A Great Post in Salon
I didn't hear about this post in Salon until just a few minutes ago--- saw it over at TuttleSVC. I can only say this: any school that lets go of a writer like that ought to have its administrative heads examined. Anyone who has that kind of voice in her writing is someone you want to have around kids.
A couple of years ago I was trying to hire an English teacher--- this is going to sound terrible, but it's very difficult to find an outstanding English teacher. There are hundreds and hundreds of applicants, but when you get them in the interview, they're hard-pressed to name any books they've recently read or a list of recommended books for kids. They also tend to come in with these portfolios of the cutesy things they did during student teaching-- those portfolios start to blur together in about three hours. They're big onliteracy kudzu-type things. Surprisingly few come in with any decent body of original writing, and not many of them are able to talk from first-hand experience about how writing is much more