OK Lawmaker, Teacher Salaries Compared. Big Differences.

If you care about education, you are aware of the attacks by our Legislative leaders and their newspaper the Daily Disappointment Oklahoman on the straw man targets of ‘administrative costs’ and teacher salaries. Today’s front page blares out how overpaid our state Superintendents are, even breaking down their salaries to ‘per pupil’ costs.

It’s blatantly clear this will be the new fight when the Legislature begins its Session in February. Administrative costs, teacher salaries.  Those greedy educators who want more and more and more.

That got me to wondering...how do teacher and Legislator salaries compare in Oklahoma? 

Let’s start with requirements. To be a Legislator, one must be at least 21, a voter, and live in the district from which one will run for 6 months. There is a $200 filing fee to be paid by the candidate.

To be a teacher (I used information from the OSDE site for alternative certification), one must have a bachelor’s degree and a major concentration in the subject one is planning to teach. One must pass two standardized tests, the OGET, which tests generally education knowledge, and the OSAT, the Oklahoma test of subject area concentration. These tests will cost from $65-$80 per test. The OPTE, another assessment, costs $140. One must be fingerprinted and pass a background test. That process will cost $59. There is a $50 processing fee to the OSDE to collect all the data. THEN one can apply for a job.

The Oklahoma Legislature meets once a year. After November elections, the Legislature meets to certify results. Then, yearly they meet from the first Monday in February to the last Friday in May. 85 days. Typically Fridays are not 'in session' days, so Legislators can attend to business at home. But for this blog, I will count each Friday as a work day.

Teachers in Oklahoma are contracted to teach or participate in professional development 185 days, or the hourly equivalent of 185 days. 

Both professions are expected to work beyond those hours and those days, taking care of constituents, participating in meetings, attending to problems and emergencies as they arise.

Oklahoma Legislators earn $38,400 per year for their service. This figure is in the top third of US Legislative salaries. Legislators can also earn $160 per diem for travel and expenses. I believe they can also claim mileage under some circumstances. I do not begrudge them a penny of their salaries and benefits…I know their job is difficult and demands sacrifices from their families. I know they often work long past regular office hours.  I am grateful for their service. But I point out with respect their salaries are some of the higher in the country.

Teachers, too, work long hours, during weekends, and during those enforced ‘vacations’ that are inserted into the school calendar for the convenience of families. Remember, none of those vacation days is considered a contract day. So each is unpaid vacation for teachers.

Teacher salaries in Oklahoma do not fare as well in national comparisons, traditionally occupying one of the bottom three positions. Legislators’ pay is near the top. Teachers’ pay is at the bottom. Not hype. Facts. Note that the article I linked here is two years old. And things are worse for teachers in our state.

I used the Norman Public Schools teacher salary schedule for my comparison, since I spent my entire Oklahoma career teaching in Norman. A beginning teacher in Norman, with a bachelor’s degree, a teacher who has taken the two tests, earned a degree, and who has passed the background investigation, will earn $32,343 in base pay. I’m not adding the benefits package, since that’s all ‘funny money’ – given, but never showing up in the paycheck.

An Oklahoma Legislator works for 85 paid days and earns $38,400. A beginning teacher must earn a degree, take the tests, and pay for the background study, and earns $32,343 in Norman, for 185 days.

An Oklahoma Legislator earns $451.76 per day, with the possibility of per diem and mileage.

A Norman beginning teacher earns $174.82  per contract day.

Both are expected to work beyond the work day and beyond the work calendar.

Now, let’s look at that ‘average’ Oklahoma teacher salary – the unicorn of $44,000. In Norman, a teacher with a bachelors degree will have to teach 24 years before his or her base pay is $44,081. Twenty-four years. At that point, a teacher’s daily pay would be $238.28…a little more than half a beginning Legislator’s daily salary.

At this point in my research, glass houses and stones flashed before my eyes. Well-paid Legislators who work fewer days than teachers might want to be changing the subject instead of telling teachers we are greedy .

