New Respect for a Veteran Teacher

Nick Giulioni writes:

She is a middle-aged woman, the mother of several children, and my teacher.  While I may have respected her authority within the classroom through her age and experience, she had done nothing to gain my respect as a person.  That was until the day that her room almost erupted into a battleground, but she maintained control.

One day, several students were having a heated argument with someone else for an action he had taken the previous day.  It started as a questioning of his motives, but quickly deteriorated into insults.  Within seconds, there were threats, and a fight was about to ensue.  The teacher, sympathizing with the upset of the group of students was torn between her opinion of the situation and her duty to maintain peace and protect all of her students.  She made the right decision.

By dropping an awkward and inappropriate comment as the fight was about to ensue, and taking the attention away from the matter at hand, she was able to maintain a relative amount of peace. She turned the situation from the single student, to herself, distracting everyone from the issue.  While several students interpreted this as her just being “awkward,”  many others understood her underlying motivation.  Her actions showed her intelligence and ability as a teacher, as she understood the minds of her students enough to know how to distract attention away from the brawl that would surely ensue.  In so doing, she did something that few teachers could have even dreamed of doing.

For the most part, nothing good results from fights or verbal threats, especially one at school.  But this is one exception, where I have gained newfound respect for this teacher.  While many students in class that day may not have understood exactly what happened, this teacher deserves to be commended for the way she handled herself.  Her character and ability were put to the test, and she passed with flying colors.

Comments

[Clark Baker]

When we review these silly classroom anecdotes, it's important to check out the bigger picture:

Here are the best numbers I've found of LAUSD's budget:

$19.2 Billion construction:
http://www.buildings.com/articles/detail.aspx?contentID=3190

$13.367 Billion for operations (page 34):
http://www.lacity.org/council/Commission/lausd/presentations/lausdpresentations245032070_09082005.pdf

LAUSD's $32 billion budget employs 80,000 to serve 650,000 students inside
what Harvard University calls "dropout factories."
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/3/24/112510.shtml

Compare:

LA City's $6.5 billion budget employs 40,000 to serve 4,300,000 residents.

LA County's $16.6 billion budget employs 90,000 to serve 11,000,000
residents.

LAUSD's $32 billion ÷ 650,000 students = $49K per student

I pay $14K/year for my grandson's private school. None of the problems these LAUSD teachers describe exist inside private schools because PARENTS CONTROL THE SCHOOL FUNDING.

More than half of all LAUSD teachers send their children to private school.

If parents controlled HALF of LAUSD's per-student budget with school vouchers, they could afford private school for their own children. Teachers and affluent Democrats refuse because they don't want middle- or low-income students to compete with their own children: nor do they want to lose the multi-million dollar fat that their union sends to support Democrat politicians who promise not to change the status quo.

None of these non-teaching problems will be resolved until parents control student funding with vouchers.

While LAUSD's criminal enterprise infects and destroys hundreds of thousands of children every year, these teachers complain about a few scabs and flies.

These "dropout factory" teachers remind me of streetwalkers who complain about their working conditions.

They create the asylum and then complain about the inmates!

For those who argue that there aren't enough teachers or private schools to accept 650,000 students, consider this:

Let's say California grants less than HALF of LAUSD's $49K per-student budget:

* $20K/year voucher per student.

* 100 students X $20K = $2 million annual budget.

* Five - twenty-child classrooms

* Five teachers paid $100K+ to start

The demand for teachers and accredited would explode and top teachers from all over the US would compete in California for top schools and salaries - and California's children and teachers would be the big winners.

I don't advocate the end of LAUSD. They can still compete. But if they fail and close, that's their problem. Wouldn't we rather have LAUSD fail than our children?

[evelyn]

Private schools don't have to teach "the standards" and have parents who are generally middle class or above.

I would love to see proof for your stats that 1/2 of all LAUSD teachers send their children to private schools...the fact is, 1/2 of our teachers couldn't afford to.

I believe Nick attends a school in South Pasadena which has its own district. It is not part of LAUSD.

I'll be happy to tell my students on Monday that I have created their educational problems. I'll get back to you and let you know if they agree with you or not.

The criminals are not the teachers, but the top beaucracy in LAUSD that takes 50% of all state money off the top and 50% of money raised by kids in school. But again, without parent involvement, who is really to blame? Parents love to show up after a fake bomb scare or other drama, but where are they on parent-teacher conference night?

I'm also not sure if you know that LAUSD schools routinely win the Academic Decathalon every year. Hey, what kind of an asylum is this anyway???

[Clay Landon]

Dropout factories?

