Ms. Lu's Class... Gifted and Talented (GATES)????

The other day I decided to over to a local school and observe in an eight grade algebra I class. I chose this class because I had heard a couple of students comment that there was no learning going on in that class. This was the top math class for eight graders. I had seen Ms. Lu at a back to school night and I listened to her talked about her goal and expectations. Ms. Lu is very challenged with the English language. She is a very nice lady and really impressed me as a person that was dedicated to teaching the students. As I would learn later, Ms. Lu had a MS in mathematics and a BS in engineering. She was clearly has the credentials to teach eight grade algebra I.

When I got to her classroom the door was closed and the students were sort of crowded around the door. They were quite noisy. They were eating potato chips and candy bars. The class is scheduled to start at 9:10 AM. About 9:08 Ms. Lu opened the door and attempted, to no avail, to get the students to form a line before entering the class. The students just sort pushed by her and entered the classroom, laughing and talking and milling around. Ms. Lu, in her very broken English, told the students to take their seats. They basically ignored her. I had spoke briefly to her when I entered the classroom explaining that I was there as a visitor to observe. I was wearing my visitor's badge. Ms. Lu told the students that there was a visitor in the class and they knew how they were suppose to act with visitors present??? I had a steno pad in my home and I quietly asked one of the noisier boys for his name. He looked up at me and paused and gave me his name. I feigned writing it down in my steno pad and as other students observed and not knowing exactly who I was, they quieted down.

Ms. Lu started her lecture. She was using an overhead projector, projecting onto the white board. Three of the young ladies just put their heads on their desk as if taking a nap. There was a noise level but it was sort of bearable. Three or four of the students were actually participating. She was reviewing a test that the students had taken the day before.

About 9:30 a mother escorted her son to the class and stood in the door until her son reached his seat. This young man immediately started talking to classmates, two or three rows away. The noise level increased significantly upon this students' arrival. He then stood up and sat on the top of the back of the chair with his feet in the seat portion of the chair. The young lady, who sat directly in front of the newcomer, decided to sit on her desk in a way similar to that of the newcomer.

These were supposed to be the top eight graders. I am sure that there were students in the class that really wanted to learn what Ms. Lu was teaching. Ms. Lu was very organized and enthusiatic about what she was doing. She explaining to the class that the "copy machine" was broken so she couldn't make copies. One young man blurted out. "why do need a coffee machine to make copies" ha! ha! ha! ha! Others joined in the laughter. The tenor of the class was total disrespect and rudeness.

I left about five minutes before the class was dismissed. I felt so sorry of Ms. Lu and I felt sorry for the students; especially the ones that wanted to learn. Ms. Lu definitely wanted to teach them. It was a very depressing experience. What are these students going to do next year as they enter a math teacher's class that has set up his or her syllabus assuming that they know basic pre-algebra. They will be lost and arrogant, undisciplined, rude as ever. That's what they are learning right now. Ms. Lu never even addressed the students with their heads on desk. I guess she has decided that as long as they are napping they won't be noisy. SAD!

ON A HAPPIER NOTE!!!

As I drove into my carport, I saw brown envelope on my front porch. I got out of the car and picked the envelope up, wondering what was inside. I looked at the return address and saw 562 Kenion Forest Way, Oh! I thought, Will was sending me some sort of magazine or something. I went into the Learning Center and dropped the envelope on a table. I turned on the TV to watch the recording of the golf tournament that Tiger had just won. I got up and walked over to the table to get a piece of gum and picked up the envelope, thinking, I can glance through this while I watch Tiger. I opened the envelope and reached in to get one of the magazines out. I see a picture of my son holding a little dog. He had on this white doctor's coat with the "The Village Vets" logo on it and he had a stethoscope draped around is neck as doctors do. At that moment I felt this indescribable rush of pride. My son on the cover of this magazine. My son selected over a bunch of other folks to be on the cover. The words beside his picture read "Get the 411 on 24-7 Vet Care" I just sat there and looked at his picture. He had this little stubble of a beard, more gray than black. My chest got very full and my eyes sort of gloss over a bit. This is my son on the cover of a magazine. This is the little guy that I use to get up early on Saturday mornings to play rough house on the floor while his mother slept. Many times we would get in my little 65' Volkswagen and ride around (baby car seats were not invented back then). This was the little guy that, at the age of about 12 or 13, I use to get up and drag to the track well before dawn, telling him that getting up early like that would strengthen his mind. I am sure he thought that I was crazy and I probably was a little bit. This it the little guy that I taught to drive a car and watched as he became a young man. This could go on forever.....

