Classroom Strategies for the Subversive English Teacher

Eugene L. Conrotto was born in Gilroy, California, at the southern end of Santa Clara Valley known today as Silicon Valley. He has lived life two decades at a time. For the first 20 years he was a student, that experience culminating in a degree in anthropology from Stanford University. For the next 20 years he was a journalist in the California desert: editor of the award-winning Desert Magazine. His first book--Lost Desert Bonanzas--came from this experience. The third 20 years saw Conrotto back in the classroom, this time as an English teacher. What he found was that not much had changed during his absence-"students and teachers apathetic, listless, droopy..." Hence: Classroom Strategies for the Subversive English Teacher. Conrotto has some radical (Subversive?) ideas concerning public education. He would make pre-K through grade 5 mandatory, with heavy emphasis on promoting the role of the student-citizen. Six through 11 would be entirely by voucher. Qualified teachers could create "schools" of whatever persuasion that they can "sell" to parents and students-Bible Study School, College Prep School, Basketball School, Latin Academy, Special Needs School, etc. In short, the voucher system would allow the market to set the curricula. Twelve through the first two years of college would be free for students who can demonstrate competence in reading, writing, and arithmetic. (Here's how the 3-R's sneak back into the Basketball School's offerings.) "The main benefit of this system would be that teaching would begin to attract people with a more entrepreneurial bent, The second plus would be that teachers of the various schools would hire administrators and set their duties." Conrotto's fourth 20 years--and still counting--pretty much confirms his belief that the spreading of good cheer is not among his responsibilities. Conrotto is the author of Miwok Means People, The Memoirs of Caesar Honore, An Annotated Chronology of the California Gold Rush, Notes on My Stay in a Convalescent Hospital, Avanti America, A Day with the Ant-People, and A Chronology of Unitarian-Universalist Celebrated Individuals.