Both Legislators and teachers can take on extra duties for more pay. I sponsored a club at Norman North, but was not compensated. At West Mid High, I sponsored the Cheers and Poms…I don’t remember my duty pay, but I think it averaged out to about $20 a month. The years I was department chair, I may have earned $100 extra.

Legislative leaders earn more for their extra duties also. The President Pro Tem and Speaker earn $17,932 above base pay and top leadership earns $12,364. I am appreciative of their service. I am supportive of their extra compensation. 

I wish Legislators approached educators with respect for the job we do, for the sacrifices our families make, for the extra hours we work. I wish Legislators acknowledged our unpaid contributions to our profession, our students, our classrooms. Instead, they sigh about ‘throwing money’ at education. They bemoan the budget crunch (the crunch they created with tax credits and tax cuts); they tell us to stop complaining.

We will continue to hear from policy makers and from the DOK that teachers are not underpaid, and that administrative costs are too high. They will not tell us that within administrative costs are classroom assistants, special education assistants, nurses, cafeteria workers, bus drivers. They won’t tell us that their own mandates have required schools to respond with more administrative costs. 

They will rattle the swords of consolidation. They will point fingers at those highly-paid Superintendents. But will they solve the real problems? Will they listen to educators? Will they loosen the strangle-hold of unfunded mandates? Will they address the teacher shortage with honesty? Will they work to retain our career teachers who make a difference with students and their families every day?

Speaker Hickman earns every penny of his $38,400 base pay, and his $17,932 as Speaker. I know he works long days and hours past the expectations of his job. I would love for him and his fellow Legislators to acknowledge educators’ contributions.

The DOK’s article today broke Superintendents’ pay down to a per-pupil figure to make their point that Superintendents in small districts are grossly overpaid.

What if we broke our Legislators’ pay down per vote cast on election day? 

Just a thought.

Teacher Shortage is Real. No Claim.

Teacher shortages are real. They are impacting our children. 

Speaker Jeff Hickman recently penned an opinion piece for the Daily Disappointment Oklahoman that reveals future strategies of school reformers. It is the blueprint for their response. We would be wise to study it.

First he calls the reports of teacher shortages, “claims”.  Words matter, and his choice is deliberate. He chooses to negate the concern by calling them claims. “Claim” is defined as a statement that has no evidence to support it, where truth is in doubt. So, in his first sentence he argues that the teacher shortage is disputed, and that schools have not provided evidence of the shortage.

Great way to begin a serious discussion about our kids’ future, huh?

All those statements about teacher shortages are claims. Not fact. Claims, which in the second part of his first sentence, are all about more money for teacher salaries.  His subtle ‘education organizations’ will be easy to trace. So, a not-so-subtle attack on education organizations. Only his first. Not his last.

I would say as truth that there is a national teacher shortage…reformers have, for years, waged war on educators and this is the result. Teachers leaving, teachers (like me) retiring rather than face the mess. Teachers moving to other states. And, worst of all, prospective teachers choosing other careers. Reformers have crowed for years that public education is failing, and teachers are to blame. Was this their end game, to create the climate where there are no teachers? So now their claims of failing schools is now reality, backed by evidence? My cynical heart thinks there is more than a bit of truth here. I’m not the only one who thinks this might all be deliberate. Here’s an article about Kansas, one of Rep. Hickman’s great examples.

Then Rep. Hickman attacks local school boards…saying they choose NOT to pay their teachers more, but they could do that if they really valued their teachers. He then launches onto his next attack: administrative costs. Not a new argument – claim, might I say? If I had a nickel for every time I’ve addressed this claim with evidence. Here. And here. No, we are not draining education funding with administrative costs. No, we don’t need to consolidate administrations or create county school districts. I suggested to my new State Senator that if new funding for school could truly not be found (stop the tax cut. Stop the tax cut. Stop the tax cut), perhaps all unfunded mandates to schools could be immediately ended. That would go a long way to reducing the administrative costs of our districts. What I’m about to say is a claim, since I don’t have the evidence to back it up. It is my hunch that school districts have had to increase non-teaching administrative costs to deal with federal and state mandates. Someone must oversee these demands, cross the t’s. Someone must deal with the sea of papers and requirements. The consequences of mistakes in dealing with mandates could be catastrophic. But, this is only a claim, an opinion.

