Locke High seniors speak *
* See correction at the end of this posting
In today's Times, Jason Song profiled the valedictorian of Locke High in Watts, a success story at a school long associated with dropouts and academic failure. That overall lack of success was a driving factor that has led to Locke High being turned over, as of July 1, to Green Dot Public School, a nonprofit that operates charter schools. But as the story of the valedictorian exemplifies, a core of students, pushed by dedicated teachers, exits Locke every year with confidence and some academic skills.
In the photo, the Rev. Stephen H. James -- who teaches vocal ensemble, choir, keyboard and music technology -- leads students through their paces during a class party held in his honor last week. James, like at least 60% of the faculty, does not expect to return to Locke when it becomes a charter.
James and several other popular veteran teachers have a particular problem: They would probably lose years of seniorty as well as tenure protection if they make the move to Green Dot. That's an ironic situation for James, who was among the teachers last year who signed the Green Dot petition, which provided the legal basis, with the school board's approval, for Green Dot taking over. Other teachers, such as Daphne Bradford, who has developed a technology/production/editing lab on campus, aren't sure they can find the right niche in Green Dot's no-nonsense college-prep curriculum.
Here are some thoughts of graduating seniors about the turbulent school year that just ended, about Locke and about the future. A few students commented on the new book Relentless Pursuit, by Donna Foote, which paints a depressing picture of Locke as it tells the story of four first-year teachers who are part of the Teach for America program.
Adrian Munoz, 18:
Locke is a hard place to come to, with all the violence around here, but once you're here you can learn many things. If you hang around the wrong people, you're going to have problems. A couple of my friends [joined gangs]. They had nothing else to do I guess. My teachers all motivated me to do better and said don’t quit.
Destiny Johnson, 18. Plans to major in history and minor in music at UCLA:
When I was in 10th grade, in world history, the class was really loud, and I was sometimes the only student who read the chapter. The teacher, he would still try to go on with the class but he was mainly dealing with kids, their personal issues, rather than world history. I enjoyed that class by doing the reading. It was difficult. When I entered AP U.S. history in 11th grade, there were 45 students at the beginning. There were not enough chairs. He gave us this huge U.S. history book, and the administrators said we won’t be able to learn from that at all. I studied from it. I read every chapter. The class kept getting smaller and smaller. I felt the teacher tried to do his best. As the class got smaller he started going into more stories about history. He would talk about how history is relating to politics now. There nine, 10 or 12 students at the end of the year. The class could have been harder. I don’t know if it was up to AP level. But I still had fun in there. I read the entire book, and I really enjoyed the book, although I wanted to learn more about African history and they didn’t have much of that.
Under Green Dot, I hope they’ll make smaller classrooms, which they say they are going to do.
It was a lot of distractions in some of the classrooms. Sometimes the teacher was a distraction. I had one teacher in Spanish -- he would have this work on the board and we would copy it and that would be the work for the class. And he would be in the back of the class listening to his Ipod.
[About the book "Relentless Pursuit" by Donna Foote, Destiny had this to say:]
The beginning of the book made some of the black kids look like little demons. And that the teachers were like the angels coming here to save us. That’s what I had gotten out of the book. I thought: Why is she portraying us in this manner? She was only here one school year, and she hadn’t been in the community.
Rhomell Holliman, 18. Plans to study psychology at Humboldt State University:
Academically. I would have to say some of the teachers here have not been as attentive to students as they should; some classes were too big, and some of the kids did not pay attention. I haven’t had any problems. I’m on the football team. People know me. I give respect and I get respect. In a lot of my classes, I have been challenged. Ms. Talley, she challenged all of her kids to the max. Some of the teachers are good, like Ms. Bradford.
I really don’t see the bad things. Locke is a good experience. It’s like the real world here. I would send my own children here, but I would just make sure the teachers are right for my child.
[About the book "Relentless Pursuit" by Donna Foote, Rhomell had this to say:]
She shouldn’t have put all the bad things in the book. If she’d wanted Locke to be helped, she should have put some good things in the book. I asked her if there was anything good in the book about Locke academically. She was flipping through her book and couldn’t find anything, so I was disappointed.
Joshua Himes, 18. Plans to major in film at Cal State Long Beach:
A lot of kids are comfortable with the change that is going to happen with Green Dot. A lot just don’t care. I learned a lot at Locke. My first year I was a 4.0 student. I loved school and loved the teachers and everybody here. It was a nice experience. In 10th grade I fell off a little bit. My mind went to other places. The following year I was back on track. My closest friends are graduating. But a lot of friends just go with the wind. A lot aren't graduating.
A lot of this starts from home, where parents raise you. If they’re on you, expecting kids to do well. If they're saying: Are you doing homework? Are you keeping up? But a lot of parents are just trying to survive. A lot aren’t involved.
I have a lot of support from teachers here. Everyone loves me. Everyone tells me I’m a bright kid and I have a nice future. Those words are very encouraging.
All my teachers were awesome. Some teachers do have some probs that should be fixed. Most do care about the students."
-- Howard Blume
Photo courtesy of Daphne Bradford
Correction:
A June 20 post in The Homeroom, “Locke Seniors Speak,” included two errors. In one instance, a student made a critical comment about the book Relentless Pursuit, by Donna Foote. But the reference to Foote was deleted, and the comment could be read as a remark about Daphne Bradford, a teacher who this same student was actually singling out for praise. Secondly, one of the comments from Rhomell Holliman was attributed instead to Joshua Himes. The Homeroom invites readers to look at the corrected post, and we apologize for the mistakes.
There was one other point that teacher Daphne Bradford wanted to make. Bradford acknowledges, as mentioned in the post, that she hasn’t reached a written agreement to work for Green Dot, the nonprofit about to take over Locke. But her view is that her technology program would be a good match for Green Dot’s college-prep curriculum. She points out that a number of under-achieving students have rebounded academically through their interest in her technology-based projects, such as video production and audio editing. And numerous others have obtained valuable professional internships, helping them prepare for college or further work experience.
-- Howard Blume
