Why is that?

I have just learned that  Georgina, a teacher whom I respect a great deal was made to retire mid-year by the strong intervention of her personal friend because she was suffering physical symptoms of stress that could seriously have damaged her health.
When I taught at the same school as Georgina, I also was suffering a great deal of stress. I was in the habit of visiting her kindergarten classroom just to drink in the vibe, as well as to pick up cues for my classroom in an entirely different grade. 
She had been teaching for more than 3 decades when she had to retire.
What exactly is happening when our school system fails to support such people to the degree that it does not allow them to accomplish their task-- their mission-- and threatens to damage them in this manner? What on earth are we thinking??

A Timeline

2001-2002An SST about 2 particular children makes then-ELL director Emma Lerewdecide, top-down and unilaterally, to create a K/1 bilingual class atBidwell in the next year.

2002-2003 1st-year teacher Celina Kanat is hired to teach the class.1

st

graders come from English kindergarten. She leaves atend of year to teach a non-combo class elsewhere in Hayward. Shelater left teaching.

2003-2004A new teacher, Mr. Bess, hired 2 weeks before the start of school. Atend of year, he suggests in a power-point presentation that parentstransfer their children to other Hayward schools with bilingual 2

nd

grade. Only one family does this.

2004-2005Mr. Bess' 2

nd

year in the assignment. End-of-yeardiscussions with Emma Lerew for a solution to the problem give noresults. At any rate, Dr. Lerew retires in May 2005, expressing noresponsibility for the class in her written communication.

2005-2006Mr. Bess' 3

rd

year. Mr. Bess holds end-of-year discussionswith Letty Salinas, new ELL director, and Mr. Grasty, principal. Mr.Bess presents significant data on children's reading progress inEnglish. Ms. Salinas decides to expand the program to a full K classand a 1

st

grade/ 2

nd

grade combination class.Unfortunately, Mr. Grasty gets word at the end of the year that thestatus quo will continue.

2006-2007Mr. Bess' 4

th

year in the K/1

st

combinationbilingual classroom. Again, at the end of the year, it is decided tohave a full K class and a 1

st

/2

nd

split. Thistime it works. Over the summer, Mr. Bess attends the interview of theincoming teacher, Melynda Esquivel.

2007-2008Mr. Bess' 1

st

year of teaching only one grade,Kindergarten. Ms. Esquivel, an excellent beginning teacher, teaches anearly full class of 1

st

graders and a very small numberof 2

nd

graders, 2 or 3 children, too few to be a reallyviable educational situation. At the end of the year, Ms. Esquivel,like Mr. Bess before her, suggests to her exiting 1

st

graders that they transfer to a Hayward school with a viablebilingual program, or to an English-only 2

nd

grade classat Treeview Elementary. All take her advice and transfer to SEIclasses, but 2 students are told by Mr. Grasty that they cannottransfer to another school when they try to just before the newschool year. Thus, Ms. Esquivel's class stays a combo class, despitehaving a full class of Kindergartners to fill it.

2008-2009Mr. Bess continues teaching Kindergarten bilingual. Ms. Esquivel isagain forced to teach a split-grade class, again with only 2, orsometimes 3, 2

nd

grade students, too few to make the 2

nd

grade part of the class really viable. Ms. Esquivel quits in Octoberdue to medical issues. The class has daily substitutes who do notspeak Spanish for several weeks, then a long-term substitute whospeaks some Spanish for about a month. Eventually, a Spanish-speakingteacher is hired. At the end of the year, Mr. Bess distributesinformation to parents at Open House about the history and future ofthe bilingual program. A meeting is scheduled with Ms. Salinas andthe parents of the students in the bilingual class, but she fails toshow up. Mr. Bess and the parents take the issue to the school's ELACcouncil. Ms. Salinas comes to ELAC, but presents only information ofthe types of programs in Hayward schools. The decision is made toregress to a K/1 split and no 2

nd

grade at all, causingMr. Bess to resign from the position: 2nd June, 2009

DearMr. Grasty,

DearMs. Salinas,

Ifirmly decline to accept the bilingual kindergarten/ first gradeposition at Bidwell Elementary for next school year.