So, Rep. Hickman, I suggest again. End all unfunded mandates to schools and let’s see if my claim can be proved. Let’s see if that could slow some administrative costs. And please read Okeducationtruth’s latest piece for much more information about administrative mandates and the costs they demand.

Let’s also remember, classroom aides are considered ‘administrative costs.’ One way to respond to the teacher shortage is to add more students to a class, and give the class an aide to assist the over-burdened teacher. Rep. Hickman is attacking these aides who are trying to support our teachers.

Hickman’s next argument is to do away with the state teacher salary schedule. His claim is this is the reason our teachers make less than in other states…it’s the salary schedule! And he uses that $44,000 average salary figure…I challenge you to ask a random group of teachers if they make the average salary…I know I didn’t until I had over 20 years of experience. Here’s the dirty secret of teacher salaries…districts get to add all the benefits and insurance amounts to the top…and then whisk them away when real dollars come to play. Our salaries are padded with our insurance benefits. That number is NOT what teachers live on.

Speaking of teacher salaries, why do young teachers with children qualify for food stamps with their padded salaries? Why are we asking our educators to take on student loans to begin their career qualifying for welfare benefits? No claim. I know teachers who had to use these benefits to make ends meet so they could go to work, teaching our children.

Hickman brings up the idea of merit pay, without ever calling it that. He says we must move away from the ‘century-old’ practice of paying teachers for education and experience…and we must ‘move toward a teacher compensations model that rewards excellence, incentivizing outstanding teachers to stay longer.’ Couple of questions. Who defines ‘excellence’ in this model? Is he, as I fear, talking about test scores?  What is an ‘outstanding’ teacher? I can answer that second question for him.

The state DID have a program to reward accomplished teachers who went above and beyond. National Board Certified Teachers were given a stipend after certification. They were expected to stay in the classroom as full time teachers, in public schools. This program allowed me to stay in a profession that underpaid me for 39 years. I was able to contribute something more to my family, and justify my decision to stay in the classroom, making thousands of dollars less than other college-educated professionals. Even though I knew I would never get rich as a teacher,  my decision affected my entire family.  Now this program is another of the unfunded mandates pushed onto districts. Now, instead of an NBCT receiving a $5000 stipend for holding his or her practice up to the most stringent standards in the profession and reflecting on his or her contributions to student learning, new NBCTs will, maybe, possibly, receive a $1000 salary bump…IF the school district doesn’t pay above that pesky state salary schedule. Unfunded mandate. Instead of the state providing those funds directly to teachers (Well, not exactly. Given to districts which took out taxes and FICA), now districts are expected to come up with the funds.

So, pay ‘excellent…outstanding’ more, based on some rationale to-be-announced…later. Just trust us.

Rep. Hickman envisions (claims) a future where there is no state salary schedule, where each district can now use their money (after getting rid of all the administrators) to compete for those teaching superstars who would be like NBA free agents. Competition! That’s what’s needed. Does he not know districts already pay above the state minimum, and teachers can shop around for higher salaries?

I wish I had the expertise to address his ‘free agent’ argument. From the little I know, don’t teams have to shuffle other players, let some go, in order to offer those contracts to super star players? Is this the future Hickman sees? Won’t that exacerbate the teacher shortage? Is he buying into Bill Gates’ claim that a super star teacher could easily handle 50+ in a classroom?

The state has actually given us a test-case for their super star NBA free agent scenario (claim). Will NBCTs now be sought out, now that districts know they will cost more? Will NBCTs see certification as a way to contribute to their families and their professions?

So, back to Rep. Hickman. In his opinion piece, he attacks school boards and administrative costs. He attacks un-named education organizations. They are the problem.

He seems to offer as solutions, merit pay and competition. They are the answer.

