CAROLYN BRINK, EDUCATOR

Title: "Class Acts" Paperback: 212 pages, illustrated Publisher: Filter Press (September 1, 2006) ISBN: 0865410798

Reviewed by Clayton Davis cd19@verizon.net

Having been an educator and knowing Carolyn Brink since 1952 when I married her cousin, Irene Brink, I read with interest her report on the Emily Griffith Opportunity School.  Watching Carolyn's career over the years I am delighted she devoted her life to something as vitally important as the Emily Griffith Opportunity School.  How do you make a meaningful report about a product or service?  It is most clearly done by interviewing users and customers.  In this book Carolyn describes twenty-four people who give credit to the school for turning their lives around.  All the programs and wild plans cooked up by national and local governments would do well to follow Emily Griffith's example.  The usual pattern is first to blare forth with overwhelming publicity about this and such the politicians are about to do which they guarantee will improve the lives of all people, especially in education.  Then comes the ribbon cutting when cameras trample the lawn and microphones are available for bragging to one and all.  A week later there sits the big deal full of disappointed people who had great expectations.  Away trod the bureaucrats and politicians followed closely by the cameras and reporters.  A year later all the original enthusiasm is nowhere to be found.  Funding expires.  The people are never elevated nor helped in their lives.  Emily Griffith never did it this way.  She left something that still works well.  The nation should copy her example.

Carolyn Brink worked for fifteen years as an administrator at Emily Griffith Opportunity School. She currently serves on the Emily Griffith Foundation Board of Directors.