<p>What I am concerned about is- where was the principal who should have been doing inclass evaluations?</p>
<p>Im assuming he has some sort of dyslexia- that over time- his neurosystem developed enough so that with focused help he could learn to read- but the combination of people "helping " him, and others who weren’t doing their job- he shouldn’t have gotten to that place in the first place.</p>
<p>Let’s see. I’ll let the man’s words speak for themselves.</p>
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<p>“half my students unable to read…”</p>
<p>“I couldn’t teach them to read…”</p>
<p>“I could help them learn as I had learned…” (he just got done telling how he had gamed the system all the way through college by getting others to do his work, cheating on tests, etc.)</p>
<p>“I avoided facing the real problem in their lives…”</p>
<p>The man admits that these kids were shortchanged.</p>
<p>To make an analogy, how far do you think a student of music could get under the tutelage of someone who doesn’t play the instrument, doesn’t read the music, is tone deaf, has no idea of proper technique, can’t identify good from bad playing…</p>
<p>But they couldn’t read before they got to him, having been instructed by teachers who COULD read or write. Are you indicting teachers who can read and write?</p>
<p>Nope, I’m talking about him. At the present, the thread is discussing this one particular teacher.</p>
<p>You know, I’ve never told anybody this before, but before I came to mayberry I HAD SUPERPOWERS… yes, I was faster than a bullet, more powerful than a locamotive and able to leap a tall building in a single bound… and no one ever caught on because I wore glasses…
I thought I come out with this now as a public service message.</p>
<p>An interesting story with absolutely no one checking to see if it were true.</p>
<p>It does seem a bit much, I guess I’d believe more if we had all those people whom helped him along the way come forward and say “yep, I did it.”</p>
<p>Until then, anybody seen my blue leotard?</p>
<p>Mini – how do you know whether or not their previous teachers could read or write?</p>
<p>I don’t know if he was a bad teacher or not. I’m guessing his assistants pulled a lot of the load, though. No doubt he had something going for him – charisma? Just wondering how he could teach English or World History without being able to read or write. How did he learn the material? Esp. if he was hiding his disability? Did his wife read the curriculum to him? Did he show a lot of movies?</p>
<p>Opie – you had superpowers? Cool! Dare I ask what happened in Mayberry? Kryptonite? Oh, I see. Joke . . .</p>
<p>What I see is an EXCITING teacher - one who is self-reflective, one who writes books about his experience. One who has seen the failures of teachers who could (presumably) read and write as they passed their charges forward. One who took up the challenge to remedy the failures of his own education (served up to him by teachers who could both read and write, I assume.)</p>
<p>I’d hire him in a minute.</p>
<p>"What I see is an EXCITING teacher "</p>
<p>mini, the day you hire Harold Hill to teach music to your daughters is the day I’ll believe you’d hire him in a minute.</p>
<p>Mini – how do you know he wrote the book himself? Or if it is true? The man says he lied and cheated his way through school. How do you know what to believe?</p>
<p>"Opie – you had superpowers? Cool! Dare I ask what happened in Mayberry? Kryptonite? Oh, I see. Joke "</p>
<p>YUP, I “had” superpowers back in the day… at least I can say I had superpowers, can you prove I didn’t? ;)</p>
<p>When I had lasik, I lost my ability to conceal them from the public… no glasses, no secret identity… and my powers went away…</p>
<p>as the old family saying goes…“why couldn’t I get bit by a radioactive spider…”</p>
<p>Among other reasons, I work with lots of people who are functionally illiterate. The same folks - who will readily admit to massive drug habits, alcoholism, petty crimes, disturbing and dysfunctional family relationships - will often go to extraordinary lengths to hide their illiteracy.</p>
<p>I have ghostwritten books for a number of relatively well-known (in certain circles) authors. I have no reason to believe one way or the other whether he actually “wrote the book himself”. As far as its contents, I’m not sure that matters much when it comes to his capacities as a teacher, except that we seem to know something about his capacities for self-reflection.</p>
<p>I don’t know if he was a good teacher or not. I wonder if he also gave oral exams in addition to the multiple choice tests? Maybe he was an engaging lecturer? How did he learn the material? Lots of questions to be answered before I could say he was a good teacher or not. Maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t. He appears to have had a lot of empathy for the students, who, like him, could not read, or could not read well. So perhaps he did help them learn by structuring the class so they weren’t set up to fail by having to read or write. Maybe without that barrier in place, some kids were able to get something out of his class that they could not have gotten elsewhere. OTOH, he was doing the same thing that some of the other teachers were doing. Passing kids along in the system that could not read or write. </p>
<p>Even if he were a very good teacher, I don’t think it would be a good idea to drop reading and writing as requirements for public high school teachers. </p>
