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Retired Cleveland teacher recalls lack of special‑education services, urges community support for students
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Summary
Susan Roden Bergman, a retired local teacher, described her 70 years in Cleveland and her career in education, saying gaps in special‑education services motivated her to pursue special education and that community values sustain the town.
Susan Roden Bergman, a retired teacher, told meeting attendees she has lived in Cleveland for 70 years and stressed the importance of education and support for students with special needs.
Bergman said her personal experience drove her into special education: her younger sister was “very ill when she was 6 months old, and she has always been nonverbal,” and, she said, “there were no classes for her in school then, in public school. They didn't have a special education classes.” Bergman said that lack of services led her to study special education at A and M.
Bergman recounted that she began college at Trinity University and later transferred to A and M, where professors encouraged her to enter teaching. She said she has been retired since February 2011 and taught in the area for more than 25 years, including about a decade teaching fifth grade at Northside, where “Mister Macklin was my principal,” and another decade teaching in Tarkington.
She framed her remarks about schools in the context of Cleveland’s community values, saying, “I think Cleveland has always been special because of the people who live here and their heart, their good hearts, their God fearing, and they are caring when someone's hurting, they're wanna help.” Bergman said she hopes that quality endures.
Her comments were delivered as a personal account and did not include requests for specific local actions or references to pending agenda items.
