Using Details

Audre Lorde’s Zami

“For our mother’s souse, it didn’t matter what kind of meat was used. You could have hearts, or beefends, or even chicken backs and gizzards when we were really poor. It was the pounded-up saucy blend of herb and spice rubbed into the meat before it was left to stand so for a few hours before cooking that made that dish so special and unforgettable. But my mother had some very firm ideas about what she liked best to cook and about which were her favorite dishes, and souse was definitely not one of either.”

For Mrs. Gruell’s class, it didn’t matter where you came from. You could be black, white, Mexican, Puerto Rican or even Arabic. It was the sense of community and affinity, regardless of their backgrounds, that brought them together and gave them a sense of family. Although Mrs. Gruell didn’t anticipate teaching a class of such intransigent students, she took it upon herself to bring them together as one and give them the sense of wholesomeness that they were lacking.

Mike Rose’s I Just Wanna Be Average

“Jack MacFarland couldn't have come into my life at a better time. My father was dead, and I had logged up too many years of scholastic indifference. Mr. MacFarland had a master's degree from Columbia and decided, at twenty-six, to find a little school and teach his heart out. He never took any credentialing courses, couldn't bear to, he said, so he had to find employment in a private system. He ended up at Our Lady of Mercy teaching five sections of senior English. He was a beatnik who was born too late. His teeth were stained, he tucked his sorry tie in between the third and fourth buttons of his shirt, and his pants were chronically wrinkled. At first, we couldn't believe this guy, thought he slept in his car. But within no time, he had us so startled with work that we didn't much worry about where he slept or if he slept at all.”

Mrs. Gruell couldn’t have come to Woodrow Wilson High at a better time. The students desire to learn was dead and at that point, they didn’t think anything could save them. Mrs. Gruell was a new teacher from Newport Beach who decided to take the opportunity to teach at a newly integrated high school. She had never worked in a position like this one, but she took it upon herself to make the most of the situation because she knew no other teachers would. She ended up in an English class teaching a range of ethnicities and backgrounds. She was pretty and young. Her voice was soft, she wore a fancy pearl necklace, and her shoes clicked when she walked on the linoleum. At first, the students looked at her as a joke, with her even-toned white complexion.  However, soon enough she had them so engulfed in positive learning that they didn’t even consider the skin tone that they were sitting next to.