CSUEB alumna is featured in newly published book

• December 16, 2013 5:00am

Helena Moss-Jack, BA, music (’94), Preliminary Credential, music (’01), Professional Clear Credential, music (’02), has been featured in a new book about American teachers. On October 12, "American Teacher: Heroes in the Classroom" by Katrina Fried, arrived on bookstore shelves, and Moss-Jack is one of fifty teachers profiled and celebrated.

Moss-Jack was born in Guam and grew up in the Bay Area during the early sixties. Moss-Jack said her violent and oppressive experiences growing up led to her love of music and eventual teaching in the East Oakland area national media refers to as “the killing zone.” She said she is a crusader for the rights of her low-income students and tired of the inequities of a “public education system that often gives less to those who need more, and more to those who need less.” Moss-Jack teaches 6th through 12th grade instrumental music at Elmhurst Community prep and Alliance Academy Middle School in Oakland, CA.  “My students know that I am here to be their teacher, an adult in their life who they can trust and come to, and who cares about them,” Moss-Jack said. “But I am not their peer. I teach with tough love, with an emphasis on love.”

According to Welcome Books publishing, the book is written for inspiration to upcoming teachers and students and “there has never been a book like it, never anything remotely similar.” Author Fried said her intentions were to allow everyone a window into a classroom to experience public education first hand and to inspire other teachers through sharing ideas, innovations and successes as well as to inspire administrators, parents and policy makers to listen deeply to the thoughts expressed by these teachers about education to ensure a better public education system in the future.

View an excerpt and purchase the book

--Jacqueline Ward