In Storrs, Connecticut, Without a Pass, or Why High School Teachers Need NWSA

Abstract

Prologue: May 28, 1981. I am standing in the office of my school principal, trying to explain NWSA in terms that will be understandable to him, but not too threatening. I am trying to convince the administration to give me four days of professional leave to attend the Convention. On the desk before us is a two-page letter in which I have stated, as professionally as possible, my reasons for wanting these four days of leave—the ideas and materials that the Convention will give me for my twelfth-grade women\u27s studies class (an English elective which will continue to be offered next year in spite of the changes brought about by the passage of Proposition 2½ in Massachusetts, because it is one of the most popular courses in the department); the importance of the Convention to my academic career as a graduate student in women\u27s studies (our administration considers professional development through courses and graduate programs a high priority for teachers); the significance of the Convention\u27s theme, Women Respond to Racism, for a teacher whose students rarely encounter a person of color (our ten-year state evaluation cited minority literature as one area in which our English Department needed improvement). All the while, I know, as surely as I know that my request will be refused, that no one but me has read a word of my statement. We negotiate, and I am granted two days\u27 leave to go to the NWSA Convention...