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Category Archives: Education

Grendel’s Closed Door Policy – Part 4/4

06 Feb

I know how important education is to the Chinese. I’ve been to China many times.

When Chinese mothers gather, they usually don’t talk of American Idol, fashion or the latest Hollywood gossip.

Chinese mothers talk about their children and how they are doing in school and recommend the best schools.

Most Chinese parents start saving for college when the child is still in the womb. The sacrifice the average Chinese parent makes for their children’s future education is mind-boggling.

My wife is Chinese and our daughter came home and did homework without the TV on.  She earned straight “A’s” since third grade and graduated with  a 4.65 GPA due to the AP and honors classes she took.

If she had not earned those grades … her mother would figuratively break her legs.

Anyway, back to Grendel.

After that staff meeting with Grendel, he left the room followed by a cloud of tobacco smoke.

The rest of the teaching staff sat stunned.

Soon, we were on our way home to correct papers and plan the next day’s lesson.

For the rest of that school year, true to his word, Grendel stayed behind closed doors—most of the time—while the teachers struggled to provide a liberal education.

No, not what Republicans mean by liberal.

Return to Grendel’s Closed Door Policy – Part 3 or start with Part 1.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

To subscribe to “Crazy Normal”, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

 
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Posted by on February 6, 2010 in American Public Schools, Education, Parenting, Public School, Teaching

 

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Grendel’s Closed Door Policy – Part 3/4

05 Feb

Grendel was right about too many of the parents—at least some that I met while teaching at Alvarado. They were a brutally bizarre bunch from another world. They must have been Republicans.

I’ve heard the parents around Alvarado have changed since the 80s. The Chinese moved in and the wasps with the stingers fled.

Anyone who knows Asian cultures like India, China, South Korea, the Philippians and Japan, knows that the parents tend to respect and support teachers and most of the kids are great to work with. We can thank Confucius for that.

Most Asian-American students pay attention, read, ask questions, seek help and turn in homework.

They even study for tests. None of the usual excuses such as “my dad used my book report for toilet paper and flushed it and now he’s in South America on business”.

Asian students also earn high scores on standardized tests no matter who teaches them.

Those facts are ignored by neo-conservatives and Christian Evangelicals who want a voucher system to replace the public schools so waspish parents can control what their children learn like all good Nazis—no more liberal education.

If vouchers arrive, education will be a form of tunnel vision.

Continued in Grendel’s Closed Door Policy – Part 4 or return to Part 2

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

To subscribe to “Crazy Normal”, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

 
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Posted by on February 5, 2010 in American Public Schools, Education, Parenting, Public School, Teaching

 

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Grendel’s Closed Door Policy – Part 2/4

04 Feb

During one of those Soviet rotations at Alvarado Intermediate, a new principal arrived, who I will call Grendel. In a few years, half the teachers at Alvarado quit or requested transfers to other schools.

On Grendel’s first day at Alvarado, we had a staff meeting after school to meet the beast.

Grendel stood there like a thin dragon with yellow teeth without reptilian skin. Tobacco breath had a raspy Marlboro voice.

Grendel had a flip chart. As the pages flapped like bat wings, I saw words and crude drawings (memory is vague but I do remember Grendel flipping page after page).

Grendel’s voice rasped, “If your students fail, it is your fault. It is your job to motivate and teach them.”

Each time he spoke, it was a blow to the solar plexus and a pain in the gluteus maximus.

Grendel said, “If your students misbehave, it is your fault. It is your job to control them. If you have problems with a student or a parent, my door is closed. Don’t come to me for help. The white-collar parents that live in this neighborhood are difficult, and I don’t need that stress.”

Continued in Grendel’s Closed Door Policy – Part 3 or return to Part 1

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

To subscribe to “Crazy  Normal”, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

 
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Posted by on February 4, 2010 in American Public Schools, Education, Public School, Teaching

 

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Grendel’s Closed Door Policy – Part 1/4

03 Feb

To armor myself against attacks from citizens of the Litigation Nation for telling the truth, anytime I name someone when I write posts, the names will be false.

I taught in Rowland Unified School District from 1975 to 2005.  For three of those years, I taught at Alvarado Intermediate in Rowland Heights.

