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Debra
Solomon Baker

A graduate of University of Michigan and Harvard Graduate School of Education, Debra Solomon Baker has been a middle school Language Arts educator for more than a decade.  She has presented at national education conferences, most recently on the integration of technology in the English classroom. Baker blogs about her experiences as a teacher and as a parent at http://msbaker.edublogs.org/.

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Articles by Debra

N-Word Or No N-Word? That is the Question

By now, most people have heard about the new edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn being released next month. In it, the n-word has been slashed 219 times and replaced by “slave.” Discussions over this edition have been loud, particularly in literary and education circles. Erasing the n-word would, theoretically, free teachers to teach Huck Finn again. After all, year after year, the novel appears on the American Library Association’s list of most frequently challenged or banned books.But what have we heard from our young people about this issue?
Debra Solomon Baker

What to Throw Away in 2011

For me, the main activity of the first few days of 2011 has been the big “P.” Purge. Purge. Purge. Together, with my two children, we tossed “Baby Einstein” videotapes, Elmo board books and clothing for babies and for toddlers, into giant boxes destined for Goodwill. We filled an entire mini-van. And, I now feel lighter. A good cleansing can be so refreshing.
Debra Solomon Baker

Getting Educated About Homeless Students

For 20 nights, Kate has collapsed onto a different air mattress in a new space, a strange place—none of them home. The 15-year-old, her parents and two younger brothers cart themselves and their meager possessions from shelter to shelter.
Debra Solomon Baker

Tootin’ My Own Horn

I really should be practicing Aura Lee right now—or Merrily We Roll Along.I will soon be marching on stage, balancing my sheet music on the stand, wetting my reed, and playing the clarinet in front of parents, school board members, students, even the superintendent.How exactly did I get myself into this mess?It all started with a simple email.Pull out your instruments, Teachers, and join our Beginning Band students in their October concert….
Debra Solomon Baker

Am I My Brother’s Keeper?

It is not easy for my students in suburban St. Louis to connect with the characters in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. The novel is packed with gruff men. Middle aged, mostly friendless, they are all struggling to eke out an income on a ranch somewhere in California. The one glimmer of hope in Steinbeck’s classic emerges through the relationship between two men—George and Lennie. They are not relatives. Yet in a society where individualism is paramount, George does far more than merely put up with Lennie. He cares for this mentally challenged man, blankets him with a protective shield. Other characters turn from, threaten, and even belittle Lennie. Most are astounded by George’s choice to attend to someone who seems like such a burden.
Debra Solomon Baker
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