I open the magazine and skipped to pages 18 and 19 where I see this picture of my son and his team of doctors. Again, my chest expanded as I thought to myself, this guy has grown into a very special individual. He is a great doctor and a great businessman and a great family man. He along with is wife, Francoise, have built what some believe to be, the premier veterinary operation in the Atlanta area. I read the article and re-read the article and smiled and thought to myself, "let me call Shugsie" because she surely should share the prideful moment with me, since she was a major player in the whole process. I called Shugsie and we just chatted about the great feeling you get when you see you children do well.

I hung up the phone and just sat there and looked at the four photographs on the wall. Photographs of Will, Deanna, Kimberly and JoLai, holding their degrees from Vet school, Law School, Med School and Law school, respectively. Then I thought about Dave, Tyler, Gabby, Olivia, Isaiah and Zachary (grandchildren) and said to myself, "How can one person be so lucky and so blessed?" I have experienced more joy watching my children and grandchildren than anyone can imagine.

These are the times that make rough times worth the pain...

America is a great place to live.... for now!!!

I didn't go to school today because I needed to un-wind a little bit. On Tuesday, after a wonderful, relaxing Labor Day week-end I headed to my favorite continuation high school or academy if you will. As I approached the school I saw this student walking toward the school entrance, wearing the largest and longest white tee-shirt ever made (exaggeration). I thought to myself, where is he going? He was suspended last week and shouldn't be here, not to mention wearing that big white shirt! I was out of the car and at the entrance gate. I reminded the campus guards that this student should have been suspended and should not be allowed onto the campus. After calling his mother and flipping me the bird or should I say the birds, since he used both hands, and ranting and raving all out into the street, he left the campus with his mother.
Whenever I have an issue with one of the students, the principal will ask me to sit in on the parent conference. We have an unwritten agreement that if the students doesn't satisfy me that they understand that there behavior was unacceptable, they don't get a chance to come back into my lab or maybe the school. The mom and the student comes into the lab for the parent conference. As it turns out, this student had had an altercation with the English teacher on another day. He had been given a three day suspension, which he never served. The parent needed an interpreter so we had to wait for the principal to go out an find an interpreter. With the interpreter in place, I explained that for her son to be allowed back into the lab he needed to understand that his behavior was unacceptable and would not be tolerated. The mother's response, through the interpreter, was that her son didn't even know that he was suspended and he shouldn't have to apologize because he didn't get a written notice of his suspension and he had done nothing wrong.
The English teacher explained that the student had spat into the trash can in her classroom. When she admonished the student about the unsanitary practice. His response was "at least I didn't spit on the floor". After much back and forth between the teacher and the students, the teacher suspended the student for 3 days. The mother's response, via interpreter, "If he had asked to go outside, would you have let him; my daughter asked to go to the bathroom and the teacher didn't let her"

As I sat and listened to this non-English speaking, indignent mother, defending her, out of control, son over and over. I tried to imagine a parent from the USA in another country, not speaking the language, in a similiar situation being as indignant as this mother and getting away with it. Oh! I didn't mention that the mother had, via the interpreter, told the principal that he should stop talking and let her talk. I was just dumbfounded. This to me was about much more than a misbehaving student. The fact that we have been so liberal and nice and kind and afraid to be accused of racism, that we have created a situation that requires the principal to provide an interpreter for a "non-english speaker" to tell him to shut up and let her talk.

It feels like a Two-Blog Day!!!

I got my usual morning call from the principal, ensuring me that he would be at school on time.. He signed up to teach a 7:00 AM P.E. class which consist of walking around the track for about 45 minutes. The name of the class is "walking with the principal". How cute. I arrived a few minutes early and witnessed the principal fully engaged in the enforcement of a particular rule that has been on the books for more than 5 years but never really taken seriously by anyone except this old sixty-somethings year old guy that comes to the campus sometimes. Oh! The rule is simply "your shirt must be tucked inside your trousers". I had suggested to the principal that the reason for the students and staff just ignoring the rule is; no consistency and no consequences and it was his fault!!! After digesting the stern comments the principle called me, acknowledging his responsibility and committing to fix it. No more yelling and screaming "Put your shirt it, pull you pants up" over and over again. Just quietly have the teachers identify the offenders and the campus security will write the suspension papers. The student would need a parent conference to return to school. You know it's really unbelievable how quickly students respond to seeing a couple of their comrades sent packing during the first hour of school. Of course there were those that had to test the system and the response was firm and swift. Can't wait to see what happens tomorrow!!

