Donna Bauerly

TH: Earlier, you mentioned the teaching methods of the Franciscans.
DB: They were followers of John Dewey. And Dewey, if you ever read his life, always preached in interactive classrooms. So the present way we have of involving children is nothing new. That was Dewey's practice back in the 1930s. And then somewhere we lost that path. But those good Franciscan nuns were following in his footsteps, so we were constantly doing things. Some kind of presentation. Some kind of cantata. Some kind of expeditionary learning. That part, it inspired me; those were good women. For a while, I wanted to be a medical missionary. Those are Mother Teresa's nuns. So they came to visit me and they wanted me to go to college first, because their nuns become doctors and usually are involved in the medical field. I thought I don't think I'll keep my vocation if I go to college first, and besides, for a kid as poor as I was, I don't even think college was an option. But I didn't go to the convent to go to college. I went there because I wanted to be a good person. So, those were good years. I learned a lot. It just became a part of the fabric of my life. So when I left the convent, that part of me always stayed the same.

TH: You've long been an advocate for early childhood education. Several years ago, you aired an idea of getting an early childhood center in the Prescott neighborhood to tie in with community groups or city government. How would you describe what has occurred to improve early childhood education in the community?
DB: One thing I think people are not aware of is that we have a whole group of young children who are brought together (at Jones Junior High building). So with the Holy Family system not using Jones Junior High next year, I'm not sure whether we're going to expand that program or what's going to happen. I really like that we are going back K-5 at Prescott and K-5 at Fulton so that the children are in those schools for a longer period of time. I think that's important. But if we are going to see more early childhood experience, again we are going to have to have some kinds of money for that. We would love to do a pre-school at Prescott or at some of our other lower-achieving schools because the earlier you get them, the better off you are.

TH: Have you seen consequences, positive or negative, from the school board's vote to include sexual orientation in its anti-discrimination policy?
DB: There has to be. Another quote that was picked up on the Internet is they said, "You're not going to change society but you can create an atmosphere." And that's what you do when you very strongly come down on we do not tolerate discrimination, on any level. Now why do you have to say on this level, on this level? Because you have to bring particular attention to certain levels where there is obvious discrimination. And sexual harassment is the biggest one. In our middle school and our high school area, that is the biggest. So you give teachers a huge sanction. "You cannot do this. This is not acceptable in our school. This is not acceptable in my classroom." Then you have to follow up with all kinds of educational programs that we do. We have a very strong equity officer in Kris Hall.

TH: (Question regarding decision-making as an elected official).
DB: And we worked together to get that parking lot there for Bryant. And you've got to do a lot of things that weren't so popular to tear down all those houses. And it won't be when we look at the areas around Lincoln or Fulton or whatever. You've got to take down some things to put up some things and that's going to be a problem down at the Prescott area. You've got to take stuff down before you can put something up. That's not popular. You step on people's toes and you have to be able to do it. We didn't exactly do this, but the woman who taught me the nanosecond, she was one of the oldest people serving I think in the U.S. Navy. She gave a talk at Loras College and this is what she said: "A lot of times you have to do something and then afterwards you say, I didn't know I needed permission."

TH: Ask forgiveness rather than permission.
DB: Yes. Now that isn't exactly what we did with Prescott. We did ask for a lot of information and a lot of input, but we stepped on a few toes and when we go for off street parking, which we're going to have to, we're going to take down some things we don't want to take down. We would rather not. And what we're hoping for is housing in that area - this is where you work with people like David Harris. When you work with him for the development of good housing in that area, we need good low income housing. And I bless the developers who are working on Main Street and who are going to be working down in that area to develop housing that's from a lot of different socioeconomic levels. I don't want to see lofts be part of that warehouse down there. I would just as soon that that warehouse district that's down there, if that can be converted. It's a marvelous area. If that can be converted to a variety of income housing, that would really help us with Prescott. We want to attract another whole different, a va riety of people to that school and that's going to be a magnet school. We may have to go after some kind of charter status. That's all in the...we're working to find out can we get money and still retain the link of governance that we have to our presence in the community school district. That's very crucial for us. If the money is there, we'll take it, but we are very, very careful about governance. Extremely. We know what's happened in some other charter schools and we're not going to go down that path.

