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… For three years in the early 1960s, Lish taught as an English teacher at Mills High School, Millbrae, California. His high school teaching career ended when school administrators declined to give him tenure. Donovan Bess, writing in The Nation Magazine, wrote that “essentially, Lish is accused: of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag too speedily (time: 8.7 seconds); of “teaching on Cloud Seven” (two clouds too high); of flouting the system by, for example; making the kids give the answers’ of being “a screwball”; of wearing a hat indoors; of founding a “beatnik” literary magazine, called Genesis West; of using the word “shit” in a short story; of being unpredictable and moody-looking; of sponsoring avant-garde student poetry (at Mills, poetry that does not rhyme is avant-garde)”. Several students and adults testified on his behalf at the hearing. The full story is detailed in “The Man Who Taught Too Well” By Donovan Bess, The Nation Magazine, June 15, 1963, pages 507-516.