After a morning at Hillcrest I go home, rest up and get ready for my afternoon charges. I had a new youngster by the name of London. London is 7 and going to the 3rd grade. London's grandmother drop him off and the plan was to give him a diagnostic test just to assess his readiness for the third grade. London proved to be exceedingly bright and went right to work scoring 100% on the first couple of strands and 80% on the third. Oh! he was first tested in math. He was clearly prepared for third grade math, so I started his testing in English Language Arts. About two strands into the ELA testing ( 100% and 90%) his grandmother returned. It was as if someone had slipped up behind London as flicked a switch in his head. Instead of the personable and enthusiastic little boy, eager to get another 100% on the testing, he immediately transformed into a surly little brat. He refused to do the testing, wouldn't respond when I asked him a question. Just turned into a royal s__t. Grandma, sensing that her presence was having a negative impact, left the room and went back to her car. I talked to London, attempting to understand this horrible transformation. The only response that I got was surly "I don't knows" and crocodile tears. I took him outside to his grandma and told her that she had a very bright grandson, but if his attitude didn't make some serious adjustment, he would have difficulty in school. Grandma said that he was having difficulties already.
I looked at London and pushed the fast forward button. I saw him as a teenager walking into Hillcrest Continuation or some other Alternative school and telling the teacher how smart he really is and how boring school is of some such crap as that. I saw several older versions of London today at Hillcrest and will see more tomorrow.

Parents, please don't cripple your son and daughters in the name of love. Do the tough parts as well as the fun parts. Giving them nearly everything that their little hearts desire and showing them off is the fun part. Exacting disciplinary measures in a firm and consistent way is the tough part. Don't worry that they won't love you. They will love you even more, for making the into the best little pumpkins that they can be.

THE CONTINUATION / ALTERNATIVE HIGH SCHOOL

Today was one of those trying days at Hillcrest Academy (continuation high). I know that I have mentioned continuation high schools and educators propensity for creating "interesting" names for programs. Well, many years ago educators and parents noticed that students were becoming less interested in completing high school. They noticed that they had second and third year students that had only first year "credits" and being able to earn approximately 60 "credits" per year would push the student's graduation date toward their 21st birthday. So in an attempt to curb the drop out rate, someone came up with the idea of creating a special school that would allow the students to earn more that 60 "credits" in a school year. This way the student could "catchup" with his or her class and graduate close to "on-time". During the planning for these schools, someone must have mentioned that these students tended not to want to stay in school for entire regular school day. No problem, they came up with the shortened school day. This would encourage the students to stay in school and keep the ADA (average daily attendance) up. In case you didn't know, ADA is how the states determine how much money to pay for the student to attend school. Of course there had to be a name for such a program.... How about "Continuation High School" someone must have said. Why not? Later someone coined "Alternative High School" so now both are used to describe the school with the shortened school day that allowed the students to catch - up.

Now I know that having read all that I have written to above, you might conclude that I am totally against the concept. I must admit the when I first heard about Continuation High Schools I thought that the entire concept was insane. Well after working and consulting at Hillcrest for the past 8 or 9 years, I have a different view of Continuation Schools.

During my many moons of working and reading and going to different self-help classes on the job, I came across the concept of "learned helplessness". Using animals (dogs and lab rats) the "peabodies or brainacs" determined that by putting the dogs or rats in a situation where they saw not chance of escaping from whatever pain or bad situation that they were in, they would eventually not try to escape when there was an obvious way to escape or stop the pain. What does this have to do with Continuation schools? Imagine, you are a young boy or girl that have for various reasons, found yourself in your third year of high school with a 60 "credit" deficiency. Or worse yet, found yourself at age 16, in the seventh grade. What do you do? Sixteen in the 7th, seventeen in the 8th, eighteen in the 9th....twenty-one in the 12th? I don't think so!! The system kicks you out at 18. (Unless you fail to pass the state exit exam). I have seen these situations and continue to see them. I have also seen students come to Hillcrest with severe credit deficiencies and earn sufficient credits to graduate and attend a junior college and graduate from a 4 year university. I saw a young man come to Hillcrest and actually got accepted to Tuskegee School of Engineering and went to work for IBM. Many of these students are very capable to superior academically. Poor family situations, lack of guidance and support, parents deciding to go back to Mexico for two to three months and then returning.... you name it; have put these students in the situations that they are now trying to cope with. Don't get me wrong, and overwhelming number of them are just spoiled, undisciplined, ungrateful, disrespectful SH__S!

So I will continue to try to help a few youngsters not "learn to be helpless"... to try and show them a way out.. to find the right button to push to stop the electric shock or to release the food or water.

My dad often said in tough situations " It's a hard game, but it's gotta be played"

This game is LIFE...

SCHOOL STARTS TODAY IN INGLEWOOD, CA.