For7 years, we have had a bilingual program here. For 5 years, itconsisted only of a Kindergarten/1

st

grade split-gradeclass. Anyone with the slightest insight into the bases of bilingualeducation should know that only 2 years of bilingual education isgenerally not as effective as no bilingual education at all.

For4 of those 5 years, it was I who was saddled with K/1 bilingualassignment. I was able to carry out my task effectively because ofstaggered reading and the dedicated support of my fellow teachers. Inmy 5

th

year, I was happy that the program expanded to afull kindergarten class and a first grade/second grade split. Theteacher who taught that class extremely effectively, again with majorsupport from our colleagues, left, presumably frustrated, early inthe second year of its existence.

Ihave volunteered to teach a bilingual split grade class again, if itis that 1

st

/2

nd

grade split. Unfortunately,our school will be reverting to having only one bilingual class, aK/1 split.

As an educator and as a learner, I live to progress, not to regress.This regression to a K/1 bilingual class is unacceptable to me. Iwill no longer allow this class to continue with my involvement. Ifit were in my power to help stop this class from happening at all, Iwould stop it.

Itis in my power to ask: does this school district really have thehuman, financial, and political resources to create and support aneffective bilingual program at Bidwell Elementary?

Piet Bess

2009-2010Mr. Bess teaches 2

nd

grade at Treeview Elementary inEnglish. David Beaston takes the bilingual K/1 position. At the endof the year, Mr. Bess takes the issue to the school's SBDM,

arguingthat the program should be canceled.

2010-2011We have a change of educational leadership: Dr. Jessica Bonduris isour principal. Change begins, and the bilingual program begins togrow through the grades. Mr. Beaston has a full K class. MairtinMacAnGhoill teaches a 1/ 2 split.

2011-2012Growth continues: Beaston, K. MacAnGhoill, 1, and Audrey Nicholsteaches a 2/ 3 split at Treeview

2012-2013Beaston K. MacAnGhoill, 1. Mr. Bess agrees to rejoin the bilingualprogram at Dr. Bonduris' request, seeing that the program is valuedand supported, and is growing upwards through the grades. He teachesthe 2

nd

grade, albeit at Bidwell, the sole 2

nd

grade class at that site. Yanira Canizales, an excellent teacher,teaches the small 3/ 4 split bilingual class at Bidwell. Mr.MacAnGhoill leaves mid-year due to medical issues, and his classsuffers a string of substitutes until Ms. Jameson, an excellent subwith Spanish skills comes in from May to the end of school. Mr.Beaston opts to leave bilingual because of heavy, and, in the case ofbilingual, doubled assessments for K. With half a class of 4

th

graders, 12-13 was our high water mark.

2013-2014Sadly, Dr. Bonduris leaves us. The program recedes: Ms.Canizales' class are put in SEI, and the program supports up to 3

rd

grade. All bilingual classes are split-grade classes at the beginningof the year. This is a hard decision taken by Dr. Bonduris anddiscussed in our SBDM [Site-Based Decision-Making group]. Bilingualteachers assent to the split-grade classes in order to ease combos inEnglish-only classes, especially in the case of a particular SEIcohort with big behavior problems. Even so, bilingualcombo classes typically have fewer children than the English-onlyclasses. Ben Hinchman, K/1. Mr. Bess, 1/ 2, and Laura Mingst with the2/ 3 combo at Treeview.

2014-15After the interim principal fails to hire teachers in a timely mannerin May, the year starts with a Mr. Hinchman in K, a Mr. Bess in 1

st

grade, and Noemi Hernandez, a very competent 30-day sub with nativeSpanish in 2

nd

grade. A planned ¾ split is canceledbefore the 10

th

day.

Wewould have had a chance to grow the program out to its historic high,up to serving children through 4

th

grade, albeit in thediminished form of a split-grade grade classroom. One one hand, wehave been unable to serve 4

th

graders this year. On theother hand, we may be able to serve 3 grades in single-gradeclassrooms in our bilingual program if we do not downgrade our 2

nd

grade bilingual class to a split.

