Word: ackermanns
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...mother of two young children, Ackermann spent her first years out of college writing. She published articles in the Cambridge Chronicle about her visits to the Cambridge public school classrooms, but on the whole she describes her writing efforts as largely "unsuccessful": "By the time I finally wrote a short story that was accepted by the Atlantic monthly, I was already involved in politics...
...Ackermann's interest in the school system led her to run for School Committee, she was then the secretary of the Russell School PTA where her two children went to school. "I decided to run because I was interested in the schools and I aim for the top," she said. Running for School Committee in Cambridge is no easy task. Under the system of proportional representation, a candidate must run from the city at large and persuade at least ten per cent of the voters to make him or her their number one vote...
...incredible since a School Committeeman is unpaid. "The first time you run you have to spend at least six months with four or five full-time volunteers, not to mention 100 to 200 part-time volunteers. That year it was a helpful thing for me to be a woman," Ackermann explained...
...Ackermann's election to the School Committee not only altered her whole lifestyle as housewife, mother and part-time writer, but also caused major changes in her personality. "When I was younger I was a very introverted person," she said. "I would not even go out of the house to interview someone for a story. I remember trying to write an article about the School Committee: I sat in the back of the room taking notes and was too afraid to interview anyone...
...Barbara Ackermann gives the appearance of being a tough, self-assured political personality. As school committeewoman and even more noticeably as city counsellor she does not seem afraid to fight for what she wants on issues ranging from rent control and opposition to the city manager, to drug treatment centers, to the ousting of Frisoli, the former school superintendent. Part of this change in personality comes from a different view of politics, Ackermann explained: "When I first ran for School Committee I saw politics as a means to an end. I thought the City Council must be dull--that...