We would be wise to be watching for these ‘solutions’ in the next Session.  I’ll be interested in seeing if the very real #oklaed teacher shortage is addressed at all.

In the meantime, the teacher shortage is real. NO CLAIM.

Wise Parents Want the Best for All.

In #oklaed, the #teachershortage is real, and it’s real ugly. It’s ugly because it will affect the lives of our kids in a time of high stakes testing, forced retentions, no drivers licenses, and no diplomas. Policies and neglect and disdain and hostility have converged, and it’s our kids who will suffer.

Disclaimer: In the first five years of my teaching career, in Indiana and Iowa, I taught four years with emergency certificates. I was an English Education major from Indiana University, but had to teach three years outside my major. For that, I needed an emergency certificate. I had all the education classes, methods, and student teaching, but since I taught 6^th grade, self-contained and high school special education, I was required to jump through the hoops to get my emergency permit. Times have  changed, and so has the definition of emergencies. I only taught one year in an English classroom in those early years.

Today’s emergency certificates will be given to people who have not gone to education school, or taken the various tests required of alternatively-certified teachers. They probably won’t even have the five weeks of training that our Teach for America Awhile teachers have. They will probably have a college degree, but no preparation. As usual, Okeducationtruths has helped us understand the issues. Seth Meier reminds us the power of a teacher, and Mindy Dennison offers us an analogy for emergency permits in other professions.

I need us all to look into the eyes of our children or our grandchildren or our nieces and nephews. Look hard. Look at that potential, that grace, that enthusiasm. Look into those faces and think about giving your precious children to a teacher with no training or experience. Then think about the high-stakes tests your children will take. And answer honestly: “Is this what I want for MY children?” If the answer is “No”, then we must say, “NO” for all children, every student in Oklahoma.

Dewey said it: “What the best and wisest parent wants for his child, that must the community want for all its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon it destroys our democracy.”

My granddaughter started kindergarten, full of wonder and excitement. With substitute teachers for a month. Katie didn’t know she was being short-changed. She had nothing to which to compare her experience. A month with substitutes. Then, the district was able to hire a teacher…four weeks into the school year, Katie’s only year of kindergarten. I don’t know if that teacher was on an emergency certificate. I just know four weeks of no solid instruction had already taken its toll. Then, she had a totally inexperienced teacher for the rest of the year. I also know Katie will take the infamous third grade reading-English language arts test this year as a third grader. Nowhere will the testing company ask her if she had certified teachers each year of school. So will every other child in her kindergarten class...with subs for a month. Nowhere will it ask her if she missed out on quality instruction because she had substitute teachers or emergency-certificated teachers. That won’t matter to the folks who created the teacher shortage with their antagonism toward the teaching profession. That won’t matter to those same policy makers who decided Katie and all her friends had all better show proficiency on a non-reading test one day in April.

They created the teacher shortage; they created the demand on nine-year-olds. My Grand will pay the price. Did I want her to have the teacher-less class? Of course not. I didn’t want ANY kindergartener to be in that position. But she was…as were all her classmates.

So, there will be a price for this teacher shortage, and it will be paid by our children. I do not blame the school districts who are desperately searching for a way to put a grown-up in every classroom in the state, certified or not. I blame the policy makers who cynically created a teacher-bashing culture, who ridicule our efforts to create learning experiences for our students, who call us grasping whiners. I blame non-educators who wouldn’t last a day doing the job of a teacher but are quick to criticize.

I blame policy makers who do not make students and their education a priority. I’m looking at you, Oklahoma Legislature.

I challenge the policy makers of Oklahoma to truly make our kids, our future, our greatest resource, a priority. To make it a priority to support efforts to hire the most qualified teachers, and to pay them a living wage, and to honor their commitment so they can teach our kids.

I want, for all children in Oklahoma, a certified, qualified teacher. I want for all students in Oklahoma a teacher on the first day of school, not a substitute, not a person who may have no real interest in teaching. I want a teacher to greet our kids, to welcome them into their classroom with strong lessons and a positive classroom climate.

