Little Heroes

This book describes the teaching of seven Emotionally Disturbed children of mixed ethnicity, from a small industrial city. It begins with a description of the students' hostility and learning difficulties. The seven student characters are: Mike, who has been rejected as unteachable by five teachers in his public school and two more at the private school before coming to Mrs. J's class. Vera is a girl who has been grossly sexually abused, as has her classmate, Juan. Ernie has been...
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This book describes the teaching of seven Emotionally Disturbed children of mixed ethnicity, from a small industrial city. It begins with a description of the students' hostility and learning difficulties. The seven student characters are: Mike, who has been rejected as unteachable by five teachers in his public school and two more at the private school before coming to Mrs. J's class. Vera is a girl who has been grossly sexually abused, as has her classmate, Juan. Ernie has been consigned to Special Education because he bit a teacher who tried to take his cell phone. Luis is in Special Education because of anger issues and insufficient English language skill. Elroy and Betsy have been identified as Intellectual Disabilities (Mentally Retarded) and Emotionally Disturbed, when their actual problems are sensory impairments. (One needs glasses, one needs hearing aids.) The main adult characters are teachers: Mrs. J., who is the narrator and who has all seven kids in her classroom, Dee Wilson, the wise veteran teacher next door, and Pat Reese, a young teacher just starting her career. Two administrators appear frequently, Dr. Lee and Dr. Daugherty, and so does the school nurse, Gladys Greentree, RN. All of the characters and events are seen through Mrs. J.'s eyes. There is a good deal about her approach to Reading programs and how she builds enriched learning experiences for her students. The kids respond well to her kindness and the increased level of interest in classes. There are criticisms of common public school practices, and sufficient detail to illustrate the meaning of those criticisms. We have endeavored not to preach. We have shown practices that we have used in real classes with real kids, with good results. We have written this in hope of showing our audience something essentially uplifting and something of educational value.