A Reese's Peanut Butter Cups Moment

From Nader Khalili's book _Racing Alone_, out of print, acquired at Berkeley Public Library. It is a favourite reading moment of mine, and something I have seen in several forms, beginning with the TV ad or Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, where one complains that there is chocolate in his peanut butter, and the other that there is peanut butter on his chocolate.

"The villagers understand my firing and changing their houses into bricks very easily, and they relate to every part of it. But their hesitation as to what the house may become has be be brought to the light. And for that I am ready to freshen their memory with a walk to the old kiln just several hundred steps away.
I ask the villagers if thee have been any kilns around here, the kilns to fire qanat kavals.
“Yes, right down the road,” says one.
“There, you can see it from here,” says the other.
The kids start running that direction to show it to me. I don;t mention what I intend to do,  but ask my friends and the villagers to come along. Everybody comes to see what I want to how. Ezzat, the eager architectural student also jumps down from the roof and joins us with his camera. The feeling is that there may be a puzzle I want to talk about, or possibly refire the kiln or brick or something.
The several-hundred-step march is like an exodus from the village. To me it is an exodus from the present to the past.
We reach the kiln. Children climb all over the roof and the walls.
“What was this building used or before?” I ask the old man of the village aloud, while everyone I trying to guess.
It was a kaval kiln. In my childhood time I saw it fired.
“How long ago was that?” I ask.
“Oh, maybe 40 or 50 years ago, maybe even more. I don'told I am now. “ He laugs as he says hat.
I let them play aroudn with the walls and touch the rocklikce pieces.
“They used to fire it right from underneath on this big hole. They used to burn wood, animal dung, or anything they could burn. Yes, see, right around the firepit the soil is melted to rock,” the old man says while while he tries to break a piece but can't. A younger man kicks a piece with his boot; he can't break it either. Everyone laughs.
Then I stop them and ask them in a low voice, acing the old man and trying to have them observe silence.
“Amoo, why have all your houses collapsed but this roo hasn't collapsed? Yet you all plaster your roos every year and you say that this roof is just left under the rain and snow for thirty years?”
“Not thirty but fifty years,” he says.
“Okay, fifty years, Why is it still standing?” I ask.
A middle-aged peasant answers in a loud voice from behind: “Don't you understand? This is fired and baked to a rocklike brick. Even a cannonball can't break it.”
Then there is a few seconds' silence. Several have already made the connection. My architectural students and engineer friends make the connection first, but before they start to explain what I am trying to say, someone in the crowd says, “So this is the puzzle?”
And in a few seconds everything falls in place.
The history connects with the present. Moments link, and the chain is completed. There is more silence, and everyone is digging a piece or climbing to the roof. More conversation, more comments, and more photographs, even several group portraits for the memory's sake are taken on the roof. By the time we walk back, there seems to be no question as to the validity of what we will be doing. And everyone offers his house for the first firing."

About Teaching and Appreciation

Thank you to the people who occasionally say thank you for the job I do, for how difficult it is and how necessary. It is nice to be appreciated.

I should like for people not to feel obligated to thank me for being a teacher. 

When the alarm goes off in the dark before the morning, I get out of bed pretty quick. I psyche for the day and what kind of day it will be. There is no snooze button.

I don't get sick, really. This may have to do with the fact that the people I talk to all day keep me up to date with all the ambient germs, but I think it has to do with the fact that I am happy with where I am.

Summer is kind of long. I make up for it by going to school anyway to get stuff done. Well, that and pick raspberries at the school garden. This helps bide the time until finally I can get to work again in mid-August.

There is a sign in my classroom that says "There's no place I'd rather be."

I am mildly pleased that they pay me rather more than what I need to buy rice, beans and a tin roof for my shack.

Now, don't get me wrong. It's not for everyone, but for me, a frontal lobotomy turned out to be a Very Good Thing.

