In honor of our Chevy/Adopt-A-Classroom roadtrip, we asked several authors about the teachers that made an impact on their lives. Here’s what one of them had to say:
“My fourth grade teacher Margaret Whittaker was a joy and inspiration. I didn’t like school much; didn’t like sitting still; only wanted to read what amused me. Mrs. Whittaker somehow managed to make a special place for me in a large public school classroom. If I couldn’t pay attention to a civics lesson, she would give me paper and crayons and say, “Go invent a planet.” By the time I was done, I knew what it took to run a community – which had been the subject of the lesson to begin with. She often let me out of classes I couldn’t stand – like music and art – but thereby obligated me to do whatever other work she assigned – reading and writing. I came back to visit her for more than a decade, until she retired. I won’t say she taught me to love school, but she taught me to love learning.”
–Andrew Klavan, screenwriter, pop culture commentator, and author of young adult novels like The Homelanders series (now available) andCrazy, Dangerous (May 2012)
If you want to help today’s instructors inspire their students, please click one of the links below and donate to one (or all!) of the teacher’s classrooms. We know they will appreciate every kind gesture.
Teresa Fleak: http://bit.ly/AlDC2o
Cari Sturch: http://bit.ly/z5Gnxq
Tammy Scott: http://bit.ly/ADJ4H0
Karen Fry: http://bit.ly/AznLo0