TH: You were a strong advocate for the Eleanor Roosevelt name on the middle school. Why Eleanor Roosevelt?
DB: Did you know that we renamed our other two middle schools, too? Now we have George Washington Middle School and we have Thomas Jefferson. So, Eleanor Roosevelt. I loved when we had Helen Keller (School). I'm sorry we still don't have a Helen Keller. We have honored many men, and rightly so. I believe that it's time to honor a woman. I would be perfectly happy to see another woman's name attached to the downtown elementary school. I have some preferences for what those names could be. We're never going to have another West Side school so we have plenty of opportunity. And when you want a name, you have to speak up for it. This might be a little controversial, but if there is to be a Martin Luther King school named in this city, then people have to speak up for it. There were not that many votes for the Martin Luther King school. So, speak up. You don't get anywhere if you don't make your opinion known.

TH: A lot of people didn't want the Helen Keller name because they thought, "If my kid goes to Helen Keller School, people will assume my kid had a disability of some sort."
DB: So? Albert Einstein had one, too. He was dyslexic.

TH: At what point does the school board say, "Get over it. That's not the case and this was a great American who just happened to be a great American woman"? Just because somebody goes to a Martin Luther King School doesn't mean that they're African-American.
DB: It does not. We sometimes are going to have to step up to the plate and go against what the city wants. If it does not come out strongly, let's say for a Martin Luther King, we're going to have to step up to the plate and say, "This is important." Maybe even though we got votes, maybe we have votes, we're going to have to maybe vote a conscience or maybe a higher law or whatever. But when you talk about Eleanor Roosevelt, for example, she always put her money where her mouth was. She is far more known to be other than just the wife of a president. She has a such long list of accomplishments. But the one that I always love to tell is when Marian Anderson was not allowed to sing at Constitution Hall. The Daughters of the American Republic blocked her because she was black. OK, what did Eleanor Roosevelt do? For one thing, she dropped out of the DAR and instead, she had Marian Anderson sing on the steps in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Now, that's the way you have to be. You have to be able to do things that the majority of people necessary don't approve of. That's probably sometimes where I get into a little trouble because I will have a strong opinion. You know that because I've appeared before your editorial board many times. And I always have, usually if I am knowledgeable about something, I will have a strong opinion. Or at least I know that I'm open for more information which may change my mind.

TH: Well, you must know a lot about a lot of things.
DB: I do. I think I do. I'm very well read. I try to read a lot of different things. I love magazines like the Smithsonian or the National Geographic. Give me an oddball magazine or Birds & Bees or whatever. Birds & Blooms I guess it is.

TH: In your observation, how have college students changed over the years, from when you started?
DB: I looked back to some of my old record books. I think I used to assign a lot more work and there were a lot fewer complaints. So what I think has happened to our college students, by and large, their lives have become infinitely busier. For one thing, many of them have to work and some of them try to work a 40-hour week and go to college. Almost phenomenal. Many of our students can be married and have children or divorced and coming back to school. All kinds of obstacles in their way. Then it seems like student life has really absorbed a lot of their lives as well too. Which is good. The service aspect has been carried over into our students' lives, from grade school, high school, all into college. Some of this militates against the scholarly student. And then what really militates - and I don't know the effect of this yet, but I am very interested in it on all educational levels - we have a laptop campus. So students will often sit in and their laptop will be open to AOL Instant Messaging. So I say, "Why do you keep that on?" A beep. "You've got mail." "Oh, we might miss something." I say, "Like what? What your friend had for breakfast?" Often that AOL Instant Messaging is nothing of mammoth importance. It's the little quotidian, the little stuff of every day. But they want to be hooked up all the time either to the earphones or to the computer. Lots of time I'm pleading for turning everything off except your own heart and mind and creativity. Just go away where it's quiet and be reflective. That's a real struggle. Now, T.S. Eliot said he wondered what the typewriter was going to his sentence structure. I don't think we know what the computer is doing our students' left brain, right brain, attention deficit disorder. Like TV. I'm not sure we really understand all that.

TH: Well, I think we've got an idea. It's not positive.
DB: I don't know how we counteract it except to try to inspire them to that kind of thoughtful living.