<p>However, he seems to be doing a lot to make up for whatever happened before by his current good works. I give him kudos for that.</p>
<p>It’s great that the man ended up improving his own lot in life. </p>
<p>But I can’t help but think that "teacher’ empathy for a child who can’t do something, without actually helping him DO something, is a good thing. If you really CARE about what happens to these kids, you want to TEACH them. Feeling for them, feeling sorry, helping them cover up their deficiencies, enabling them to get passed on, is not compassion. By his own admission, he did nothing to help kids who were already behind the eight ball. He helped them… get passed on, continue their illiteracy, continue in the status quo.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, he’s making money telling his sob story. Who came out ahead in this?</p>
<p>I saw this thread and accompanying link, so I did some digging on John W. Corcoran Sr. The Teacher Who Couldn’t Read was first published in 1994, when Corcoran (born in 1937) was 57 years old. The book, published in Colorado Springs by Focus on the Family, was co-authored by Carole C. Carlson (AKA C.C. Carlson), then 69 years old. </p>
<p>Carlson, born in 1925, has written and co-written about twenty conservative Christian-themed books, including Hal Lindsey’s 1970 bestseller The Late, Great Planet Earth. She is also thought to be the uncredited ghostwriter for many other conservative Christian authors. </p>
<p>Carlson intrigues me. She’s a shadowy figure. (One religious conspiracy theory website labels Carlson “mysterious,” and speculates that she is “a nun in disguise.”) I’m still trying to find out how she crossed paths with Corcoran back in the '90s. I ran across an online bibliography for Carlson, which included a book entitled Jimmy the Innocent, written with a John Corcoran (but perhaps not the John Corcoran), for which I could find no copyright information. I can’t yet determine if Carlson is still alive. If so, she’ll turn 83 this year. If not, then she might be the Carole C. Carlson (born February 10, 1925) who died in Solvang, CA on December 21, 1999.</p>
<p>I’m also intrigued that 70-year-old Corcoran, his 1994 autobiography, and the foundation bearing his name (founded/incorporated in Colorado in 1997) are suddenly back in the news. Corcoran is currently promoting a new book entitled The Bridge to Literacy, and is also speaking out in support of phonics-based reading instruction and NCLB. Clearly, he’s back in the spotlight to add his voice to the decades-old phonics vs. whole language controversy.</p>
<p>doubleplay’s question is a good one. It’s difficult to say who “came out ahead” from Corcoran going public back in 1994, and who will profit from his return to the public platform. My best guess is that given Corcoran’s established Colorado connections (his foundation’s tutoring program director, conservative Christian Marianne Arling, resides in Colorado), the financial and political dots can somehow be connected right back to Focus on the Family, one of the John Corcoran Foundation’s high-profile clients, and the publisher of Corcoran’s first book.</p>
<p>One final observation: I detected a note of skepticism in Charisse Yu’s San Diego News 10 story. She wrote, “In 1961, Corcoran graduated with a bachelor’s degree in education, while still illiterate he contends.” The words “he contends” speak volumes. I share Yu’s skepticism.</p>
<p>This topic hits home for me. Last week, while substitute teaching, I co-taught with a high school special ed language arts teacher (gen ed/special ed mixed class). We were reading The Crucible and Romeo & Juliet to various classes that day. I was absolutely floored by the fact that she did not have any clue what she was reading … she not only pronounced words incorrectly herself, but she corrected students incorrectly … she gave incorrect definitions of words when asked what they meant … and as she read it was obvious she had absolutely no idea what was happening in the text. I had to hold myself back … it would have been entirely inappropriate for me to correct her in front of the class … but I simply cannot understand how or why she is teaching high school language arts!</p>
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LOL!! THis sums it up beautifully. The very people here trying to rationalize this man’s deception would be going ballistic if their kids were stuck with this man as a teacher.</p>
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<p>Me, too. Something just doesn’t add up in his story. I can believe he was a poor reader perhaps, and a cheater, but not totally illiterate.</p>
<p>kelsmom- the status of sped instruction is truly a tragedy.</p>
<p>I have heard stories that would make your hair stand on end.</p>
<p>I think we need to have targeted incentives to increase quality of areas with teacher shortages- like math/science & SPED</p>
<p>“Something just doesn’t add up in his story. I can believe he was a poor reader perhaps, and a cheater, but not totally illiterate.”</p>
<p>maybe he too had superpowers like I did. Unfortunately, there’s no way to disprove my super abilities… you just have to “trust me” 
(wink wink nudge nudge, say no more)</p>
<p>kelsmom, I’d tell someone in her administration. Nothing may happen, but at least I’d know I didn’t keep it to myself.</p>