Chalkboard Champion Aki Kurose: Civil Rights Activist and Tireless Advocate for Minority Students

American history yields numerous examples of inspirational teachers who have devoted their talents to important social causes, including advocating for better conditions for the poor and promoting racial equality. One such teacher is Akiko Kato Kurose, an elementary school teacher from Seattle, Washington, who was also an nationally-recognized social activist who worked tirelessly to increase access to education and affordable housing for low-income and minority families.

Akiko, who was always known by the name Aki, was born in Seattle, Washington, on February 11, 1925. She was the third of four children born to Japanese immigrants Harutoshi and Murako Kato. Aki’s father was a railroad station porter, and her mother was the manager of an apartment building. In the Kato home, traditional gender roles were reversed: Aki’s mother studied engineering, learned how to operate the building's boiler room and furnace, and served as the building's handyman, while her father enjoyed baking jelly rolls which were served to friends and neighbors at social gatherings he organized every Friday evening.

As a young girl, Aki was active in Girl Scouts, and was also active in her high school band and drama club. She also attended Japanese language school once a week. The Kato family's typical American middle-class home life was dramatically altered when the Empire of Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Aki was a high school senior at the time. In February, 1942, when President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, the Kato family was among the 112,000 Japanese Americans who were forcibly removed from their homes and relocated to internment camps throughout the United States. The Katos were sent first to Puyallup Assembly Center at the Washinton fairgrounds, and were eventually consigned to the internment camp set up in Minidoka, Idaho.

Aki completed the requirements for her high school diploma at Minidoka, where the plucky teenager became actively involved with the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization, which donated books to camp schools and helped college-age internees obtain permission to enroll in universities outside of the camps. She was able to gain permission to enroll in the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, but shortly after her arrival there transferred to nearby LDS Business College. At the conclusion of WWII, the Aki pursued her college education at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas. In 1981, she earned a master’s degree in Early Childhood Education.

After her graduation from Friends University in 1948, Aki married Junelow Kurose, the brother of her best friend. Junelow had been recently discharged from the United States Army. After their marriage, Aki and Junelow settled in Chicago, where her husband’s parents had moved following their release from internment. Junelow was an accomplished electrician, but due to discrimination against Japanese American citizens, he was unable to find work in that field, even though he was a veteran who had been honorably discharged. Returning to Seattle in 1950, Junelow was eventually hired as a machinist at Boeing, while Aki found employment as a secretary for the railroad porter’s union. Influenced by the discrimination she and her husband faced in their search for a home, Aki became involved in the open housing movement in the 1950s, working first with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), and later, in the 1960s, joining the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Over the years, the couple enlarged their family to include six children, which Aki enrolled in Seattle Freedom School, an offshoot of the Mississippi Freedom Schools established as part of the Civil Rights Movement. When she participated in CORE civil rights marches and anti-war demonstrations, she took her children along. She was also active in the Women's International League for Freace and Freedom and the activist branches of the YWCA.

Aki possessed a lifelong passion for education, so she began taking courses in early childhood education and development and devoted her talents to working in preschool programs. In 1965, she collaborated with a group of neighborhood parents to form Washington State’s first Head Start program.

Aki began her career as a professional educator by teaching for Seattle Public Schools through the Head Start program, eventually accepting a job at a local elementary school in 1974. Two years later, as part of the city's move to desegregate its public schools, she was transferred from Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary, an urban, predominantly African-American school, to Laurelhurst Elementary School, an affluent, predominately white school located in suburban North Seattle. Because of strong anti-Japanese sentiment, Aki had to work hard to overcome opposition to her transfer there, but she eventually won over the parents. When the first students of color were bused to the campus, Aki worked hard to ease their integration and also advocated strongly for the adoption of a multi-cultural curriculum for the school.

In the classroom, Aki emphasized collaborative learning and encouraged her students to learn through hands-on experience instead of rote memorization, and she received numerous awards for her innovative teaching style. She taught principals of peaceful co-existence to even the youngest of students, her first graders, telling them, "If you're not at peace with yourself, with your neighbor, with your community, you can't really learn very much. We have to get rid of all this garbage, this angry, competitive feeling. Then we'll all get along."

Over time, Aki became one of the schools most beloved and respected teachers. In 1980 she was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the National Advisory Council on the Education of Disadvantaged Children. In 1985 she was honored as Seattle Teacher of the Year, and in 1990 she was awsarded the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Mathematics. Because of her innovative work to integrate peace advocacy with education, she was awarded the United Nations Human Rights Award in 1992. The Seattle Times said of Aki that she had "touched thousands of children, drew parents into the district, inspired many into public service, set an example for many teachers; she personified the best of what happens inside a classroom."