Every child. Every student.

#OklaEd Challenge: Why do You Teach?

Mindy Dennison challenged #oklaed bloggers to answer a simple question. Only four words, but four words that encompass my entire adult life: “Why do you teach?”

My friends have risen to the challenge and have posted stories, philosophies, funny and touching. Here  and here and here and here and here and here and here. I read these answers and nodded in recognition, and cried, and laughed. My friends are amazing educators and I loved their posts.

Here, finally, is my answer to, “Why do you teach?”

But, I'm going to have to tell you a story. A story of a student I had over 30 years ago,  in Iowa…a tiny consolidated school system that only graduated about 55 kids a year. A farming community where everyone knew everyone and I breezed in, as a newbie/nobody. I worked (again -- second time in my first five years of teaching) on an emergency certificate, this time Special Education. I was THE special education department. My multi-categorical resource classroom s.erved all special ed students! This was the way tiny schools could serve students.

That’s where I met Mike (name changed, even though the statute of limitations has long expired. Mike came from a dysfunctional home. The horror stories my colleagues told me about his older brother’s epic battles with their father chilled me. I only ever met his mom…a quiet, mousey woman who loved her boys.

Mike had one of the longest permanent files I’ve ever seen. He seemed to be in trouble from day one. The stories followed him to high school. The kindergarten teacher who picked him up and deposited him into a large trash can. The day in elementary school  he ran away from school and had to be coaxed out of a tree. He was labeled with a behavioral disability…and he earned every letter in that label. He could be violent.  He hated to be ‘pushed around’ and told what to do. He was volatile when confronted.  Try to control him with power and authority, and everyone would lose.

And there he was, in my class for study hall and for special ed support.

I teach because I love beginning a relationship with my students, with no pre-concieved notions. Beginning with a new slate as we get to know each other. I love creating a classroom climate of universal positive regard. Universal care.

I tried to block out the stories, but everyone had one. Mike was a handful, even as a freshman. He had a chip on his shoulder, and expected everyone to push back when he pushed. When he walked, he led with his puffed-out chest, and his square chin, both hands in fists, just begging to be confronted.

That’s never been my style, so we had to find a new way to communicate, often with humor.

I teach because I thrive on finding each student’s story, and the way into each student’s mind and heart. I am patient and earn my students’ trust. Learning can only happen after we have a relationship. 

We had battles. One day we were nose-to-nose in my empty classroom after he defied me one too many times. I was chewing on him. Suddenly the lights flickered off in the entire school. We were both momentarily stunned into silence, and I said to him, “See how mad I am at you right now?” He snickered and escaped to defy another day.

I once told him I’d named the frown lines between my eyes, “M. I. K. E.” That got another chuckle.

Mike wasn’t evil; he was suspicious, wary. He’d never been treated kindly by teachers. Why should he trust me? I knew that and kept fighting.

I teach because working with young people is never easy. No two days are alike, because youngsters are not the same from one day to another. Every student deserves my attention and my respect. Every student must know I will not give up on him. I won’t. It’s not in my DNA.

During Mike’s sophomore year, the administration agreed to let me teach an English class to my tenth graders…more in tune to their interests and abilities, and certainly more in tune to my own training, I knew how to teach English. We read and wrote..I loved it.

On the day of my formal observation for my yearly evaluation, Mike came into the room in a full-head gorilla mask. It was not Halloween, and we did not inquire about the mask. We – the other three students and I – sat at our table and began our lesson, treating Mike the same way we had the day before. My principal, Al Rowe, came in and sat with us. No one said a word about the mask. We all noticed and wanted to ask, but we plowed on with the lesson at hand. Mike found it difficult to ask questions or participate with his mask on, so he would occasionally pull it up to his forehead like a hat and talk, then pull it back down to do his work. For his classmates and I it appeared to be business as usual. Mike was being Mike, begging for attention in bizarre ways; we had learned to ignore and stay focused. 