(sigh)

Clark, come visit my classroom. Any time, any day. Just call in advance. I promise to be civil, you make sure you do the same and we can exchange notes. Who knows? Perhaps you'll convince me that vouchers are the saving grace for education in Los Angeles OR... you'll walk away thinking that some teachers really aren't just whiners and complainers but are actually doing some pretty good work out there. The next two weeks, we'll be working on persuasive writing and, no offense, I think you'll find some of the lessons valuable.

The e-mail address is my actual e-mail address. Give me a shout, won't you? I've made this offer to right-wing talkshow hosts, cheerleaders for vouchers, those who feel teachers can't teach, etc. And now I'm making the offer to you.

Lunch will be on me.

[Guy]

I have some serious concerns about the validity of the first comment above. On face value, the numbers look fishy.

The number that he quotes for construction, $19.2 billion, is most likely for multiple year projects, but he includes that number for the annual budget total.

The $13.367 billion for annual operations appears bigger than any number that I've heard. The last I heard, LAUSD had a proposed annual budget of about $7.5 billion.
http://notebook.lausd.net/pls/ptl/url/ITEM/163444B644B39020E0430A081FB59020

LAUSD's website claims that it has about 704,417 total students, which is also higher than the 650,000 number quoted above.
http://search.lausd.k12.ca.us/cgi-bin/fccgi.exe?w3exec=PROFILE0

These numbers would give about $10,000 per student in the annual operating budget. Adjusting his vaunted voucher plan to give $10,000 per student (which is an unrealistically high number for vouchers... most voucher plans have only given a few thousand), then that would give an annual budget of $1 million (100 x $10,000). Factor in the costs of utilities, administration, custodial and support staff, and you'll wind up with teacher salaries close to what they already are.

[Clark Baker]

Evelyn, Clay, & Guy:

I’ll answer all your questions.

My grandson attends a WASC-approved private school with standards FAR ABOVE NCLB. I wouldn’t send him to a lower-performance school. Here’s one of MANY links regarding the educators who send their children to private school:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F06E0DC143FF936A35757C0A9669C8B63&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/V/Vouchers

I’m not sure where Nick teaches, but his description was consistent with LAUSD’s ongoing disaster. While I agree that the criminals are not the teachers, only 25 percent of LAUSD’s teachers vote on union issues. Teachers can turn LAUSD around or they can acquiesce. Most acquiesce because those who make waves are subjected to freeway therapy and classrooms filled with psychopaths, addicts, and gang members.

For more anecdotes, feel free to read my earlier LAUSD posts:
http://blogsearch.google.com/?ie=UTF-8&ui=blg&bl_url=exlibhollywood.blogspot.com&x=0&y=0&scoring=d&as_q=%22LAUSD%22&ui=blg

Having lived and worked in cities like Calcutta, San Salvador, Pacoima, and South LA, I’ve found that MOST parents, regardless of economic status, care deeply about their child’s education. While some do not, many parents I know get tired of being blamed for school problems. Yes, it would be better if Joe’s parents were more responsive, but that’s not my problem unless Joe’s behavior begins to affect my son’s learning environment. Most (if not all) private and charter schools maintain high standards.

Take a look at Vaughn Street Charter Elementary, in the heart of Pacoima. Surrounded by gangs and illegal aliens, this school outperforms area schools, maintains high standards, and pays their teachers above LAUSD union wage! They succeed because the principal can fire teachers and remove disruptive children. And parents WANT to participate with their children.

Parents have a stronger when they control school funding. As long as union teachers continue to support/fund Democrats who won’t fire your wasteful bureaucracy, teachers are part of the problem. In 2005, teacher unions spent $100 million to defeat the Governor’s reform proposals. Where did such “impoverished teachers” get that kind of cash?

As for LAUSD’s Academic Decathlon, that happens at a handful of Valley schools. As I said, schools like North Hollywood, El Camino, and Taft are not representative of Manual Arts, Dorsey, or Venice. If teachers truly cared about their students, they’d demand fully-funded vouchers so parents can decide where their child attends school.

Unions loathe competition because they cannot compete. Great teachers need unions as much as great basketball players. Jaime Escalante admits that unions care nothing about education or children. If you doubt this, ask yourself where LAUSD’s union contract describes accountability or children? The contract is all about protecting bad teachers, and union dues are the lifeblood of the union and the Democrat Party that began to destroy LAUSD before I graduated in 1975.

As for “dropout factories,” that’s Harvard University’s Civil Rights Project (2005) characterization, not mine. According to them, half of all black and Latino 9th graders would not graduate high school in California – an achievement that segregationists like Gov. George Wallace (D-ALABAMA) would have envied. America’s teacher unions have effectively circumvented Brown v. Board of Education.

