences. I began teaching fourth grade in Key West after leaving a job with New York City's public assistance agency as a caseworker. When one school closed and we were sent to downtown Key West to a school called Frederick Douglas Elementary, I found myself in purgatory. I recall one trip to the principal's office with a kid I caught mugging a smaller kid in the bathroom. The large woman, (ex-coach, of course) principal ran her fingers through [the student's] hair and remarked that 'Black is beautiful.' I had to stand there and look stupid, as if it were my fault I had grabbed a thief and ruined her lunch hour (which she usually spent at the officers' club knocking back some booze most of the afternoon). She did the same thing one other time asking, 'Why can't you boys get along?'
"Years later (20 or more), I took a job at an inner-city high school in Broward County, Florida. Due to my 'poor classroom management,' plus my yelling at a class of balky Haitian teens who were out of control, I had a letter inserted into my file by the principal. Later, when I had taken enough graduate courses to get 'special ed' (for specific learning disabilities) put on my elementary certificate, I found I could not get any answers to my resumes that I had sent out. Later on -- when, out of desperation, I took a part-time job teaching disabled adults -- I found out I almost didn't get that job because I had been put on a 'marginal list.'
"There is a lot more about all this but it hurts to recollect the mental injuries I had to sustain during those years.
"Derek (now 72 and not ever going back into a classroom again)"
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