Banned book lesson thrusts Oklahoma teacher into campaign
Ginger Baker, a teacher at Oak Creek High School, wants to do a better job of telling her students about literature when they get to high school.
Ginger Baker, a teacher at Oak Creek High School, wants to do a better job of telling her students about literature when they get to high school.
Photo: James Nielsen, Special To The Chronicle Photo: James Nielsen, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Banned book lesson thrusts Oklahoma teacher into campaign: 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
The yearning to tell the rest of what she sees through a series of books, about the power of love and the promise of friendship, is an abiding theme in Ginger Baker’s new book, “Letters From My Brother,” by the same title.
“But it wasn’t until I sat in the ‘Forrest Gump’ class at Oak Creek that I decided to write and read my own ‘Forrest Gump,’ ” she said. “It was the kind of class I couldn’t really take to myself, so I would read it in front of the teacher. It was like I felt the words that he spoke.”
Her reading of the book prompted her to write her own.
Baker is teaching at Oak Creek High School where she has the largest class size of any in the state at 17.
The teacher’s passion to teach began when her younger sister was a student at the junior high school.
Baker, who had been teaching for 15 years, wanted the young students to understand the power of love.
“I remember her coming in and telling me this little story about a teacher who had died and the students crying because they didn’t know what to do with the class. I thought if they just read the story to the class, they would understand that person could have died and the students still mourned and understood that teachers are important,” she said.
