how the teachers are portrayed

     I see three teachers in Audre Lorde’s essay, Mrs. Baker, The kindergarten teacher (a.k.a. Miss Teacher), and Sister Mary of Perpetual Help.  From what I read, Mrs. Baker was the best and most memorable.  In a way she reminds me of my first grade teacher, Mrs. Williams.  Miss Teacher and Sister Mary were abhorrent teachers though and there are a few glaring examples that I will explain later.

     I have read thousands and thousands of books ranging from technical books about physics and psychology all the way to science fiction/fantasy.  I owe my enjoyment of reading to Mrs. Williams and the SMART Program (Start Making A Reader Today).  I believe that I have learned more about life from fiction books than I have from any real life sources.  This is what Mrs. Baker gives to Audre Lorde which is intimated by her statement of “I was sold on reading for the rest of my life" (From Zami 65).

     As far as the other two teachers go, it seems to me that they did everything in a manner that was harmful instead of helpful.  To start, Miss Teacher punished Audre Lorde for overachieving.  Sure I can see the not listening to instructions part but why was she punished for being able to use a real pencil and writing her whole name instead of just the first letter?  Sister Mary seems to be the worst, the way she segregates the class as an attempt at motivating the students to learn instead of doing some one on one tutoring is seriously wrong.  The degrading way she handled the whole glasses incident blew my mind especially at such a young age.  Both these teachers should take a leaf out of Mrs. Baker’s Book. I got these impressions because of the way Audre wrote about the teachers and what she decided to tell us about.  I am sure that there were some positive aspects to Miss Teacher and Sister Mary, but for the most part Audre recounted the negative aspects.