Lessons from Starfish

By J Coleman-Merritt

Lessons from Starfish is the story of a teacher who didn’t really plan to be a teacher – and the children who taught her the most about teaching and learning. The author shares this about her book: “I hope that my starfish stories are an invitation to practitioners and parents – and all those who work with children – to take the journey with our students that can lead to the heart of teaching and learning. I also hope that through these stories, parent readers, educators and community will gain insight into the many ways that we are all important educational partners who play significant roles in our children’s educational lives.”

In this memoir, you will meet seven children who inspired their teacher to “make a difference” – not just for the seven – but for all the children she taught.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Sep 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9781685622442

J Coleman-Merritt

J Coleman-Merritt is a retired Educator. She was a classroom teacher for over 25 years, as well as a Central and Local District Administrator with the Los Angeles Unified School District. She is currently an Author and Educational Trainer/Consultant. This memoir, Lessons from Starfish, is a reflection on her experiences as a classroom teacher and the essential principles she learned from some of her most challenging students. Coleman-Merritt edited and published Come Drink from My Cup: Musings of an East Harlem Poet as a tribute to her late brother, Damon Chandler, in 2005. Two recent articles in the field of Human Resources were published in the Routledge Companions in Business Management and Marketing (2020). Her latest project is in the historical fiction genre and set in the Caribbean Islands.

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About the Author

J Coleman-Merritt is a retired Educator. She was a classroom teacher for over 25 years, as well as a Central and Local District Administrator with the Los Angeles Unified School District. She is currently an Author and Educational Trainer/Consultant. This memoir, Lessons from Starfish, is a reflection on her experiences as a classroom teacher and the essential principles she learned from some of her most challenging students.

Coleman-Merritt edited and published Come Drink from My Cup: Musings of an East Harlem Poet as a tribute to her late brother, Damon Chandler, in 2005. Two recent articles in the field of Human Resources were published in the Routledge Companions in Business Management and Marketing (2020). Her latest project is in the historical fiction genre and set in the Caribbean Islands.

Dedication

For the children – my own and all those I have taught.

Copyright Information ©

J Coleman-Merritt 2023

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

All of the events in this memoir are true to the best of author’s memory. The views expressed in this memoir are solely those of the author.

Ordering Information

Quantity sales: Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Coleman-Merritt, J

Lessons from Starfish

ISBN 9781685622435 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781685622442 (ePub e-book)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023910311

www.austinmacauley.com/us

First Published 2023

Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

40 Wall Street, 33rd Floor, Suite 3302

New York, NY 10005

USA

[e-mail]

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Acknowledgment

One of the most important principles I’ve learned as an author is that writing for publication is a collaborative exercise. I once thought of writing as a solitary endeavor – and it is true that there is that aspect of the process – but reaching out to readers, communicating what we’ve written, that requires community.

I would like to express great appreciation to my literary communities for inspiration, know-how and resources: the Caribbean Literary Conference (Caricon) and the Greater Los Angeles Writers’ Society (GLAWS). In particular, I’m grateful to Steve Russell, founder and director of Caricon, for his unfailing encouragement, great ideas and enthusiastic assistance with developing my Author’s Website.

I’m especially appreciative of my wonderful Beta Readers who took the time to read Lessons from Starfish at various stages of development and gave their honest and thoughtful feedback to help broaden and deepen my vision for the book: fellow educators, Dr. Joyce Craft, Maliya Washington, Sandra Clarke, Juliet Clarke and Kelly Houston. My deepest thanks to Frederick Clarke and Ann Davenport, both of whom not only shared their reactions to specific ideas and their significance in the fields of youth and child development, but also took the time to offer preliminary editorial suggestions; and to Adria Merritt and Pat Bowman, educators and teacher trainers, who gave invaluable insights into ways Starfish might be used to enhance professional development programs in School Districts.

I am indebted to my daughter, Kweli Coleman, who has offered her expert advice as well as honest critique of various aspects of the book; and to my friend, Dorothy McLeod, for her constant support and encouragement with communications and promotions.