I know many active and former teachers. I know that many work hard, but I also know that the bloated school administration is the biggest obstacle to teaching in America. Teachers can keep the status quo, or they can become agents of change. Teachers can support the vouchers and charters that will make that happen. Good teachers have nothing to fear, and mediocre teachers have a lot to fear.

So Clay, I’ll be glad to visit you and your classroom sometime under one condition – that you also tour one or two Green Dot schools with Steve Barr and me. I’ll also be glad to tour a private school with you.

Believe it or not, teachers and cops share similar frustrations, particularly what I call “responsibility without authority:” e.g. we have tremendous responsibility to accomplish the mission but no real authority to do so. And the bureaucracies that control cops and teachers enjoy tremendous authority but share no responsibility to perform.

As for the numbers… yes, LAUSD’s $19.2 billion is a multiple year number. But why are we building more public schools when LAUSD’s enrollment is declining?

http://paa2006.princeton.edu/download.aspx?submissionId=61492

According to an LA Times story last month, enrollment was at 653,215:
http://4lakids.blogspot.com/2007/10/saying-it-all-poorly.html
(Scroll down a little to find the article – the Times disabled that link)

Yeah, the $13.367 billion is big, but that was Romer’s own numbers before LAUSD took down that link. I won’t get into the weeds of LAUSD’s amorphous numbers. I know where every dollar is spent at my grandson’s school, and I didn’t have to pay for a $100 million payroll system. LAUSD’s budget depends largely upon the date, time, and location, and who you talk to. And if a link embarrasses the LAUSD, they mysteriously disappear.

As for LAUSD’s real budget and enrollment, I’d trust Enron’s numbers before LAUSDs. As for the difference between LAUSD’s $13 billion 2005-2006 budget and their proposed $7.5 billion budget, to what do you attribute that drop? Will teachers get paid half? Are layoffs pending? How do you explain that? As for enrollment, Julie Korenstein told me that many Latino dropouts were probably just returning to Mexico! If Julie doesn’t know, how would you or I?

What’s wrong with letting parents control education funding with vouchers? Vouchers are usually set at a few thousand for the same reason LAUSD granted a charter to Academia Semillas – to discredit the charter and voucher movements. Yeah, getting back $2000 will defray part of my costs, but why am I paying taxes to support public schools that my grandson won’t attend? It’s MY money! Take your $10K/year number… what’s wrong with giving parents that kind of power? If LAUSD offers a better plan than area private schools or charters, why not let parents choose? I wrote about this at length here:

http://exlibhollywood.blogspot.com/2006/03/education-on-vouchers.html

Clark Baker

[Alistair Owens www.keen2learn.co.uk]

The wise owl approach is something we must cherish. I recall a headteacher that wore heavy shoes with metal heel segments. Nothing to do with preventing wear, it was so you could deliberately hear him coming down the corridor. He would quieten classrooms from about 50 yards away without ever entering the room. My first example of management by walking about. He would patrol the entire school in 10 minute bursts, never enter a class or disrupt a lesson. It was an audible sign to teachers and pupils alike that he was about.

A concern now is the absence of the teaching head that held this level of authority and experience. In their place we have administrators and general managers who have little time to deal with discipline as a precursor to good behaviour in school and beyond.

[Alistair Owens www.keen2learn.co.uk]

The wise owl approach is something we must cherish. I recall a headteacher that wore heavy shoes with metal heel segments. Nothing to do with preventing wear, it was so you could deliberately hear him coming down the corridor. He would quieten classrooms from about 50 yards away without ever entering the room. My first example of management by walking about. He would patrol the entire school in 10 minute bursts, never enter a class or disrupt a lesson. It was an audible sign to teachers and pupils alike that he was about.

A concern now is the absence of the teaching head that held this level of authority and experience. In their place we have administrators and general managers who have little time to deal with discipline as a precursor to good behaviour in school and beyond.

[evelyn]

First off, Nick is a student, not a teacher. Secondly, parents who send their students to charter schools show something called initiative. Many of our parents don't bother to check out magnet or charter schools even though the Choices link is prominently displayed on the LAUSD website.

As someone who knows several teachers in private schools who left LAUSD I can assure you that yes, standards at these schools are high because they don't have to teach every single one. They come up with their own and teach in depth. They also don't have to worry about the California Standards Test.

I wouldn't teach without a union. I have two out of state teacher friends who took huge paycuts in non-union states. One is going to come back because as he told me, "You cannot believe how badly they treat teachers out here without a union to restrain them." In addition, non-union districts typically pay about 20, 000 less a year and their pay scales top out at what I make now after 6 years of teaching.

Vouchers? I don't think so...they drain money from public schools....

Love my job but I don't get involved in the politics...I stay in my room and teach....there is enough drama going on in there!!!

[casey]

oh my that was so funny and yes she deserves respect.