Suddenly, in the middle of the lesson, Al jumped up and left the classroom. I was surprised, because he said he’d be there for the whole lesson. We continued…and I never saw the mask again after that lesson. We never spoke of it. Al did tell me in my post-observation meeting that he left abruptly because he would have shattered the peace of the classroom. He said he could not contain his laughter any longer, and that would have destroyed the climate of the class. So he fled, stifling his guffaws.

I teach because I never know how I will be called upon to use my training, my experience, my wits, to keep students involved in learning. I teach because I deeply love young people and all their unpredictable behaviors and decisions and words. Working this closely with other human beings requires us to always be aware and ready to be kind. 

And it’s never boring. Never.

Mike’s mom and I had a system for parent conferences. She would visit me first, and I would alert her about what his core teachers would say, preparing her for any attacks by frustrated educators. Then she’s square her shoulders and go out to face the others. She'd been doing it for years. Then, at the end of the evening she’d come back to my classroom, shaken, but ready to help her son however she could.  We’d talk about what she’d heard, and what our next plan of action would be. She left knowing I loved her boy and was working alongside her for his success.

I teach because I value the partnerships with families I forge as we work toward success for their students. We are stronger together. We have different strengths, but together we are formidable.

I moved after Mike’s sophomore year. I was sad that I wouldn’t be there to see him graduate…it would be the first graduation in his family. His mom sent me the original of his first-semester report card…all A’s and B’s, except for a F in gym class. No letter, just the only copy of his report card she received Those were great grades. Some of his highest. I knew immediately that Mike had gotten sideways with his gym teacher and was willing to pay the price for his rebellion. But the other grades! What a success story! What effort it took for him to persevere and work toward graduation. I hoped from afar that he’d found the key to advocate for himself and control that temper.

The last time I heard from Mike’s mom was the summer after he graduated from our tiny high school. She sent me a copy of the graduation bulletin, listing all the graduates. Mike was there! So were the other boys in that class when Mike visited as a gorilla. They made it! His mom told me he had a job at the sale barn (about the only employer in the area), and was looking forward to a bright future.

Even though I never saw Mike again, he rests in my memory, as do other students. They’re a part of me. They have taught me to be better and more prepared for the next group of students, and the next, and the next. He’s nearing middle age and I wonder about him. Hope he’s happy. And I wonder what he ever did with that gorilla mask.

I teach because I value those long-term relationships. I tell students, “Once you’re mine, you’re mine for life. I don’t do 3-am phone calls and I don’t do tuition, but I want to stay in contact. I want to celebrate the successes and be there for the not-successes.” My students are mine…we spent time together testing each other, learning from each other, growing. I still attend funerals and I meet new babies. I am contacted for book recommendations, and I’m tagged on pictures of their babies reading. That bond is the ultimate reason I teach. Every student who spent time with me taught me to be his teacher or her teacher. Every student is part of the legacy I send out to a future I won’t see.  Is there anything more important?

I teach because I can’t not teach.

Bernitha and Me -- a short from when I was short

A short blog post about a time when I was shorter.

I was a child of divorce long before it was part of the lexicon for kids in elementary school. By the time I was in third grade, my mom had married and divorced my father and a stepfather. Each time she returned with kids in tow to HER mother, a scary force I called “Kitty”. Kitty worked her entire life and was afraid having a half-grown female calling her “Grandma” would seal her fate, so she lied about her age until the day she died…but I digress.

Mom returned to Kitty’s house, now with two daughters, and no visible income. She got a job and had to arrange for daycare (another nearly-unheard-of phenomenon in the early 1950’s). She found a woman who would keep my sister and me during the day: Bernitha. 

I think she had kids of her own, but I can’t remember…like all childhood memories, mine are vague and selective. I do remember getting chicken pox and lying on Bernitha’s couch, itching. I remember the rule that we couldn’t go outside on summer mornings until the dew had dried…and once we went out, we were to stay out until lunch. Lunch was not nutritious at all: Sugar Buddies! White bread spread with margarine, then sprinkled with white sugar. To keep the sugar from falling all over the table, we quickly folded the bread into a sandwich and ate. I cannot remember ever eating protein at Bernitha’s house.

