Time transcripts of kathi-2 [00:00:00.01] Hi, I'm Kathi Ligocki, and for the past fifteen years [00:00:04.09] I've been the enrichment teacher at St. Michael School [00:00:08.18] in Worthington, Ohio. And I love reading [00:00:12.23] and I love books. And you can't put a book [00:00:16.26] with a first grader and not have them excited too. [00:00:20.28] One of my favorite books is "Who wants Arthur?" [00:00:24.37] It's a delightful little story with wonderful pictures about a dog names Arthur [00:00:28.39] who nobody wants to adopt. And finally at the end [00:00:32.44] of the story he gets adopted by a girl and her grandfather. [00:00:36.48] And the kids just love Arthur's antics [00:00:40.50] throughout the story, and they are so motivated to follow it up [00:00:44.60] with their own Arthur stories about what his life is like when he goes home [00:00:48.69] with Melanie. So the first graders [00:00:52.75] decided that Arthur should have an adventure and go to Sea World. [00:00:56.77] And so they followed up, and they drew pictures [00:01:00.79] of Arthur going to Sea World. [00:01:04.89] And, of course there was a problem smuggling a dog into a water park [00:01:08.98] with mammals. Uh, so what they did [00:01:13.04] is, they put Arthur in a baby buggy and dressed him up as a baby. [00:01:17.09] And they had a delightful story about it. [00:01:21.13] Another group wanted to talk about, since Arthur knew [00:01:25.14] how to do a lot of tricks that he learned from other animals [00:01:29.23] in the pet store, they had Arthur performing [00:01:33.24] daily dog shows in Melanie's back yard [00:01:37.30] and they made, the children in the neighborhood made posters [00:01:41.33] and they lined up and paid money to see Arthur [00:01:45.34] perform his many tricks. So that was a fun follow-up [00:01:49.35] that the kids came up with all these cool ideas. [00:01:53.42] And in this particular class, each child [00:01:57.48] wanted to create their own Arthur story of what happened [00:02:01.50] next with Arthur after he was adopted by Melanie. [00:02:05.50] And they illustrated it, and they just loved him. [00:02:09.60] And their copies were colored for [00:02:13.65] their classroom and for themselves. [00:02:17.73] When you put a book with a primary student [00:02:21.74] their minds just go, and they want sequels, [00:02:25.76] and they want to draw pictures of the main character, [00:02:29.87] and they want to talk about dialogue and what it should be like. [00:02:33.95] And these are my experiences, um, [00:02:37.97] in the Catholic schools. On the flip side [00:02:41.99] P.S. I didn't know this, but [00:02:46.01] when you teach in a Catholic school [00:02:50.02] you are not guaranteed any of the First Amendment Rights [00:02:54.11] that any other teacher in a public school is guaranteed about. [00:02:58.19] So make sure you know, when you go there [00:03:02.21] it's a delightful atmosphere. The kids are wonderful. [00:03:06.22] Parents are supportive. But if the administration changes, [00:03:10.24] um, you have no rights. Bye! [00:03:14.34] [ interviewer follow-up: So, um ] [00:03:18.43] [ Would you mind elaborating a little bit on those First Amendment Rights and what changed] [00:03:22.43] [ when the administration came in, or changed? ] [00:03:26.47] Okay, well, I love teaching in the Catholic schools [00:03:30.48] and in my particular school that had, um, academic excellence [00:03:34.48] awards and many other [00:03:38.56] credits to our account. [00:03:42.62] But we had a new administration come in, and um, [00:03:46.66] their particular view of their Catholic faith [00:03:50.68] was much more conservative. And as a Protestant [00:03:54.78] who loves Christ, and God, and the Bible [00:03:58.87] that was no longer enough to teach in our school. [00:04:02.94] I was also to embrace the Catholic Catechism. [00:04:06.99] And that is not part of my belief system. [00:04:11.02] But, that was a requirement. And when I talked [00:04:15.03] to the union, they said it didn't matter [00:04:19.13] what the new administration required. [00:04:23.14] As Catholics, they could require what they perceived [00:04:27.19] was the need. And, um [00:04:31.22] believing in academic excellence and children [00:04:35.23] following children and children leading their learning, [00:04:39.33] suddenly to have back to memorization [00:04:43.38] and censorship, I didn't think it was in the best interest [00:04:47.40] children. So, as a response, I choose [00:04:51.43] what I call 'premature retirement' [00:04:55.45] opposed to staying in a setting which I felt unfair to children. [00:04:59.45] [ Interviewer: Thank you so much for sharing. ] [00:05:03.46]