A Disgrace to the Profession

Becoming a Voice, the Novel

“I opened the envelope and was momentarily puzzled by its contents. But your red-hot publication soon made me whoop with delight. I think those whoops mark me as one of you minus most of your courage. The whoops, however strong, may not be memorable, coming as they were from a teachers’ lounge, but the little dance I tapped out certainly will stick in the minds of coworkers. At this point in paranoia, I refuse to be identified further, even among you. You understand the feeling, of course. It’s the big one that bonds so many teachers but also holds us down together. I expect that there will soon be those who claim you should be ignored because you write/publish undercover. ‘No credibility without identification,’ they may scream. Please, ignore them. I would hope that you just go on writing, publishing, raising hell. Don’t play their game; play your own. Remain underground. Just lie low and keep hurling those cannonballs.”

This is an actual letter from one of the many teachers who responded to The Emperor’s New Clothes, our underground newsletter. This letter’s theme became our mission statement, an invitation, it seemed to us, to go beyond our newsletter: Write a novel that dramatizes the reality of a school work environment.

We didn’t work from an outline. Instead, we wrote vignettes involving good teachers just trying to teach. We packed as many distractions and impediments into each school day as we could think of. Then we wove the vignettes into the time frame of one school year. Our fictional characters are not superteachers or teacher-magicians. (Robin Williams would not star in a movie version of our book.) Instead, these are the people who just show up every day to do their jobs.

We invented a principal, Robert D. Aneyh, and made him a protector of a school’s image rather than a promoter of quality education. The integrity of the teachers stands out in bold relief against their antagonist, Aneyh, whose paramount ambition is to further his own career. (Not all administrators in our book are evil.) The end of the book shows that, because he has the power, Aneyh prevails.

Despite all the good advice in Writer’s Marketplace and similar guides, finding an agent (and a publisher) is not easy—impossible, in fact—especially if the authors are from Iowa and have no connections. After many versions of the manuscript and years of frustration, we’d as much as given up. Then Kathy Myers, our friend and a former teacher, announced that she would become a publisher—Myers House—in order to make the story available to others.

We pooled our money and printed 500 copies. Charles said we should only order 50 and that we would probably be stuck with 25 of those after we’d given books to all our relatives. That was 5 printings and 16,000 books ago!

Watch for our next posting: Becoming a Voice, How the Book Took Off.

July 25, 2005: Iowa Association of Choral Directors

Gretchen and Charles will be speaking at the Iowa Association of Choral Directors summer conference at NIACC in Mason City on July 25, 2005. The members of this organization of music educators can attend a keynote speech at 9:30 and also a breakout discussion session at 2:30.

Becoming a Voice: Genesis of Our Novel, the Newsletter

“Yesterday I watched people read your essay. Frank Nolden amen-ed every paragraph. Alice Cain’s ready to drag the school system kicking and squealing backward into the age of the little red schoolhouse. And George Moore ran off a copy for every teacher on his wife’s faculty. I think we’ve got something here. We should go public. A newsletter—district-wide, sent to every teacher and administrator.”

“Have you been drinking?”

“No. I want to publish a newsletter. Will you help me?”

“Wait. Wait. I don’t want my name connected to anything.”

“Why? Don’t you want anyone to know what you believe?”

“Yes, of course. But I’ve seen people ruined in this system for speaking out. Look at you! You hardly get comfortable in your chair before they send you packing.”

“OK. We’ll go underground.”

“Underground! Like The Free Press?”

“Sure.”

“I can’t do that, Nick. I don’t have time, and I don’t have that much to say.”

“Then we’ll get more people.”

“Who?”

“David.”

       “David! Come on, Nick.” Karen pushed her back against the headboard and flicked on the light. “That weasel would never take any chances.”

       “No. He wouldn’t. Not in public anyway. But David’s clever. He could fire shots from the shadows. And Alice Cain is disgusted with this system. You know she’s worried about education. You could just mention this to them tomorrow. Plant the seed. Teachers have never had a real voice in this town, Karen. Don’t you think they deserve one?”

This short passage from our novel, A Disgrace to the Profession, illustrates both a need among teachers to be heard and a fear of administrative reprisal if they speak. That situation led to The Emperor’s New Clothes, our real underground newsletter, in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1989.

Positive response to the little paper, some of it anonymous, was like a bursting dam relieving pent-up torrents of frustrations, complaints, emotions, and recommendations for improving the schools. Readers thanked us for saying what they had never had the opportunity—or courage—to say themselves. The newsletter also created a dialogue, some of it sub-rosa and not all of it just among educators, in Des Moines about the state of education. The result was a revamped focus in district publications and press releases and more awareness of teacher discontent.

Encouraged by the power of our pens, we decided to paint a picture of teachers struggling in a pressure-laden work environment. A Disgrace to the Profession dramatizes one year at a fictional Midwestern high school through two teachers, Nicholas Staal and Karen Merchant, and what happens to them personally and in their careers when they speak out.

Watch for our next posting: Becoming a Voice, the Novel.

About Our Book

Karen Merchant meets Nicholas Staal when both are assigned to work in a large midwestern public high school. Bancroft High is an oppressive institution, with Principal Robert Aneyh as the self-serving leader. Nick immediately butts heads with Aneyh--he simply cannot abide the administrator's attempts to masquerade as a person of integrity. Soon it is revealed that Nick has a pattern of challenging autocratic managers. In fact, he has been transferred seven times by weak administrators whose games he would not play.  

