Just Me: Now That I’m in School? introduces young readers to the idea that the classroom is a shared community, teaching them lessons in cooperation, listening, kindness, and responsibility. Where did the idea behind this book come from?

When I began teaching at age 21, I realized I needed a way to manage a classroom, so I went to the library and found a book titled Just Me, which ended up working perfectly. I used it while teaching second grade and applied the same principles when I went on to teach intermediate grades. I referred to this book in my memoir that I wrote to teach the world what’s really going on in our schools — A Graver Danger: White Chalk Crime, The Stunning First-Ever Explanation for School Shootings & How We End Them. In it, I told a story about how I had my first class so motivated that when a student vomited on her writing paper, she kept working around the vomit and the rest of the class didn’t stop either. I really had my students wanting to learn. I attributed my success to that book.

I tried to find the book, but had no luck. I then asked a couple of children’s book authors to recreate it. But one day I realized I needed to take that job on, since that book—with versions for each grade level—is precisely what an effective education system would have for its teachers. So I recreated it as closely as I remembered, adding a couple of concepts, like the boat idea, which I included verbally when I explained school to my students each year.

My initial thought in creating Just Me was to show a tangible solution for education reform. The central theme of my memoir is that we must empower called-to-teach teachers if we want children to learn. Instead, we have fascist-like administrators pushing those types out of education. In my book, I described what they did to me as one example.

So I decided to recreate that book to help other teachers implement a successful plan in our schools, while I tried to teach education reform with my other book. (The latter is much harder!) I know teachers will love this book since classroom management is a challenge for most. In it, I also offer readers my effective behavior-modification plan, which worked so well alongside this book. I see this book as an opportunity to help our schools from the outside and am excited about what it can do,

To be honest, at first I thought I should just use Just Me as a teaching tool when on podcasts or during interviews discussing my other book. I had one copy made, figuring I wouldn’t bother to publish it. I’m fully aware that I am not welcome in our schools as one who’s made my life’s work exposing them; thus, my book won’t be either. Then I realized, let the administrators try to ban a book that teachers and parents will love. It will help empower other teachers to speak out.

The process I went through with this book illustrates what I have been trying to say: the fascist-like administrators running our schools have disempowered our best teachers, and that is what has unraveled our nation since teachers are the ones who know how learning happens. My very own thinking about this book illustrates how disempowered I felt. So publishing this book is a significant step in my personal growth.

As I work to market my other book, I’ve come to see that one of the main points of my mission is to empower called-to-teach teachers, male and female, and it is a bit like Betty Friedan’s mission when she wrote her book, The Feminine Mystique, to empower women, a book instrumental in allowing women to use their talents. I remember reading her book when I was young and how it helped liberate me. I hope to help free teachers the way she helped free women.

My own process with Just Me proves my point that teachers are not free to use their power. For a long time, it did not occur to me to publish this book or any of my other successful ideas, figuring I’m powerless in the education world. Teachers like me are too other-centered to care or even think about power. How could we not be that way and want to devote our lives to helping children? We need our schools set up in a way that protects us, so we can do our magic with children, being who we were created to be. Instead, we have thieves running far too many of our schools, and it’s close to impossible to get this known given the nature of teachers. It’s truly a catch-22 I am trying to break open.

Now my plan is to help Just Me become a bestseller and empower teachers, which will help A Graver Danger; White Chalk Crime get into the hands of our future leaders, my objective for writing that book. I thank you for the opportunity to tell you how this book came to be as a step in that direction. I do appreciate your organization, as books are so very important.

So that’s the idea behind my recreation of Just Me. I do not think the original author shared his idea for writing it, but I bet he wrote it for parents and teachers like me, aware that managing a classroom takes insightful strategies, aware that teachers need books like this. I certainly appreciated finding it!

Why do you believe learning how to belong is just as important as learning to read or write?

Learning to be part of a community is learning to be part of a democracy. It is clear that schools stopped teaching what this book teaches, or our country wouldn’t be in chaos as it is. Even at a young age, I realized my job as a teacher was to produce educated citizens. To be citizens, children need to learn how to behave in community, and nothing works better than explaining why. So to me, school was always a combination of both. In 2008, well before our democracy fell apart, I warned that our schools would destroy democracy in a book I published then, White Chalk Crime: The REAL Reason Schools Fail: Untold story of crime that has destroyed our schools and how teacher abuse and teacher cleansing have kept this from you, and when speaking at the DC Mall. Here’s me there saying that:

When I returned to teaching in 1992, I was actually a Certified Reading Specialist, so you’d think I’d be more focused on teaching reading, but I loved the balance of the classroom; teaching democracy has always called me. One has only to study our forefathers’ warnings about education to know that education is the foundation of democracy. Democracy must be woven throughout one’s education for our Constitution’s promise of democracy to remain our way of life. It’s as important as reading and writing. When I found that our schools were not operating as democracies or teaching democracy, I began my new career teaching the public.

Why is it important to begin talking about citizenship at such an early age?

\It is important to talk about citizenship the minute a child is part of a classroom in order to gain their cooperation and respect for the classroom and teacher. At that point, we’re talking about citizenship within the classroom or the school. At a higher grade level, it is appropriate to transition to the concept of citizenship in a democracy. I used the word democracy in this book because it is so lost at this time in history that I thought, why not mention it early on? My classrooms were always democracies. That is why the children did so well. They felt a sense of purpose in my classroom, along with a teacher/leader who really cared about them. I decided to include that word given our times. I know that we lost our democracy due to our schools, something that in time others will learn, so our schools need to go the extra mile to bring it back, and in my solutions for education reform I include a democracy curriculum. Whereas I happened upon the Just Me book because I thought it was a good idea, we must have this kind of thinking coming from leadership. We can no longer leave the teaching of democracy up to teachers who think like me, particularly since most of us no longer teach. It has to be part of the curriculum. We don’t need every teacher to be deeply called to teach. What we need is insightful leadership that teaches all teachers to do their job with insight. And citizenship in the classroom has to be the mantra of our schools, so it must start the minute children start school. Learning cannot happen when a classroom is in chaos.

What kinds of discussions do you hope parents and teachers have after reading the book?

I hope parents will appreciate the role of teachers more, and teachers will embrace the idea that they must model democracy in their classrooms both for effective learning and for society at large. The ideas are simple enough to spark the discussions this nation so desperately needs. My best hope is that it leads parents to understand that teachers care about them but have had to follow orders that suggest they don’t. That way, more parents will help me get A Graver Danger: White Chalk Crime to our future leaders, since it is clear that both political parties have no idea what to do about education, while teachers like me know exactly what to do.

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