Audre Lord

Audre Lorde illustrates what her teachers were like with the best tool a writer has to illustrate something, her descriptions. She describes, in good detail, how here first grade teacher looked. I really like the way she describes the teacher as a blonde, not because she was able to see Sister Mary's hair, but based on the observation of Sister Mary having blonde eyebrows. More important to illustrating these teachers then their appearance, Lorde has a way of showing you their personality’s rather than telling you. You get a good sense of the kind of teacher her kindergarten teacher was based on how she treated Audre and how quickly she was willing to give up and drop her. She wanted Audre out of school not for being unable to learn or for being behind the class but for simply misunderstanding the directions given to her. Audre went above and beyond what the assignment asked of her and was condemned rather than commended for this. Audre's mom made a really good choice moving her out of that school and into first grade although from the sounds of it the first grade teacher was more worried about the children’s strict obedience to herself and to god then about educating her students. This however was still an improvement upon the last teacher.