Well, August 31st was the first day of school in Inglewood, Ca. This is the first time school has started in August in Inglewood in many years. I've been here since '67 and I don't ever remember school starting before Labor Day.
I started my day at Hillcrest Continuation High School. Note: The principal, unofficially, changed the name to Hillcrest Academy a few years ago. Academy has a more educational ring to it than Continuation High School don't you think? The students and parent's start to arrive about five after eight. I am assigning log-in names and passwords so that the incoming students can go online and take the diagnostic test. We set the incoming diagnostic test at the sixth grade level this year. Last year it was set at grade 5. The students are tested in math and English language arts. I've tested approximately 75 incoming and returning students this year and the average score is about 55% in ELA and 45% in math. I've had a couple of 100%s in ELA and one or two 90%s in math. On the other end I've had a few 16%s. One young lady took the test and scored a 16% and a 23%; math and ELA respectively. I asked her if she felt bad scoring so low on a sixth grade test and she just smiled and said "I'm not getting any "credits" for it so I don't care." Credits reign supreme at continuation schools.
Later in the day, I queried two young men, 12 and 13 year-olds, about their first day of school. I have been working with these two since they were babies. I actually toilet trained them. I really potty-trained them but toilet trained sounds better. Both gave the usual "good" as their answer. I asked each to tell me about their classes and their teachers. The seventh grader, new to the school, gave a "by the class" report with no special comments on his teachers. Eight grader did the same except, when he got to his algebra teacher he sort of paused and pondered his answer for a moment. He said "well, my algebra teacher is named Ms. Lu and her English is not so good. She is an engineer and I think she knows algebra good, but she has a difficult time controlling the class". I thought to myself, here is a situation where the teacher is probably super in her knowledge of the subject matter but will not be able to pass much of the knowledge on because she will spend a great percentage of her time trying to keep order. SAD..
The school is on block-scheduling this year so I will be able go over to the school, which is nearby, and sit in on the class a couple of days a week. I know how to keep order by just being present...
More on Continuation schools later

THE OPPORTUNITY PROGRAM?

Educators have a special flair for coining names for special programs. When my son was a sixth grader I use to go over to his school during my lunch hour to help out on the playground. On several occasions I saw this kid riding his bike around outside of the school grounds. I had seen him around the community and couldn't quite figure out why he was out of school and seemingly very comfortable riding around near the school. Being the do-gooder that I was, I inquired about the reason for this student boldly riding around the school during school time. I was informed that the particular student was in the "OPPORTUNITY PROGRAM". Wow!, the Opportunity program, I thought. I inquired from the powers that be , "what exactly is the Opportunity Program? I was told that it was a program that was created for students that were so far behind their grade level and so disruptive in their regular class, that they only spent a half day at school. That half day was spent in some other teacher's classroom, where that were placed off in a corner away from the other students and given some kind of worksheet to work on. Oh! I didn't mention that this student was a 6th grader. I requested and was granted permission to sit in on the student's morning class. The student was there sitting off from the other students with this worksheet on the desk. The worksheet consisted of a column of alphabets and a column of pictures. The student was suppose to draw a line from the alphabet to the picture that began with that alphabet. Example: a line from the alphabet"H" to the picture of a hat. I looked at his worksheet; had he had gotten the first one wrong. He had no idea what he was supposed to be doing. He was just given the worksheet and instructed to sit and be quiet. Question: Opportunity for what?
Note: The last I head, this student was serving 35 years to life. (Sad...)

EDUCATING OUR YOUNG... A NATIONAL CHALLENGE

I have been reading my daughter's blog or blogs, I don't know which is correct, and have decided to put some of my many thoughts in type. I have always enjoyed teaching and as I made my way through my engineering career, always knew that I wanted to teach. Early on in my career I had the opportunity to teach math at UCLA. It was part of an industry supported program to help young Blacks and Hispanics prepare themselves to enter the UCLA School of Engineering. That experience really got me even more hooked on teaching. It lasted for about three years and I enjoyed every minute of it. Along the way while guiding my four children through their early education, I always took the opportunity to tutor some of the neighborhood children and eventually allowed some friends to convince me to try to get elected to the local school board of trustees. I learned a lot during my tenure as a board trustee but the bright spot of the entire 4+ years was the fact the my name was printed on my son's high school diploma because I happened to be the president of the school board at the time. I think that my name may have been on my middle daughter's eight grade certificate. You see the way it works on a five person board of trustees is, if you really are interested in what's best for the students, you are likely to be in a voting minority. That was the case for me at least two of the four years that I served. Schools board tend to be driven more by politics and getting re-elected than anything else. Enough about that.
Just is case you are wondering where I am going with this, I will clue you in... My BLOG will share some of my experiences as a teacher and consultant at a local CONTINUATION HIGH SCHOOL. more to come