But what I remember mostly is the music that filled Bernitha’s home…we called it ‘Hillbilly’ music…twangy voices and twangy guitars in equal measure. Pumping from her plastic table radio. All day. Every day. Bernitha often sang along, and in self-defense, I did too. Mom was not amused.

The first time I heard Patsy Cline in the 1960’s after Mom remarried Daddy (the dream of every child of divorce…and I lived it!), I was taken back to Bernitha’s hot, crowded, dark, living room and that tinny music. This was the sound I remember, even though I couldn’t tell you ONE recording artist I heard at her house. But Cline’s raw emotional voice was similar to the ones that created the soundtrack of my middle childhood years.

Since I’m NOT a country fan, I seldom listen or watch current artists, but a recent YouTube video of  LeeAnn Rimes channeling Cline in a recent tribute stopped me, as those powerful childhood memories can do. I listened and found I had tears in my eyes, thinking about that hard time in our lives, and the gruff woman who didn’t necessarily nurture me, but treated me with decency and didn’t make me feel different…tainted…because of the circumstances of my life.

I would tell my students about my childhood, and the extraordinary good luck to see my parents reunited after their years apart. I could see the shock in kids’ eyes to think this old woman also survived divorce. And hillbilly music and Sugar Buddies and Bernitha.

Shorts Challenge -- My review of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

I have written about To Kill a Mockingbird before, here. My friend and I decided to reread it this summer in anticipation of the release of Harper Lee’s new book about Scout. Here is my review of the audible book. This is my first 'shorts' challenge from my friend Rob Miller. 

I cannot remember the first time I read it...I can't tell you how many times I've read it. It's like Scout and her reading...she can't tell her first grade teacher, Miss Caroline, when she started reading and how. She's always been a reader. I've always been enmeshed in this book My mom knew Truman Capote was the model for Dill, but since none of my teachers told me, I hesitated to side with my mom, a woman who barely finished high school, a true auto-didact. Come to find out she was absolutely right.

I've taught this a number of times -- to reluctant kids, to kids who thought it was going to be a hunting manual, to African American kids, one of whom told me everyone said it was a racist book. But he trusted me and our relationship...he knew I would not make him read a racist book. Only one student refused to read it, on tha basis of the 'N' word...but he just wanted to avoid reading at all. He did not appreciate his alternative assignment.

I've never listened to the book...I've never, until now, let the words wash over me at the pace of a gifted storyteller. It was a totally new experience. I fell in love all over again with Scout and Jem and Dill and Atticus...and especially Miss Maudie. Sissy Spacek reads the book, and reads it masterfully. Her voice for Scout is spot-on - childish, bright, insightful, and sometimes so incredibly dense. She brought everyone to life, but especially Miss Jean Louise.

I cried at the spots I always cry: "Real courage isn't a man with a gun in his hands. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through..." And, "Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passin'" And, "Hey, Boo." I cried at, "Thank you, Arthur, for my children."

But I sobbed through the last reflections from Scout as she stands on the Radley porch and looks out at the world...and reviews the last three years through Arthur's eyes. Sobbed out loud. Spacek's voice and drawl brought those words alive for me. She and Jem and Dill WERE Arthur's children to watch, and watch over. 

My favorite thing to do when my classes finished reading the book, is have students return to the first page or so and reread, with all the story fresh in their minds. It's all there...the whole plot.

I cannot conceive of a time I will tire of this story, and I think this audible format may be my favorite way to experience it...Macomb was an old town, a tired town, and Sissy Spacek's voice lulled me into town like I belonged there.

Summer Reading Challenge -- I'm spending the summer in Macomb, AL.

“Summer Reads” is a tradition my friend and I have enjoyed for several years. We walk together almost every morning – we retired from education at the same time, me from a high school, she as principal of an elementary. We have walked for nearly 20 years, solving the problems of the world and talking about our reading. I’m a character reader and she’s a plot reader, so when we read the same book, we have very different insights.

