Page 325 - The Red Well-Read Reader

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
TD McGann grew up in Washington, D.C. After serving in the Army as an infantryman in Vietnam,

he matriculated at the University of Maryland in College Park and eventually earned a bachelor’s degree
in business administration. After graduating, he worked in the construction field for several years. In
1980, motivated by his goddaughter Danielle who was struggling learning to read, he began writing Play on
Words, the original title of this book. Five years later, long after Danielle had learned to read and had
become an excellent student, he completed his work. However, this was just the beginning of a multi-
decades long effort to get his book into the hands of the multitude of children who would enjoy it and

benefit immensely from it.
Lucky he was! After sending out his manuscript to numerous publishers without nary a reply, one
good-hearted publisher was kind enough to educate him in the economics of schoolbook publishing. In a
word he said that no publisher would consider publishing Play on Words for more than a split second
because the singular book would create a competitor for the publishing house’s series of basal readers—
generally there are twelve such books.
Dismayed but determined as ever, TD had faith that he would find another way to skin this cat.
However, it wouldn’t be quick, and it wouldn’t be easy, as he was soon to learn. He had thought he would
go back to school and pick up the necessary credentials to teach reading in a semester or two. But no, that
is not how it works. Even with a bachelor’s degree in education, one is not deemed qualified to teach the
esoteric skill of reading. One must first have acquired years of classroom experience plus obtain a master’s
degree in a related field.
So, TD decided to acquire a degree in English, which was as close to reading as he could get. While

attending the University of Maryland to pick up the second bachelor’s degree, he worked as a substitute
teacher in Fairfax County, Virginia and Montgomery County, Maryland, testing Play on Words with his 1 st
and 2 nd grade students whenever circumstances allowed. Next he enrolled in a teacher certification
program at the College of Notre Dame in Baltimore and student taught English at a middle school in Prince
Georges County, Maryland.
With these credentials in hand, he ventured to Huntington, Long Island and began teaching in the
New York City Public School System. As before, he tested Play on Words whenever the opportunity arose.
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He has taught every grade, from 1 through 12 . Having had such broad experiences including high-school
American History (for which, paradoxically, he was deemed fully qualified to teach), he has gained a first-
hand understanding why Johnnie and Johnette can neither read nor think clearly, let alone write a cohesive
paragraph or do simple math.
To fulfill the final reading requirement to teach reading—so arcane, he enrolled in a master’s
degree program at the State University of New York in Stony Brook. However, by the time he received
his degree, he had already learned all that he had sought to learn. So, rather than teaching remedial
reading to five or six troubled children, he moved to the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. There
he created a host of complementary products to the book—voila, a literacy program for children all over

the firmament.
Due to an onslaught of attacks on our country ever since Ruby Ridge in 1992, his focus on reading
and literacy has been sluggish, and his primary concern shifted to issues that have rendered chaos and
mayhem domestically as well as internationally. Currently he has been writing a non-fictional book on

America’s Founding Fathers. He says it should cast some light on our present predicament.

At any rate, TOTALLY LITERATE is now back on track, and TD is creating new products once again.
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