This talented and dedicated educator retired in 1997 after 25 years of service in Seattle public school. to honor her, students and parents from Laurelhurst school build and dedicated the Aki Kurose Peace Garden on the school campus. This Chalkboard Champion passed away the following year, on May 24, in Madrona, Washington, following a sixteen-year battle with cancer. She was 73 years old.

Telling Stories about Talented Teachers

I love to tell stories about talented, outstanding teachers. There are so many phenomenal stories that could be told! I believe that teachers represent the best our country has to offer, and, as a group, they are among the most dedicated, hardworking, and talented individuals anyone can know. It fills me with joy to be able to describe myself as an educator.  I love to share these inspirational stories in my blog, on my website, and in my books. These are stories of truly amazing individuals who have made significant contributions to the lives of so many, and it fills me with pride to know that, every day, talented educators all over the country are continuing to influence the lives of their students in such positive ways.

You can preview and purchase my first book, Chalkboard Champions: Twelve Remarkable Teachers who Educated America's Disenfranchised Students, at amazon.com at this link:  Chalkboard Champions. You can preview and purchase my second book,Chalkboard Heroes: Twelve Courageous Teachers and their Deeds Valor, at amazon.com at this link: Chalkboard Heroes. Both books are available in ebook and print versions. 

For more about remarkable teachers, visit my website at www.chalkboardchampions.org. There you will find a blog, a page about best practices, a suggested professional reading list for teachers, press releases about my upcoming appearances, and my author bio.

Enjoy!

Reposting blog post "28 Reading Incentives That Really Work"

I stumbled across this neat post entitled "28 Reading Incentives That Really Work," which is about encouraging students to read. Found it on We Are Teachers website. Here is the link. Enjoy!

www.weareteachers.com

High School Teacher Jessie Redmon Fauset: She Influenced the Harlem Renaissance

Many talented educators have earned renown in fields other than the teaching profession. Such is certainly the case with Jessie Redmon Fauset, a high school Latin and French teacher from New Jersey.

Jessie was born in Fredericksville, Camden County, New Jersey, on April 27, 1882. although she was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of Redmon Fauset, an African Methodist Episcopal minister, and Annie Seamon Fauset. When she was just a child, her mother passed away and her father remarried. Jessie's father was not wealthy, but he instilled in all his children the great importance of education.

As a youngster, Jessie attended the highly-respected Philadelphia High School for Girls, where she may have been the only African American student in her class. Once she graduated, she wanted to enroll at prestigious Bryn Mawr College. Unfortunately, the institution was reluctant to accept its first African American student, and instead offered to assist Jessie in acquiring a scholarship to Cornell University. Jessie excelled at Cornell, and so she was invited to join the distinguished academic honor society Phi Beta Kappa. She earned her bachelors's degree in classical languages in 1905, and later earned her master's degree in French from the University of Pennsylvania.

Even though Jessie had earned a superior college education, her race prevented her from gaining a job as a teacher in Philadelphia. Instead, she accepted teaching positions first in Baltimore, Maryland, and then in Washington, DC, where she taught French and Latin at Dunbar High School.

In 1912, while still teaching, Jessie began to submit reviews, essays, poems, and short stories to The Crisis, a magazine for African American readers founded and edited by author and civil rights activist W.E.B. DuBois. Seven years later, DuBois persuaded the talented educator to become the publication's literary editor. Jessie did this work during the Harlem Renaissance, a period of prolific artistic output within the black community. As the magazine's editor, Jessie encouraged and influenced a number of up-and-coming writers, including Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, and Claude McKay. She also continued to write her own pieces for the magazine. In addition to her work at The Crisis, Jessie also served as co-editor for The Brownies' Book, which was published monthly from 1920 to 1921. The goal of the publication was to teach African American children about their heritage, information the former educator had fervently wished for throughout her own childhood.

After reading an inaccurate depiction of African Americans in a book written by a white author, Jessie became inspired to write her own novel. Her first book, There Is Confusion (1924), portrayed black characters in a middle-class setting. It was an unusual choice for the time, which made it more difficult for Jessie to find a publisher. In 1926, Jessie left her position at The Crisis in 1926 and looked for work in the publishing field, even offering to work from home so that her race wouldn't be a barrier. Unfortunately, she couldn't find enough work to support herself.