In the early 80s, it was common knowledge that the school district played musical chairs with their principals. In thirty years as a teacher, I worked under nine or ten principals and taught in several schools.

In 1989, I settled at Nogales High School (NHS) in La Puente, California.

In comparison, the principal at our daughter’s alma mater, Los Lomas High School (five hundred miles from NHA) had the same position for about two decades before he retired.

Before he became principal, he was a teacher at the same school.

Rowland Unified (in the 1980s) adopted the same tactics used by the Soviet army during the cold war—the Soviets rotated officers so they didn’t get too chummy with the troops.

I’ve heard that the administration running Rowland Unified these days dropped that Soviet policy.

Wouldn’t you know it—after thirty years teaching in an academic Gulag, some Santa dropped down the chimney to improve the working environment for teachers.

Continued at Grendel’s Closed Door Policy – Part 2 or discover A Ten-Year Old Named Oscar

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

To subscribe to “Crazy Normal”, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

 
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Posted by on February 3, 2010 in American Public Schools, Education, Public School, Teaching

 

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Substitute Teaching is not a “Tea Party” – Part 3/3

02 Feb

As a substitute teacher, it would have been nice to have had a black belt in judo or karate. I knew one sub that did, and he started every a class with a demonstration of his skills.

Once the class from Dante’s Inferno was mine, I moved the desks around to create a better arrangement for controlling the hyperactive squad of boys.

I moved the teacher’s desk and placed two bookshelves behind it to form a space large enough to hold one desk so no one could make eye contact with James.


Another recent substitute experience.

The problem was, James wouldn’t sit still. I had to keep my sonar turned on. When I sensed he was moving, I’d throw my arm up as if it were one of those arms at a railroad crossing to keep James from getting out and cause a train wreck.

At times, when it was too quiet in that cubbyhole hemmed in with bookshelves, I’d turn to see James on top of his desk spinning on his head like a top with his feet in the air.

If I saw anyone from the wild bunch lifting a fanny off a chair, I’d fling myself across the room twisting my face into a Marine Corps drill sergeant, evil, killer mask.

“Don’t move another inch,” I’d say in a menacing tone that threatened bodily harm. There was never a dull moment. It was in that class that I perfected the killer stare that would serve me well for the next thirty years.

Start with Substitute Teaching is not a “Tea Party” – Part 1

_______________________

Lloyd Lofthouse, a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran, is the award winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition].

His latest novel is Running with the Enemy. Blamed for a crime he did not commit while serving in Vietnam, his country considers him a traitor. Ethan Card is a loyal U.S. Marine desperate to prove his innocence or he will never go home again.

And the woman he loves and wants to save was trained to hate and kill Americans.

To follow this Blog via E-mail see upper right-hand column and click on “Sign me up!”

 

 

 
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Posted by on February 2, 2010 in American Public Schools, Education, Public School, substitute teaching, Teaching

 

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Substitute Teaching is not a “Tea Party” – Part 2/3

01 Feb

I asked, “Why me?”

After all, there were many substitute teachers with more experience. This was my first year.

That’s when I learned that I had been the thirteenth substitute teacher—not a good omen. The other twelve left after the first day and refused to return.

However, I had survived two weeks and knew why the regular teacher died from a heart attack.

And I knew why I had survived—the combat tour in Vietnam as a United States Marine had toughened me for the job.


This video shows a substitute teacher that lost control of herself.  With students like these, I cannot blame her. Do you know that half of new teachers quit within three years and never return to education. This is one example that explains why.

That fifth grade class had thirty students in it. Half the boys were hyperactive, which probably isn’t the politically correct term to call them but “fuck” that.

Over the years, political correctness has become the language bully.

One boy, James, would attack anyone that stared at him for more than a few seconds. It didn’t matter if the student staring at him was a girl or a boy. His fists started flying.

James could have been America’s secret weapon in Vietnam.

Another example why it is so challenging to teach in America’s public schools may be found at Narcissism at its Best.

Continued in Substitute Teaching is not a “Tea Party” – Part 3 or return to Part 1

_______________________

Lloyd Lofthouse, a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran, is the award winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition].

