Jackson Couse

It took me a long time to learn how to read. By the start of grade two I still couldn’t really make head or tail of words. I got lucky; my poor read­ing was noticed. I was doubly lucky to go to a school where a spe­cial­ist was avail­able. I took remem­dial read­ing through­out second grade. It wasn’t until grade three, Ms. Cromwell’s class, that read­ing took flight. Ms. Crom­well was a young black woman from Nova Sco­tia. She was, is, a fant­astic teacher. With her, I learned to love read­ing. Eman­cip­a­tion from slavery and eman­cip­a­tion from illit­er­acy are fun­da­ment­ally inter­twined ideas. Ms. Crom­well had a remark­able way of explain­ing both to 8 year olds. I owe a remark­able debt to her tal­ent and caring teaching.