Transcendental Garage Sale

There;s this warehouse on 8th, 2 blocks north of Berkeley Bowl West with a dummy in a lawnchair with a pumpkin for a head.

Today it looks like it is open with stuff laid out for a gge sale. I stop by on my bike.

First box is all 1/72 scale model airplanes. Oh, dear. Next box is books on similar subjects in English and French. Next box has 1/72 scale models of patrol boats I had considered building to go with my airplanes in that scale. One one hand, oh, dear, I so want that. On the other, I am safe because I recognise that hobby as sterile and leading nowhere. But still. There is a model of an Avia B534 and I ain;t got one of them... unnhh...

I follow the trail of notional breadcrumbs inside.

There are yards of shelves of books on similar subjects. More models. I decypher the Cyrillic on some of them. One title is about Potez fighters. I know what that _is_. Another is about Hawker 75;s dans le Armee d;l;Aire. I dig that. There is a whole stack of magenta Profile Publication pamphlets on arcane aircraft. Unnh...

.

There is a seafoam wall-mount dial phone with a 415 area code on the wall. "Nobody wants that," they tell me. Au contraire, I say. My friend wants that. There is a Sunbeam vertical twin motorcycle complete that needs air in the tyres and a licence plate. I "get" it all! But I don;t get anything but a couple cammie jackets and Brassey's Camouflage book by Borsarello.

The man was named Ron Penndorf. He died about a week ago. He was a collector with space enough for his collections. His interests ran parallel to mine, and as deep.

LP's, classical, I think. More VHS tapes than I care to consider. DVD's of war movies. Books on ships, cars, trains, airplanes, airplanes, and airplanes. Motorcycles. A couple cars. Licence plates.  Ron I wish I had known you. I feel like there are 10 guys in a 100 mile radius who "get" the things that all this is about. I am one of them.

Open 'til noon tomorrow. They have to go to the memorial. Also, Monday.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Ron-Penndorf-popular-West-Berkeley-blogger-dies-5744714.php

http://ronpenndorf.com/

8th St. near Grayson.

 

A Tiny Memorial

On the way to school from BART, along the apartment lined street where the bulk of my classes for the past 12 years live, there is a small pile of stuffed animals, toys and candles. Last week, the balloons tied there were replaced, tugging at their strings.

In the cool morning before the dawn, the balloons sag, deflated by the chill, lying slack and lethargic on the concrete.

I think of the boy who was run over there in July. He also lies on the ground, seemingly weary.

I modeled writing about this for my class. One kid supplied the name-- Luis. Their dead carries a familiar name. The class also supplied a verb: "machucar". The sound-symbolism of this word tells you all you need to know about it. "Crush" carries the same kinds of harsh phonemes and semantic content. Neither is the word I would have supplied. Supplying details to what I was writing, the kids supplied "in a box"-- also not really where I was going with writing vocabulary. The kids helped me with the next sentence: what I think about the dead kid and the balloons.

In the afternoon as I ride home, the balloons fly plump in the sun, inflated and rising, orange and taut.

Quote on corporatism from fascist tract

From "Serpent's Walk", a novel propagating the racist/fascist point of view, set in the 2040's. A Nazi explains to a mercenary the party's methods and point of view:

"Let me bring the story up to date.

The SS—what was left of it—had  business objectives before and

during World War II. When the war was lost they just kept on, but

fromother places: Bogota, Asuncion, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro,

Mexico City, Colombo, Damascus, Dacca—you name it. They

realized that the world is headingtowards a 'corporocracy'; five or

ten international super-companiesthat will run everything worth

running by the year 2100. Thosesuper-corporations exist now, and

they're already dividing up theproduction and marketing of food,

transport, steel and heavyindustry, oil, the media, and other com-

modities. They're mostlyconglomerates, with fingers in more than

one pie. Some of them are owned nowby the old-money interests;

the Japanese and various foreigncartels run others; the Born-Agains

have a couple; the Jews and theirbuddies control some big ones;

and we, the SS, have the say infour or five. We've been competing

for the past sixty years or so, andwe're slowly gaining."