Former Lynn educator to speak

NAHANT – A dedicated former Lynn educator is scheduled to speak at the Nahant Public Library this Sunday.William N. Rappa, Jr., who retired in 2005, will be speaking about his first novel “Doing it Wrong?”Rappa, 60, is a lifelong resident of Lynn, who taught at all levels of public education during his 36-year career.?When I retired in 2005 I wasn’t real high on education,” he said. “So I started out writing a non-fiction book about the trials and tribulations of education today. I was getting angrier and angrier. I figured if I wanted to live until 2006 I needed to take a different tact and started to write it as fiction.”Rappa said his anger and frustration with the educational system in Massachusetts is due in a large part to MCAS testing.?Basically it had to do with the direction we’re going in with MCAS testing,” he said. “I’ve watched little kids cry prior to taking the test. We’re dumbing down education and making kids neurotic about education. We’re taking away the arts and stressing MCAS tests. We’re cheating kids.”But Rappa was quick to point out his book is a work of fiction and is not just about testing and the classroom.?It’s the long odyssey of a career teacher,” he said. “It covers a little bit of everything. It’s the first 57 years of life of a fictional career educator, who believes he was born to be a teacher. He has a set of values and beliefs he has lived his life by and he defends them to the end.”Rappa is a product of the Lynn Public Schools. He attended Breed Junior High and Classical High School. He went to North Shore Community College and then transferred to University of Massachusetts Boston.Rappa said his anger and sense of despair with the state of education in Massachusetts has a lot to do with MCAS.Rappa taught at the Washington Community School in Lynn, which closed permanently earlier this month.?It was my home away from home,” he said. “It was heartbreaking when it closed. I spoke at the final farewell there.”Rappa is scheduled to speak at the library on Sunday, June 29 at 3 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.