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Change is something that I have struggled
with administrators about throughout
teaching career. When I developed something innovative and felt
it would help students and others administrators always
turned it down with the saying, "We don't do that here!"
When I first started teaching World Geography I quickly realized
students had no idea about the world. I had to start by
teaching them about the continents etc. When I asked them
questions about their community they had no idea about the area
where they lived and went to school. I decided to write a
comprehensive curriculum about East New York, Brooklyn. I would
then use it as a beginning a microcosm to explore the world.
Even after receiving the following letters I still was not allowed
to teach it in classroom:
October
18, 1971 - Berriman Junior High School 64 "Your study
of East New York is an exceptional piece of work." (Milton
Greenberg - Principal)
January
25, 1973 "I
read with great interest your detailed report on East New York,
and found it to be an accurate account of the ethnic, economic and
racial changes which have occurred in the last 15-20 years." (A.
Frederick Meyerson - N.Y.S. Senator-15th Dist.)
It took years before we got a new superintendent (after three
before him) allowed me to share this in the curriculum he let me
and two others create for the entire school district.
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