Audre Lorde's Essay

In Lorde's essay Zami , chapter 3, Lorde illustrated a teacher who was very impatient, lacked compassion and used shame to embarrass her students into preforming up to her expectations. This is one of a few illustrations she included:

(She broke the silence with a wicked edge to her voice. "I see."

she said. "I see we have a young lady who does not want to do

as she is told. We will have to tell her mother about that." And

the rest of the class snickered, as the teacher tore the page out

of my notebook.

"Now I am going to give you one more chance," she said, as

she printed another fierce A at the head of the new page. "Now

you copy that letter exactly the way it is, and the rest of the

class will have to wait for you." She placed the crayon squarely

back into my fingers.)