Occasionally I write stories that provide updates about people in the past who did something hair raising enough regarding nappiness and things related, to make the news.
I call my feature, “Whatever Nappened To … ?
Ten years ago Ruth Sherman, a white schoolteacher in Brooklyn, made national news for the stir she caused when she read an award-winning children’s book called Nappy Hair to her class of predominately African American and Latino third grade students. She was essentially run out of school for doing so.
Nappy Hair, written by black author Carolivia Herron, was a story about the kinky hair texture of a little black girl. Herron’s reason for writing the book was to celebrate one of the unique characteristics of many African Americans. Sherman’s reason for reading the book to the students was to celebrate diversity and teach them about racial tolerance.
A parent of one of the students saw photocopies of a few pages from the book in her child’s homework and became offended over the images and the content. The parent, who had not read the entire book, circulated the pages to other parents who also got upset.
It turned out that most of the adults who were outraged also had not read the book and did not have children in Sherman’s class. That did not stop them from accusing Sherman of reading from a book that reinforced racial stereotypes. During a meeting held by school officials to discuss the matter, several of the adults threatened Sherman. She ultimately asked for a transfer and left the school.
So whatever happened to Sherman?
She is no longer the single, twenty-seven-year-old third grade teacher in Brooklyn. Sherman is now Ruth McCloskey who lives in Suffolk County with her husband and two young boys and teaches first grade at a predominately white elementary school on Long Island.
“I’ll always be teaching,” said Ms. McCloskey. “That is just meant to be.”
She said that when she left the school in Brooklyn, she transferred to an elementary school in Jamaica,
Queens where she taught for two years.
“That was just the perfect place for anybody today,” she recalls. “I can’t tell you how many different nationalities there were.”
She eventually had to leave the school when her husband’s job required them to move out of the school district. She says the she loves her current job but misses the multicultural mix.