The names of people and places in this book have been changed to protect the privacy of those involved.

Introduction

I’m a teacher – although, I never meant to be one. If you had asked me whether I wanted to become a teacher when I was a child, I would have answered with a resounding No! I don’t.

I started first grade in 1949. In those days, anyone who bothered to ask a girl what kind of career she wanted, usually followed up with: A nurse – or a teacher? No one seemed to consider that there might be any other possibility. No one, that is, except my father. He was my hero. He told me I was smart enough to be anything I wanted, as long as I was willing to dream big and work hard – he told me never to let being a girl or being black keep me from following my dreams.

My father actually asked me what I wanted to be and waited to hear my answer. I’m sure I gave many answers over time, before I finally settled on becoming a lawyer. When I was 11 years old, we got a television, for the first time. I was fascinated by a TV Show about a lawyer named Perry Mason – but the lawyers I saw on TV were always men – Why can’t a woman be a lawyer? I wondered. Then one day – I met a woman who was a lawyer. And she was a black woman! I was excited and when I told my father, he chuckled and said, You would make a very good lawyer. You have a good mind and strong opinions. And, I must say, you do like to share your opinion on everything!

So, all the way through high school and through most of my college years, I thought I was going to go to Law School. And yet, I ended up enrolling in a School of Education instead!

*********

My passion for learning began with my parents, who I have always considered my first teachers. My mother had little formal education. She grew up between Santiago de Cuba and the American naval base on Guantanamo. She stopped attending school in the 4th grade to work as a domestic servant in the homes of Americans on the base. My father grew up in a Catholic orphanage in Jamaica – he had more formal education than my mother, but that education ended when he left the orphanage at age 17; and though he loved learning, he didn’t have the means to attend college. My parents were dedicated to the notion that their children would attend school all the way through college – this was the dream with which they motivated us to excel at learning throughout our childhood. They found a private elementary school in Harlem, N.Y. where the principal and the teachers shared their dream. Together, my parents and teachers inspired our love of learning.

Another inspiration for me was Annie Sullivan. Her story awakened in me a fascination with the power of teaching. The reader may remember that Annie was Helen Keller’s teacher. I had heard of Helen Keller as a teenager. When I first read about her, I was in seventh grade. I was awestruck – I learned of her wonderful achievements in life: without sight or hearing, she had learned to speak, read and write Braille. She eventually became a world-renowned speaker and an example of great self-determination and courage. But I had not considered how she had become so accomplished. After I became interested in education, I read carefully about her remarkable teacher, Annie Sullivan – about Annie’s first encounters with the child no one could reach, and the unusual teaching techniques she designed especially for her only student. I read with incredulity about the way she was able to engage the remarkable mind of this child who couldn’t see, hear or speak – who lived in her own dark and silent prison, angry, frustrated and alone.

Annie found ways to teach Helen because she studied her strengths and learned from Helen herself how to use this knowledge to reach her. She studied what Helen could do, rather than being persuaded by what she could not do. Recognizing the signs of her student’s ability to learn, she reached into her lonely world and became her guide. The teacher learned from the student how to use her strengths to her advantage.

The story of Helen and Annie brings me to my Starfish. Starfish are the children who have taught me the most about teaching and learning.

One Spring, while I was teaching 5th grade in Moreno Valley, CA, our Superintendent held a Professional Development Conference. He wanted to impress upon us the idea that the parents in our community were sending us their best children to teach – they were not hiding the best at home and sending us the rest. He wanted us to receive all children with optimism and resolve to teach them as they were, not as we would want them to be. He introduced the keynote speaker, explaining to us that she had been selected as National Teacher of the Year because of her success with children who weren’t usually successful in school.

Her classroom was located in a storefront. We learned during the presentation that her students were all homeless children who lived in circumstances that made it extremely difficult for them to focus on their studies – they were subject to hunger, stress, untreated illnesses of many kinds, loss, sorrow, distrust and sometimes, abuse. And yet, this was a teacher who found ways to help most of her students make significant academic progress.

While the name of this extraordinary teacher has faded from my memory,