Another supplement to our January-February update on illustrators…
Whenever I browsed children’s books in Australia (I was there September-December, 2007), I was drawn to the vivid illustrations of award-winning Aboriginal artist and designer Bronwyn Bancroft, whose most recent books, published by Little Hare, are An Australian ABC of Animals (2005), Patterns of Australia (2006), and An Australian 123 of Animals (2007). Throughout Bronwyn’s multi-faceted career she has been raising consciousness about Aboriginal culture. Early on, she developed a line of textiles based on Aboriginal patterns that’s now in a museum collection (search here). She’s also an internationally recognized painter with work in many museum collections. Her painting, “You don’t even look Aboriginal,” inspired a widely-used classroom teaching unit in Australian schools.
Bronwyn’s first children’s book, The Fat and Juicy Place, written by Dianna Kidd, won the Australian Multicultural Children’s book award in 1993. Her illustrations of Stradbroke Dreamtime were the Australian candidate for UNICEF’s Ezra Jack Keats international award for excellence in children’s book illustrations. In this transcript of an inspiring 2004 Australian national television (ABC) profile, she talks about her early life and the development of her work, career, and mission.
From time to time, we like to feature an Amsco author on this blog. Our first featured author of social studies textbooks i
s Gerard J. Pelisson. He wrote Mastering Social Studies Skills and Mastering United States History Skills. He has also written teacher’s guides, exercises, and tests for other Amsco titles and has reviewed some of the manuscripts of other authors. As an editor, I appreciate his easy-going writing style. I am also grateful for the times he has pointed out inaccuracies in our manuscripts.
Background Gerard grew up in the Bronx, New York City, where he attended Fordham Preparatory School and then Fordham University. He earned an MS in Education from Fordham and an MA in History from New York University. Only when he began teaching at DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx did he realize the influence his own teachers had had on him. He found himself imitating the techniques of the teachers he had admired. In time, it became his job to have new teachers imitate him. He coordinated a teacher training program for the High School Division of the New York Board of Education. His responsibilities included visiting classrooms in most of the public high schools in the Bronx, observing lessons, and offering advice on how to perfect the art and science of teaching. After more than 20 years of teaching, he retired to devote his time to writing.
Why Skills Books? It did not take Gerard long as a teacher to realize the difference between a student knowin
g a topic and that student’s ability to answer a question on it. He came to see that his job was not only to teach history, but to teach students the skills to express themselves verbally and in writing and to answer questions in various formats. At the time, there were few social studies books that taught skills. Many gave exercises in skills, but with no explanation on how to do them. In 1975, after Gerard had spent several years preparing his own skills material, it just so happened that Amsco asked the social studies chairman at Clinton to recommend a teacher who would have the “skills” to write a skills book in social studies. The chairman recommended Gerard, which led to the publication of the first edition of
Mastering Social Studies Skills in 1981.
Other Projects Though long retired from teaching, Gerard spends a great deal of time doing volunteer work for DeWitt Clinton High School and for the DeWitt Clinton Alumni Association. He helps with the graphic design of the school’s newspaper and literary magazine and is editor of the Alumni Association’s semiannual newsletter. In October 2007, he organized a tribute to the school’s namesake, Governor DeWitt Clinton. Nearly a thousand s
tudents participated in the event, which had the support of the New York Historical Society, founded by DeWitt Clinton in 1804. Gerard has also arranged for classes of Clinton students to visit the Historical Society during the winter of 2007–2008. And in the spring of 2008, he will conduct a student oratorical contest on the various accomplishments of Governor Clinton. The winners will receive cash prizes provided by the Alumni Association.
Current Project Gerard is putting the finishing touches on a history of DeWitt Clinton High School. The late Albert Beller, the founder of Amsco School Publications, was an alumnus of that school. So too were more famous men (it was an all-boys school until the mid-1980s): Richard Rodgers, “Fats” Waller, Richard Avedon, James Baldwin, Bob Kane and Stan Lee, Burt Lancaster, Dolph Schayes and Nate Archibald, Judd Hirsch, Garry Marshall, Robert Klein, Tracy Morgan, George Cukor and Stanley Kramer, Neil Simon, Charles Rangel, Sugar Ray Robinson, and hundreds more that Gerard will gladly tell about to whomever will listen. As he and his coauthor wrote their book, they realized they were doing more than compiling a list of famous alumni. They were telling the wonderful story that high schools have played in the development of American society, especially in helping generations of immigrant children. As Gerard likes to say, “The Statue of Liberty may welcome immigrants, but it is schools like DeWitt Clinton that give them the means to feel they belong.” I look forward to this book getting published.
Your Input Which other Amsco social studies authors would you like to see profiled? You can tell us on the comments link below.
This morning we introduced you to the Treatments That Work series. Each workbook for patients is paired with a Therapist’s Guide which your doctor will use to work with you throughout your treatment. To give you an idea of what your therapist is reading here is an excerpt from the Mastery of Your Anxiety and Panic Therapist Guide about patients that have problems with the breathing exercise we learned this morning.
(more…)
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Whenever I browsed children’s books in Australia (I was there September-December, 2007), I was drawn to the vivid illustrations of award-winning Aboriginal artist and designer Bronwyn Bancroft, whose most recent books, published by Little Hare, are An Australian ABC of Animals (2005), Patterns of Australia (2006), and An Australian 123 of Animals (2007). Throughout Bronwyn’s multi-faceted career she has been raising consciousness about Aboriginal culture. Early on, she developed a line of textiles based on Aboriginal patterns that’s now in a museum collection (search here). She’s also an internationally recognized painter with work in many museum collections. Her painting, “You don’t even look Aboriginal,” inspired a widely-used classroom teaching unit in Australian schools.