At first, the other teachers marvel at how oblivious Nick is to the unwritten rules that dictate "proper" faculty behavior at Bancroft. But eventually an inspired few begin to follow him in resisting the system. It takes great courage. Principals have the power to dictate what goes into teachers' "permanent files," to what schools they are assigned, and what class loads they carry. Administrators can make life easy or they can utterly destroy a teacher's career. Teachers' fates depend on currying the administrators' favor. It is this intimidation that Nick and his followers defy.

As the story unfolds, Nick becomes drawn to Karen's keen mind and aloof manner. Gradually, he penetrates her defenses and helps her take more risks, both in her professional life and in her relationship with him. He eventually helps her free herself not only from those who cripple her in her teaching, but also from the stifling limits she has put on herself as a woman.

A Message from the Authors

The volume of response to A Disgrace to the Profession since it was first published has been tremendous! With over 16,000 copies sold by the beginning of 2005, our book has given its readers validation of their own feelings about school--the joys, the disappointments, the frustrations, whatever it is they've felt. More important, however, is that the book has given them permission to express their own thoughts, often for the first time outside their own groups.

This applies to teacher-readers and non-teacher-readers alike. The realization of readers that their thoughts are truly universal, not the unique product of their particular environment, is also important, but not as important as the revelation that it's okay to feel as they do.

We want A Disgrace to the Profession to be provocative. And if discussion of the positives and negatives of public education leads to change, then we're all winners.

--The Authors

Reader Response: B. P.

"Having spent many years of our lives as students, we can all relate to the plight of classroom teachers, but A Disgrace to the Profession reveals a unique insight into the professional lives of teachers and the real world of behind-the-scene struggles as they battle with an unprincipled principal and inept, unscrupulous administrators.

Although the authors present a fictionalized story, it is definitely real. They develop a compelling true-to-life drama exposing the bureaucratic nightmare that impedes teaching, stifles teachers, and drives them from their chosen profession. I can relate to the main characters, who have the courage of their convictions and who serve as an inspiration to us all as we resist 'administrivia' and fight for our professional autonomy."

Reader Response: Withheld, MN

"I'm a retired 4th grade teacher who spent 29 years in the classroom. I loved every page of your book. So much of Bancroft was my school! Especially our principal ,who lived in fear of a laswuit or that something would get "into the community." He stayed in his air conditioned office and, like your fictional principal, would not let teachers in to discuss a problem until 5 minutes before their classes resumed. He literally harassed teachers who lived in fear of their jobs. We were overburdened with meetings. As at Bancroft there were acronyms for everything. My favorite was BEPS--best educational practices. Thanks for writing about what must be a universal probelm in our educational system! I am ordering more books. "

Reader Response: Graham Gillette, School Board Member, Des Moines, IA

"A Disgrace to the Profession was entertaining reading with a powerful message. The authors barged in and made me question how I view our schools and those who labor there. Most surprising, they did it with an easy to read and touching novel. I am a Des Moines School Board member and I was captivated by this book.

I am not an educator and 'A Disgrace to the Profession' allowed me to get inside the minds of teachers. It was enlightening, humorous, frustrating and moving. A Disgrace to the Profession should be standard issue for teachers so they know they are not alone.

A Disgrace to the Profession should be mandatory reading for administrators and school board members to remind them about those struggling to teach.

A Disgrace to the Profession should be read by every adult who cares about education.

Three cheers for Charles Newton and Gretchen Kauffman."

Reader Response: Withheld

"Hurrah to you for publishing this book!!!! A city paper ran a review. I got the book that week. It took several weeks to read the first 100 or so pages. I just finished the last 200 in one sitting.

How did you know this is the school system I teach in? It's not Karen, Nick, David and George. The "Good Ol' Boys"Club" meets frequently. They hire sons and daughters or important town people's children. Poor teachers are allowed to go on.

Principals...habits create needs. I've just finished my 29th year in lower elementary. I've been chastised for running in the halls when I had a Kindergarten class of 30 in one building and another class of 29 in another building, traveling between the schools from 11-12, lunch and prep time. I've been chastised for calling parents too often. I've been told to move a classroom of "stuff" overnight, staying until 1:00 a.m. several nights in a row.

This book couldn't have happened in Des Moines; it's happening right here.

Education...Karen, Nick...please come to teach in my building. We need your fortitude, dedication and ability to stand up for what is just!

Sincerely, (Name withheld, I need my job.)"

Reader Response: L.H., IA

This novel shows the crossroads where fiction unveils reality. This novel made me feel that I was in the classroom again. For many years I listed the follies and foolishness of a number of principals and their club of central administration cronies. This book summarizes the list in a well-crafted reading. Is this fiction or non-fiction. How can you tell the difference? WIll principals, central administrators, and school boards be able to sleep without nightmares when they read this?

An astute teacher once said there are two school districts, one for administrators and school boards, and one for students and teachers. This novel clearly shows him to be correct.

Every teacher who endures an incompetent principal should carry this book around each teaching day as a notice that they arecognize administrative incompetence when they see it. No teacher, parent, administrator, or school board member can afford not to read this novel."