Traditionally, Morehouse Parish gathers all their teachers together on the first or second day teachers report to work. That was today, and we had the best speaker I’ve seen in the five years I’ve been at Bastrop High School—LouAnne Johnson, author of My Posse Don’t Do Homework that was made into the movie, Dangerous Minds (1995) and starred Michelle Pfeiffer. As a speaker, it was obvious she was nervous, but her presentation moved us like no other speaker has. She is sincere, passionate, and savvy on political and social issues. She loves kids, she is witty, she is talented, and she was well prepared. She definitely has the heart of a teacher and she won our hearts today. If you check her website, http://members.authorsguild.net/louanne/index.htm you can see that she is one very busy woman.

Johnson is a committed writer as well as a committed teacher. In addition to Dangerous Minds, she has written, Vigilante Grandmas, What Happened to the Man I Married, Making Waves: a woman in this man’s navy, Teaching Outside the Box, and The Queen of Education. (These last two books are a “must read” for teachers). My life is richer for having heard her speech. From her words, I could see into her heart, and it made me want to be a better teacher.