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New book details teaching odyssey

Date: 9/20/2011

Sept. 21, 2011

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor

HOLYOKE — Tzivia Gover had a revelation after watching the film “Hurricane” – the story of boxer Rueben “Hurricane” Carter. The veteran journalist decided that she wanted to do something that would help people.

Her efforts to find such a position led her to The Care Center in Holyoke where she has been a faculty member since 2000 teaching teen mothers poetry while they are working toward their GED.

Gover has written a book on the first two years at the school, “Learning in Mrs. Towne’s House: A Teacher, Her Students and the Woman who Inspired Them.” The book is available at local bookstores as well as online at www.amazon.com and www.learningatmrstowneshouse.com.

A former reporter and editor at the Daily Hampshire Gazette in Northampton and a freelancer for The Boston Globe, she explained to Reminder Publications the genesis for her book came from the events that happened everyday at the school.

“I thought I was going there to help them but I learn more than they do,” she said.

When Gover learned about Elizabeth Towne — whose house is where The Care Center is located — she realized there was a connection. Towne, she explained, wasn’t really known today, despite the significant work she did, and many people aren’t aware what the current students are doing there on a daily basis now.

Towne was an advocate for women’s right to vote, who married at age 14 and later divorced her husband. A single mother raising her children, she started to write and successfully published “Nautilus,” a magazine of the “New Thought” movement that was similar to today’s New Age movement.

“The process of learning about Elizabeth Towne and the history of the building helped The Care Center students feel connected to their city, its rich history and to their place in the future,” Gover explained.

In Gover’s classes, she teaches pregnant and parenting teens how to read, write and recite poetry. Gover came to realize the “barriers and chasms” created by age and culture could be overcome.

“It’s surprising how little they matter,” she added.

Those differences give her and her students “more things to laugh about.”

She cited how her eating raw carrots in the cafeteria started quite a buzz among her students who had never seen anyone do that before.

Gover said after an initial attempt to try to keep up with the music her students like, she gave up and stopped worrying about it.

She teaches her students Shakespeare and the works of the Bard of Avon “goes over well.” Gover said Shakespeare’s love poetry appeals to the students.

“This is a great book about learning, moving out of poverty, history and the great city of Holyoke,” The Care Center’s Executive Director Anne Teschner said. “Anyone interested in local history will want one for their library.”



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