Ten years or so ago we decided to read a classic each summer and discuss it as we walked her neighborhood or mine. We tried to choose books neither of us had read, and we tried to alternate a British author with an American one. Our first book was Ellison’s Invisible Man – a book my friend’s son challenged her to read with him. One summer we read Atlas Shrugged – a summer I was trapped in several airports with the opinionated Ms. Rand. We’ve read Moby Dick, Grapes of Wrath, The Gilded Age, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter…and others I forgot to chart in GoodReads. The year we read Mrs. Dalloway, I bought each of us a walking map of London, and we followed the characters’ travels on our maps. As readers, we wanted to know more. We both became frustrated with just reading the book and moving on, so we began to look for other works by the authors, or biographies, nonfiction pieces to help us understand the book and the author and the time.

One year we went to Paris and Spain with Ernest Hemingway, reading A Moveable Feast and The Sun also Rises, read several novels about him and his various wives. Mrs. Hemingway is one of my favorites, along with Hemingway’s Girl. We  wallowed in all things Hemingway.

The next summer we read the Brontes…all three sisters: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Villette, Agnes Grey, and my new favorite, Tenant of Wildfell Hall. We read novels about the sisters, biographies, and collections of their letters. I’ve never set foot in Haworth, England, but it was one of my mother’s favorite places…I felt so close to my mom as I read about the doomed sisters whose lives might have been drab, but whose imaginations and hearts were rich beyond reckoning. Each of their books still has something important to say to modern women.

Last summer we followed F. Scott Fitzgerald and his self-destructive relationship with the beautiful Zelda. We reread The Great Gatsby, and read Tender is the Night, and found several nonfiction books that helped put their lives into perspective. Careless People centered around the Fitzgeralds, NYC, and a sensational murder set around the time of Gatsby. We read Sheila Graham’s son’s biography, Intimate Lies, which chronicled the end of Fitzgerald’s life. I read and thoroughly enjoyed The Last Tycoon. Zelda and her friend Tallula Bankhead were featured in Flappers. Romantic Egoists is a collection of all the scrapbook clippings and playbills and photos that the Fitzgeralds saved.

This summer we are rereading my favorite book: To Kill a Mockingbird.  At first we made a rule that we would not reread books, but always find new titles for both of us. With the exception of Grapes of Wrath, which my friend had read, we shied away from books we’ve read…but with Hemingway and the Brontes and Fitzgerald, we’d already broken that rule, so we are happily rereading.

I recently bought a brand new paperback copy and reread it. While reading, I would post photos of some of my favorite lines to FaceBook. I was amazed at how many friends and former students responded, inspiring many conversations about the book. That rereading taught me the power of a reading community. I wrote about that rereading here.

We are spending the summer in Macomb County, Alabama, in anticipation of the release of Harper Lee’s new book, Go Set a Watchman, next month. This summer I am listening to the audible book, read by Sissy Spacek, with her warm drawl and deep understanding of the characters. I’m hearing things I’ve missed before. Calpurnia taught Scout to write…Scout and then Jem, and then Atticus all use the same words, “It’s not time to worry.” But Scout says the words first. We’ve searched for materials about the elusive Ms. Lee and the book. We will face the concerns about Ms. Lee being victimized by editors and publishers as those issues arise. 

Our reading list is set:

TKAM

The Mockingbird Next Door

Mockingbird

I Am Scout

Scout, Atticus and Boo

Up Close, Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Threatening Boundaries

And of course: Go Set a Watchman.

How very lucky I am that I have a walking partner who’s shared a huge chunk of my professional life and personal life. A friend who shares books and authors, who loved to talk about books as much as I do, and who suggested, all those summers ago, that we spend our time with classics. I am richer for this.

So, I challenge you: What book or author do you want to know better? What book will you challenge yourself with? How will you grow as you read for pleasure and for enlightenment? What book will you be talking about when you return to school next fall? Let me know, so I can read it too.

In fact, do you want to join us in reading TKAM? We could do an online reading group! You wouldn’t have to come to Norman and walk with us in the mornings.