To Help Children To Think And To Gain Some Command Of Their World

By Author: emaly su
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His students called him Dr. J., an expression of familiarity, affection, and respect. Our friend Dr. Larry R. Johannessen passed away on April 21, 2009. Some readers will remember him fondly. If you didn't know him, let me introduce him here.

If you participated in a meeting with Larry Johannessen, the chances are that not only was he highly engaged in the discussion, but he was taking notes with a stubby pencil. He resisted gifts of new pencils and somehow had an endless supply of stubby ones. He explained to me that his insistence on using the graphite stubs was a sentimental habit.

During his few high school years in Denver, he resisted conformity with any practices endorsed by teachers and administrators, especially hauling books to class and carrying ...
... notebooks and other school supplies. His one compromise was to keep a pencil small enough to carry comfortably in his pants pocket. Given this disposition toward school, it is not surprising that Larry left school before graduation. However, his early enlistment in the US Marines hardly seems the predictable course from someone who resists conformity.

During his time in the Marines, Larry served two tours of duty in Vietnam in the late '60s. He served in a reconnaissance unit, and he must have witnessed nightmarish scenes of horror, misery, and destruction. For his service in Vietnam, Larry received many honors and decorations, including the Presidential Unit Citation, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal, and Vietnam Service Medal.

I know that Larry saw combat and must have been in the thick of many freights, but he resisted telling others tales of his time in combat. He contested the wisdom of entry and execution of the war and disdained glorifying it with stories that might be mistaken for romantic adventures. At the same time, he maintained enduring respect for those who served in the military and understood the extent of the sacrifice made by those thrust into harm's way.

During his time in the service, Larry completed his graduation equivalency diploma, and thus was able to enter a two-year college after discharge from the military. He continued at California State University at Hayward, earning a degree in English. He discovered an inclination to teach English, and a professor at Hayward advised that the place to go was the University of Chicago, and the man to see was George Hillocks.

I have to believe that Larry's experience in the MAT program at the University of Chicago and his almost immediate friendship with George Hillocks was transformative. Larry took to the idea that the teaching of English was more than the process of exposing young people to the great works of literature. He saw the great promise that an inquiry approach to literacy learning would engage learners and enrich their experience in school far beyond the obligations that he resisted during his adolescence in Denver.

While Larry's meeting with George Hillocks was significant, more important was his introduction to Elizabeth (Betsy) Kahn. A few years after Larry's arrival in Chicago, he and Betsy married and continued as personal and professional partners for 27 years. Another former MAT from Chicago, Steve Littell, remembers: "I met him and Betsy in '74 or '75 1 believes, when I was beginning my career as an English teacher. They were George's pride and joy, his prize students. They gave me a clear sense of how committed one could be to the good work of teaching literature and rhetoric, and of helping children to think and to gain some command of their world."