The Movement for a Better America

Miss Teach

A Memoir Handwritten with Love

A Very Special Kind of Hero

By Dennis Howard

Pro-life people are often accused of caring only for the unborn. In fact, dedication to the care of the sick and disabled is very much a part of pro-life purpose: to nurture life from conception to its natural end.

I can’t think of a better example of one who lived that philosophy than Anne I. Remis, who triumphed over enormous obstacles of her own -- including a 10-year battle with tuberculosis -- to become a pioneer in a brand new field, special education, and went on to make valuable contributions to the lives of others.

Her story is also a precious piece of education history, the story of the very early days of special education for children with disabilities. Remis wrote about it in a book called, Miss Teach: Handwritten with Love, published by The Movement for a Better America, Mt. Freedom, NJ 07970.

Anne was one of those people who instinctively make lemonade when God sends them lemons. Whenever she ran into a major life obstacle, she transformed it into a precious opportunity. Her book has been called “a testament to the power of what one person can do to leave the world a better place for today’s children.”

She grew up in Clinton, NY, one of six children of Frank and Anna Jurcisin Remis -- including two girls, Anne and Dorothy, and four brothers: John, Frank, Stephen and George. She came of age in the middle of the Great Depression. Determined to get an education, she went on to receive her Bachelor's degree in 1935 from SUNY, Oswego and her Master's degree in 1949 from SUNY College for Teachers in Buffalo.

Her teaching career began in a one-room "little red country school house" with a single student, but soon moved on to a regional center for developmentally handicapped children. There she taught young adults in every subject, including music, drama, dancing and academics.

Sadly, she contracted tuberculosis two and a half years later, and spent the next 10 years in the famous Trudeau Sanitorium in Saranac Lake, NY. She wrote about these years in a chapter she contributed to a book about Trudeau by Victoria Rinehart, Ph.D. called "Portrait of Healing" that was published by North Country Books, Utica, NY.

Always one to make the most of her challenges, she wrote, "No doubt, my years at Trudeau were also deeply formative for the work I was eventually called to do."

That was the beginning of her new challenge. In February, 1949, Anne became one of the first teachers at the Edith Hartwell Clinic in Leroy, New York, a research center founded to develop methods to meet the needs of children with disabilities. At the time, there were few guidelines or even equipment to assist special needs teachers, but nothing fazed her.

She used her ingenuity to innovate whatever was needed, and the results can be seen in today’s advanced equipment and techniques. Today’s sophisticated electronic communications tools began with mechanical communications boards that Anne designed to give the disabled a way to communicate. It was like taking down a wall that closed the disabled off from the rest of the world

Three years later she moved on to teach and develop similar programs in the Rochester public schools, where she worked for the next 27 years. These years were filled with experiences that Anne retells with verve and humor in her book. Some are tragic, others full of hope, and many have amazing outcomes. All the stories confirm that no child should be left behind, least of all those with special needs and special gifts.

But her book, “Miss Teach” is more than a teacher’s memoir. It is a testament to the power of what one person can do to leave the world a better place. Ultimately, all of Anne’s achievements were personal in the difference she was able to make in the lives of her students. Some went on to successful careers in writing, social work, education, and marketing.

The book itself was written painstakingly over a period of three years. She would draft chapters in longhand on yellow, legal-size pads and send them to her niece, Anne Howard, in New Jersey, to review and edit. Anne passed the ms. on to her husband, Dennis, a retired journalist with more than 50 years of editorial and marketing experience.

He recalls: “One day I realized that, with a little more work, this could make a very publishable book that would inspire a lot of other people, including the next generation of teachers. Educating children with disabilities is very much a life issue, and that's what the Movement for a Better America is all about.”

So far, the book has been well received by parents and teachers of children with disabilities as well as by libraries in colleges with education programs. “Our goal is to encourage parents with disabled children as well as to inspire young teachers entering this difficult field,” Howard said.

The Howards' daughter, Elizabeth, who teaches special education classes in Colorado, wrote an introduction to the book. In it, she said, “I remember the stories that I heard from my mother about Aunt Anne as I was growing up. Some of the stories I heard about her, no doubt, sunk deep into my young brain and had at least some influence on my career choice."

Her experiences as a teacher confirm Anne Remis’ vision of how to build a better world.

She writes, “Many students do not see much, if any, love and beauty in the world just outside their window. My job, and the job of all teachers, is to lift them up to see. Through the stories Anne Remis tells we see how her message of love and hope has transformed the lives of parents and children who bear the heavy burden of disability in a world that typically rewards its opposite.”

That spirit is captured in a long-lost poem by Clare Tree Major that was written in the 1930’s and recalled from memory by Anne Remis as she closes out her book:

Would you set your name among the stars?
Then write it large upon the hearts of children.
They will remember.

Have you visions of a finer, happier world?
Tell the children, they will build it for you.

Have you a word of hope for poor, blind, stumbling
          human kind?
Give it not to intelligent, blundering man.
Give it to the children.

In their clear, untroubled minds
It will reflect itself a thousandfold.
And someday paint itself upon the mountain tops.

Somewhere a Lincoln plays and listens and watches
         with bewildered eye
This strange procession of mild-mannered souls.
Have you a ray of light to offer? Then give it.
And it will help to light the world to freedom and to joy.

Clare Tree Major

Miss Teach: Handwritten with Love is available for $12.50, including shipping, from Movement for a Better America, Inc, PO Box 470, Mt. Freedom, NJ 07970.

MBA President Dennis Howard is also available to speak about the book. Dennis is a frequent talk radio guest and public speaker on topics related to the life issue.

"Read this book and laugh

and cry and wonder as I did..."

So writes Winifred Fletcher in her touching foreword to ‘Miss Teach,’ the heartwarming recollections of a pioneer Rochester teacher in the field of education for children with disabilities. In it, Anne I. Remis shares the experiences, strength and hope she found in the course of her 29 year career during that not-so-long-a-time-ago when education for children with disabilities was in its infancy.

“Anne Remis has given a detailed account of how one teacher resolved the many problems facing such an educator -- at times by sheer ingenuity, and at times by clearheaded application of the principles of education she had herself learned . . . The result is a valuable resource for today’s young teachers.”

Ms. Fletcher acknowledges the important role played by parents in this movement: “What gave the movement impetus were dedicated parents who had finally come together to found organizations that became powerful advocates for medical research and education in this new field.”

Here is a book that will be enjoyed by parents, teachers, and students who want to remember where we came from in order to understand and appreciate the enormous progress that has been made and the challenges that remain.

But as Ms. Fletcher reminds us: “Nothing can replace the value of a teacher’s honest dedication, diligence, and ingenuity in developing ever new ways to help children overcome handicaps and reach their full educational potential.”

‘Miss Teach’ is powerful testimony to what one person can do to leave the world a better place for today’s children.