Don't get me wrong. Learning has always been my thing. I grew up in a household where "learn something new every day" was emblazoned in our cereal dishes. Mom made sure that dinner table conversation was so much like school I sometimes raised my hand to go to the bathroom. But -- be a teacher??? Me??? NEVER!! My heroines were Dorothy Dix and Lois Lane (although I never had a thing for Superman...).

After high school, as I looked toward a career in journalism, I also joined the brigades of youth in revolt. Educated in nonviolent protest by the Civil Rights movement, marching against the war in Vietnam, I benefited from a unique hands-on education learning realities of race, class, wealth, poverty and war. I began to learn what my nice white middle-class schooling didn't teach me and hungered for more.

Girl Reporter
I was still creating a path for "Sally-- Girl Reporter" when I once again focused on education-specifically unequal education for children of color. My journalism thesis addressed reading, writing, and racism in New York public schools. At my first real reporter job, in York, Pennsylvania, I had the education and social issues beat. Somehow that schooling thing was pulling me in.

In Atlanta, Georgia, on a fellowship given for change agents in education, I thought my purpose was to find further scoops for social issues reporting, especially as Atlanta public schools were experiencing the pain and strain of desegregation. But it was 1968, and I yearned for a more active voice in the issues of the day, and dove off my "establishment journalism" career path when I found an amazing independent publication, The Great Speckled Bird.

Education and Civil Rights
As staff member of this weekly underground paper, I began reporting real stories of desegregation and civil rights activities in Georgia. I sat in classrooms where black children were seeing a white teacher for the first time. I attended meetings where black teachers talked of isolation as the first teachers of color in an all-white school. And I heard of issues among parents. Many white parents didn't want their children in school with black children whose parents "couldn't even read the report card." Some black parents told of white teachers who "treated us like children." Others told of fear, because they "didn't have much schoolin' in the country."

The Bird was a vibrant and energized vehicle for reporting real stories, but it wasn't exactly well supported by local advertisers. At best we earned $50 a week. We found many "alternative" ways to pay rent in the commune. Among the best for "girls" was modeling in the buff at the Art Institute. (All shapes and sizes were welcome.) But I did think there might be other sources of income more in line with my real work.

Through The Great Speckled Bird, a friend, Sue Thrasher, told me about a new and exciting initiative in education: basic literacy for adults. Sue had held a fellowship with the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, and had met an incredible Brazilian educator, Paolo Freire. His philosophy included the idea that education is the way "to create democracy." As one peasant quoted by Freire said: "I want to learn to read to change the world." These words changed my world. Shortly after learning about Freire and his work, I learned of opportunities in Atlanta to teach adult basic education on a part- time basis. Eureka! I could retire from my unclothed posing, and become a "teacher!"

In 1971 I was hired to teach a pre-GED class in my own inner-city Atlanta neighborhood, an area just beginning to desegregate. I can always picture that first evening at the Moreland Ave. Elementary School. The eight or nine adults greeted me with nervous but eager smiles. There was Margaret, a library aide who wanted her GED. Ivory, who had dropped out of school in eighth grade. Her mother had died and she had to go to work to help support the family. She now wanted to help her daughter go to college. Brad, a maintenance man for Atlanta public schools who was an oral historian on the Civil War, but couldn't read at the first grade level.

This class of African- American and white adults became much more than a paycheck, much more than an alternative to modeling in the "altogether." They were my best teachers ever! This class began an adventure in learning that has nourished me for over 30 years. Me? A teacher? You better believe it. It's the best beat I ever had. And the story ain't over yet.

Sally Gabb is the coordinator of SABES Southeast. She can be reached at: sgabb@bristol.mass.edu