[Ohiogift] How I got into College

[Margaret DeLacy]

Friends:

This American Life carried a two-part episode this week entitled "My Ames is True".  It was part of a show entitled "How I got into College"

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/504/how-i-got-into-college

The episode features a gifted refugee, Emir Kamenica, whose life trajectory was changed by his dedicated English teacher, Miss Ames.  Years later TAL tracked Miss Ames down and got her side of the story.

Miss Ames paid a high price for helping this gifted student. According to the story, she put a great deal of time and effort into persuading a local private school to admit Emir who  ultimately  became a very successful professor of economics.  Her colleagues resented  the fact that she had helped their most gifted student to transfer and retaliated by assigning her to "the worst school in the county" the following year.  The principal of the school, who had come from the same school that Emir had left, said "you have so many high-minded ideas...It's my job to break you in."  He succeeded in driving her out of teaching altogether.  She left the state and allowed her teaching license to expire.  

Margaret