People
Fighting for Mother Nature

A retired teacher takes up the fight to preserve Wisconsin's natural resources from becoming just another shelf of bottled waters.

After 48 years of teaching, Joan Christopherson-Schmidt retired--and immediately jumped into a battle to preserve the pristine water of Big Springs near her Wisconsin Dells family farm.

Christopherson-Schmidt, who turned 70 last July 4 while a delegate to the NEA Representative Assembly in Chicago, spent her first official day of retirement testifying before the Wisconsin State Senate.

The issue: Whether Perrier/Nestle should be allowed to mine Wisconsin's spring waters for a new brand of bottled water.

Christopherson-Schmidt inherited 160 acres of marshland from her father. He made her promise never to let anyone drain or commercialize it, saying, "that land is for the animals, plant life, and water of the state of Wisconsin. We don't really own the land, we're only renters and must leave it as good or better than we found it for our children and grandchildren."

"Ms. Chris," as her Milwaukee students liked to call her, taught art, English, drama, and debate from the preschool level all the way through college.

"As educators," Christopherson-Schmidt says, "we must help children learn to appreciate and respect their environment and its natural beauty. That way they won't destroy it. They'll help protect it for the future."

Perrier recently received a permit from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to tap Big Springs water at a rate of 500 gallons per minute without getting an environmental impact study.

Christopherson-Schmidt is part of a group called Concerned Citizens of Newport, a leading force for preserving the land. CCN is suing DNR for failing in its public trust to protect Wisconsin's waters.

"The fight is worth it to me," she explains. "Wetlands are important to the environment, and if we lose this fight, we lose the environment."

For more information and free documentary video, E-mail hirok8@aol.com or go to www.saveamericaswater.com; phone 608/253-7266 or 414/961-2200.

For nearly two decades, Jill Cerqueira has studied and taught the Holocaust as a history teacher in Holmdel, New Jersey. Last summer, she did something not many would be brave enough to do. Amid the swirl of guerrilla warfare, ethnic cleansing, and NATO's peacekeeping mission, Cerqueira and a colleague visited Kosovo.

"I wanted to see first-hand the most recent genocide in European history," she says. "I wanted to bring that experience back to my students by establishing some type of cultural exchange program between my students and students in Kosovo."

Because of her efforts, Holmdel High School teenagers are now in constant contact with teenagers at two schools on the other side of the world, one Albanian and one Serbian. They exchange letters, E-mail, videos, music, and even holidays. "It's totally awakened my students to what is happening in the world," Cerqueira says. "And it's making them realize how much we all have in common."

Cerqueira's students have heard from an 18-year-old soldier who wrote about his experiences living in a combat area. Other E-mails confirm that Madonna is just as popular in Kosovo as she is in the United States.

"It's always better if teachers can teach reality, and that's what I'm doing," says Cerqueira. "Instead of reading about how destructive hate and prejudice are, they hear this from kids directly experiencing it.

"My students are able to visualize themselves in their new friends' shoes," adds Cequeira, "It's a powerful lesson to learn."

Just Another Ride in Paradise

Believing that being a good role model is a good way to influence students, Alaska special education teacher Bob Voris embarked on a trip last June that would take him across the country. That trip, Voris hopes, will now inspire the students he coaches to pursue lifelong fitness activity.

"I should practice what I preach," says Voris, who is also the cross-country coach at Gruening Middle School in Eagle River, Alaska.

Voris took part in the Race Across America (RAAM), a 2,989-mile cycling competition that takes amateur riders from Portland, Oregon, to Gulf Breeze, Florida. Voris' four-man team, "Team Alaska," finished first in the event's over-50 age group.

"Our goal was to beat the old people from Minnesota," says Voris.

Voris, who has been an active cycler since 1970, has taken part in other long-distance races, including the 746-mile Paris-Brest-Paris race through France and the 373-mile Midnight Sun race that takes competitors from Anchorage to Fairbanks.

Next year, Voris plans to take a break from competing. He'll serve instead on the crew of one of his former teammates who's going solo in the RAAM.

And the future? Voris dreams of completing a cycling trip to just beyond the Arctic Circle in the Canadian Northwest Territories.

More than 'Life's Pretty Parts'

As the 2000 National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year, North Carolina's Robin Sawyer will spend much of 2001 meeting important deadlines. But it's her passion for two very important and personal issues--First Amendment rights and the future of scholastic journalism--that will continue to drive her.

In the 1970s, as a high school student working on her own paper, Sawyer, now the journalism advisor at Manteo High, had a number of run-ins with the school principal about free press issues. Those experiences, as well as a deep admiration for her high school journalism teacher, Virginia NEA member Marie Harris, eventually propelled Sawyer into the teaching profession herself.

Today she's confronting free press issues from the teacher side.

"I think some administrators and faculty members would prefer that school newspapers be about nothing more than the pretty parts of life," says the inspirational teacher, who has garnered more than 250 awards for the paper in just 10 years. "But reality isn't pretty. If we are going to teach children that they have a voice, we have to be willing to present their opinions even when we don't necessarily agree with them."

Sawyer will use her new role to bring attention to the "graying" of journalism teachers.

"Journalism teachers prepare students to work as reporters, editors, or graphic artists," she says. "Often we forget that our own profession needs good teachers."

A $24,000 History Lesson

Idaho high school history teacher Gail Chumbley doesn't give herself over to many causes, but when she heard about the World War II monument being planned in the the nation's Capital, she threw herself into the cause--and her students went with her.

Over a year's time, Chumbley and her junior history students at Eagle High School in Boise raised over $20,000 to help build the monument. In November, on Veteran's Day, Chumbley was in Washington to turn over part of the funds to former U. S. Senator Bob Dole.

"In the history books, it seems like World War II happened so long ago," says Chumbley, "Many people who were there don't really talk about it. But over the year, the war became extremely real to all of us. Veterans opened up about their experiences, and we were changed in ways I can't even express. It was far better than any civics lesson I could have taught."