An ‘Abbott Elementary’ Writer Who Draws From Her Experience At ‘The Great Schoolhouse’
This is a guest post from Rebecca L. Bredemeyer, a retired elementary teacher and writer who wrote for Abbott Elementary where she wrote the newspaper, school-wide yearbook, and a column about books she read each summer. Rebecca was the first writer hired when the school opened in 1957.
I remember the first time I got to read the daily school newspaper. I was in elementary school, and I was having trouble learning how to write, but I loved reading. So, I picked out one of the paper’s writers, and I went to him and I said, “Here’s a girl who writes, and she loves to read. Help me to write a newspaper column.” I remember that he shook his head slowly, and that’s how I knew he’d never teach me how to write.
If I can believe what Rebecca says, it’s true. It was a long, painful process for her to learn how to write. She had a huge amount of help: The teacher who helped her first, and the writers who worked with her, who helped her learn how to make her ideas stand out in the paper, in the writing process, in the publishing process.
The teachers — the ones she thanked with words and with her tears – the ones who helped her learn, taught her how.
I remember the first time I got to read the daily school newspaper. I was in elementary school, and I was having trouble learning how to write, but I loved reading. So, I picked out one of the paper’s writers, and I went to him and I said, “Here’s a girl who writes, and she loves to read. Help me to write a newspaper column.” I remember that he shook his head slowly, and that’s how I knew he’d never teach me how to write.
If I can believe what Rebecca says, it’s true. It was a long, painful