To make ends meet, Jessie returned to teaching, accepting a position at DeWitt Clinton High School in New York City. James Baldwin, the acclaimed African American novelist and playwright, may have been one of her students there. Jessie was employed in the New York school system until 1944. During her New York years, Jessie wrote three more novels: Plum Bun (1929), The Chinaberry Tree (1931), and Comedy: American Style (1933). Jessie's primarily upper-class characters continued to deal with the themes of prejudice, limited opportunities, and cultural compromises. Because her last two novels were less successful than her previous works, Jessie's extensive writing output decreased.

In 1929, Jessie fell in love and married businessman Herbert Harris. She was 47 years old at the time. The couple made their home in Montclair, New Jersey. They lived there until 1958, when Herbert passed away. After her husband's death, Jessie returned to Philadelphia, where she died on April 30, 1961, a victim of heart disease. She was 79 years old.

Chalkboard Champion and Choir Teacher Gabrielyn Watson

I couldn't resist this video about a terrific choir teacher, Mrs. Gabrielyn Watson of Chicago, Illinois. What a remarkable impact she has had on the lives of her students. Now I share this video with you. Enjoy!

Bob Boone: Teaching Creative Writing to Under-Served Chicago Students

There are so many remarkable educators out there! One of the most amazing is Robert (Bob) Boone, a creative writing teacher and author who hails from Chicago, Illinois.

Bob grew up in Winnetka, Illinois. After his graduation from college, he attended Northwestern University's School of Education and Social Policy, where he earned his doctorate degree in English Education 1975.

Bob launched his teaching career in 1964. He has taught in Staten Island, Germany, Highland Park, and Chicago. Throughout his long career, Bob has focused on developing the writing skills of students who frequently do not succeed in traditional educational settings. In 1977, the innovative educator established the Glencoe Study Center, where he still remains active. He has worked as a creative writing consultant at Hubbard High School in Chicago, the CYCLE Cabrini Green Social Service Agency, and as an ACT/SAT coordinator at Dunbar High School in Chicago.

In 1991, this talented educator founded Young Chicago Authors to provide opportunities for teen writers from Chicago. The program now serves over 5,000 young people each year. In 2009, this talented educator was honored at the White House by First Lady Michelle Obama, where he accepted an award from the Coming Up Taller Leadership Enhancement Conference. He is pictured here with the First Lady and Lacresia Birts, 18, a participant of the Young Chicago Authors program.

Bob has written several textbooks, a teaching memoir, a sports biography, and a book of short stories. In 2002, he was named Chicagoan of the Year by Chicago Magazine. Today, Bob lives in Glencoe, Illinois, with his wife of many years, Sue. They have three children and five grandchildren.

Bob Boone: a true chalkboard champion.

Educator Eulalia Bourne: A Colorful Teacher in Arizona History

American history is full of colorful individuals who made significant contributions to the settlement and development of the West. One such individual is teacher Eulalia Bourne. This remarkable educator, whose career spanned more than four decades, taught elementary school in rural areas, mining camps, and Indian reservations throughout Arizona during some of our country's most challenging periods: World War I, the Depression, and World War II. This women's libber was ahead of her time, becoming one of the very few women in her day to own and run her own cattle ranch.


Eulalia thought outside the box in many ways. Every year on the first day of school she would wear a new dress, usually blue to complement her eye color. Every day after that, she wore jeans, Western-style shirts, cowboy boots, and Stetson hats to class. She was once fired for dancing the one-step, a new jazz dance, at a birthday party some of her students attended, because the clerk of the board considered the dance indecent! She even learned to speak Spanish fluently and, when confronted with non-English-speaking students, taught her classes in Spanish, even though it was against the law to do so.


Eulalia is probably best known for producing a little classroom newspaper entitled Little Cowpunchers which featured student writings, drawings, and news stories about classroom events. Today, these little newspapers are recognized as important historical documents of Southern Arizona ranching communities from 1932 to 1943. Additionally, Eulalia published three critically-acclaimed books about her teaching and ranching experiences: Ranch Schoolteacher, Nine Months is a Year at Baboquivari School, and Woman in Levi's. These volumes, although now out of print, can sometimes be purchased at used book stores and sometimes can be found at online sites featuring royalty-free works. The read is well-worth the search, particularly for those interested in Arizona history.

 

You can read about Eulalia's intriguing life in a book entitled Skirting Traditions, published by  Arizona Press Women. You can also find a chapter about her in my first book, Chalkboard Champions.