Welcome!

 



My name is Lucy Doris Walker. I was a Public School Teacher in Teaneck, New Jersey for 27 years. I graduated from Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood, NJ, in 1969. When I graduated, three other senior classes also graduated. Dwight School for Boys, up on the Hill, St. Cecilia Roman Catholic School, and Dwight Morrow High School all had senior graduation ceremonies that year. The Dwight School For Boys h as become Dwight Englewood. St. Cecelia is graduating its last 8th grade class this June and the school is closing. It stopped graduating seniors years ago. It is the end of an era. Dwight Morrow High School has been segregated by our Board of Education.

Land freshly planted

I was born in North Carolina. My father owned a farm that was left to him by his father. My father was very spoiled. He was the baby of 7 children and his mother doted on him. He made a lot of mistakes as a young man. He was full of himself and liked to dress up in fancy hats and slick suits. He does look rather dashing in the old pictures, so I understand how he made his way. My mother was fourteen when my grandma spoke to his Father and he had to marry my mom. We call it a shotgun wedding.

Gymnasium Entrance, St. Cecilia

My Mother had 13 children. One, a little girl named Barbara Jean did not live 24 hours. We were very poor and worked our farm. We also worked in the fields of the white farmers who now owned the great and famous plantations of the south. We were paid the wage that Lincoln spoke of in the Emancipation Proclamation. For instance, I had to pick a hundred pounds of cotton in order to make 3 dollars. Do you have any idea how hard it is to pick 100 pounds of cotton in one day? I have picked 200. My oldest brother once picked 300, but the cotton gin burned that year so we all suspected he used rocks.

Entrance to the Church

We were surrounded by the remnants of the olden days when our great grandparents were slaves. We visited homes that were the same houses that family had lived in when they were slaves. There was always a constant reminder. The old people were always reminding us to stand up straight and be proud. They were generally very strict with their children. Education was important to everybody. My Mother pushed it. Even though she dropped out of school at 14, she was already going into her senior year. If she had to lose a day’s work because one of her children was bad in school, she was not happy. She insisted that the older children care for the young ones as if they were their own children. Sometimes that train of thought backfired on us.

My brother Joe had a photographic memory. It took him only minutes to memorize and recite really long bible verses. Joe wanted to be a teacher so he practiced on us. It did not matter how young you were. When Joe called the children together into the long hallway of the plantation style house, you had to be ready for some learning. Joe was much better at corporal punishment than any real teacher I have ever met.

There was a closet to the right as you walked in the front door. The closet had no doors. It had a draw curtain. Winter dress coats and suits hung on the top rack away from the light of the southern sun. Beneath the winter clothes were 6 student desks that had always just been there. Joe sat with his back to the front door. Those 6 old school desks were lined up to face the front door. The door was always closed during school time. We all had different feelings about that door. Some saw it as a doorway to get outside and play. Joe saw it as what I now see as leverage. The door only came open and offered you the freedom to play in the beautiful outdoors AFTER you had completed the job he gave you. He taught us to read and write from the bible, old Grit newspapers, the Sears and Roebuck Catalog, Poor John's Farmer's Almanac, cereal boxes, Campbell's Soup cans, everybody's school books, Jet magazine and comics. We were very poor. We were also not allowed to use the Public Library.

Public/Private - Charters Schools are Private Schools supported by Public Taxpayers

To this day, I work to make sure my grandchildren have choices. Every child, regardless of the color of his/herskin, the language they speak or where they live deserves the same chance to succeed in public school. Every child is entitled to a good free education. Charter Schools are private schools that are supported in part by public money. I am the public. My tax dollars are being used to support Charter Schools. I don't have a problem with that. People make choices. Englewood public schools are beautiful buildings. They are great clean facilities that have everything that is needed to give every child a great education. It is too bad that parents must fight so hard to get a good education for their children. It is also not new. Parents everywhere have always had to fight for their children. Charter School parents have the same problems as we do. Unless the current Englewood students are all going into real Private Schools, they must at some point deal with the Englewood Public School District. For the sake of the children, all Parents must start learning about the public schools and how they work. Become active in your Charter School and plan for the future of your child. Schools, as we know them are changing. We cannot afford to sit back and allow that change without our say. Speak up for your children. Administrators and teachers in all types of schools must treat students and their families with respect.