Oral history interview with Gretchen L. Stewart, 2021
Abstract
Gretchen Stewart discusses her career as a teacher and educator, and reflects on her written correspondence with President Obama and contact with the Obama White House. Stewart recounts her upbringing, education, and path to becoming an educator, and speaks broadly about her experience of major issues in American education that she has encountered throughout her career, including the segregation of school districts; systemic inequality and racism; unequal facilities; insufficient resources for children, like her two sons, with intellectual disabilities or developmental disorders; the lack of minority teachers; and the heightened standardization of education through testing and teacher evaluations. She also describes her advocacy for policy change in each of the school districts in which she has worked, and shares her motivations for writing her letter to the president in January 2016, in which she described the insufficient compensation paid to teachers in high-need school districts, her difficulties finding adequate schools for her sons, the poor educational and life outcomes Black boys in American public schools face, gun violence in schools, and the school-to-prison pipeline. She shares her memories of learning from the White House Office of Communications that Obama had read her letter, receiving his written response, and attending the National Prayer Breakfast in 2016, at which she met Obama and Vice President Biden. Also discussed are Stewart's memories of Obama's election in 2008, her experience of the conflict between teachers unions and the Wisconsin state government following the 2011 Budget Repair Bill, and the increase in funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
Presidents--Correspondence.--United States; Segregation in education--United States; Educational equalization--United States; Children with disabilities--Services for--United States; Educational tests and measurements--United States; African American boys--Social conditions--United States; School violence--United States; School discipline--Law and legislation--United States; Labor movement--History--21st century.--Wisconsin; Stewart, Gretchen; Obama, Barack; United States; Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
Format
oral histories
Genre
Interviews
Date
2021
Physical Description
59 pages
Note (Biographical)
Gretchen Stewart is an American teacher, educator, and mother of two. She has worked in various capacities over the course of her career in education, and in cities including Minneapolis, Minnesota; Atlanta, Georgia; Racine, Wisconsin; and Tampa, Flor ida. In January 2016, she wrote a letter to President Obama about the insufficient compensation for teachers in high-need school districts, the poor educational and life outcomes facing Black boys in American public schools, and the difficulty of finding adequate schools for her children with intellectual disabilities. President Obama responded to Stewart's letter, and she attended the National Prayer Breakfast in 2016, at which she met Obama and Vice President Joe Biden
Note
Interviewed by Rebecca Feldherr on August 3, 2021. This interview is part of the Columbia University: Obama Presidency Oral History
Note (Provenance)
Gretchen L. Stewart, Gift, transferred from Columbia Center for Oral History Research 2023