His latest novel is Running with the Enemy. Blamed for a crime he did not commit while serving in Vietnam, his country considers him a traitor. Ethan Card is a loyal U.S. Marine desperate to prove his innocence or he will never go home again.

And the woman he loves and wants to save was trained to hate and kill Americans.

To follow this Blog via E-mail see upper right-hand column and click on “Sign me up!”

 

 
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Posted by on February 1, 2010 in American Public Schools, Education, Public School, substitute teaching, Teaching

 

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Substitute Teaching is not a “Tea Party” – Part 1/3

31 Jan

During the 1976-77 school year, I subbed daily in a half-dozen school districts during the first semester.

Substitute teaching is not easy.

Whoever called first at five in the morning—that’s where I went.

I taught in Arcadia, Monrovia, San Dimas, Rowland and a few other school districts I’ve forgotten. Most of the time, I worked in Rowland Unified in La Puente, where I interned the previous year.

When teachers knew they were going to be out, they requested me in advance and my calendar quickly filled up.

After the Winter Break, I was called to sub at Romier Elementary for a fifth grade class.


Watch the video and discover what it is like from another substitute teacher more than thirty years later.

The teacher had a heart attack and was in the hospital. Two weeks later, the principal offered me a long-term position for the rest of the year. The regular teacher had died.

I thought I knew the reason. Was I going to be the next victim for these diabolical ten year olds?

I named them the class from Dante’s Inferno, and I worried that this would end in another Oscar or worse—I’d lose my teacher’s credential and might end in jail for murder and mayhem.

Continued in Substitute Teaching is not a “Tea Party” – Part 2

_______________________

Lloyd Lofthouse, a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran, is the award winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition].

His latest novel is Running with the Enemy. Blamed for a crime he did not commit while serving in Vietnam, his country considers him a traitor. Ethan Card is a loyal U.S. Marine desperate to prove his innocence or he will never go home again.

And the woman he loves and wants to save was trained to hate and kill Americans.

To follow this Blog via E-mail see upper right-hand column and click on “Sign me up!”

 

 
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Posted by on January 31, 2010 in American Public Schools, Education, Public School, substitute teaching, Teaching

 

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Bookie’s Dream, Old Faithful and Chewing Gum – Part4/4

30 Jan

The biggest part of the day supervisor’s job was to drive a flatbed electric cart around the school starting at 6:00 AM and paint out fresh, overnight graffiti.

Then Bookie’s Dream loaded the empty trashcans to place them where kids congregated at lunch.

However, spitting out gum, getting rid of empty soda bottles and greasy bags of French fries was too much of an effort for most of our students to put in trash cans, so the school was usually littered.


In Japan, the students clean the classrooms and the schools.

Back in my classroom after school, I wore out the knees in my blue jeans crawling around the classroom floor scraping gum off that crap-colored carpet.

Mr. D, who supervised after school detentions and Saturday schools, attempted solving the litter problem by taking the high students that earned detentions and make them clean the campus instead of sitting around watching a clock.

One of the kids complained to his or her mommy or daddy, who complained to the district office. The district office then called the principal.

The result–Mr. D. was told to stop making the students serving detention to work as if they were custodians. It  was considered cruel and unusual punishment. Discover Wyoming Park Students Expelled for Vandalism.

Return to Bookie’s Dream, Old Faithful and Chewing Gum – Part 3 or start with Part 1

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

To subscribe to “Crazy Normal”, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

 
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Posted by on January 30, 2010 in American Public Schools, Education, Parenting, pollution, Public School, Teaching

 

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Bookie’s Dream, Old Faithful and Chewing Gum – Part 3/4

29 Jan

I knew where Bookie’s Dream slept. He had a pillow and a blanket stored in a cupboard in the teacher’s lounge next to my classroom. I was tempted to buy some lice and fleas and infest the couch, but teachers sat there too.

I complained about Bookie’s Dream to one of the VPs, but the situation continued for months until Bookie’s Dream was promoted to day-supervisor over custodians that worked.

The boss got tired of my complaints, so the problem was solved by promoting the slacker.

As much as I wanted to sabotage Bookie’s Deam, I didn’t. Maybe I should have bought some coyote urine and sprayed it on his pillow.

It was a tempting thought.

You should have seen the hallways and sidewalks–a minefield of goo. The district eventually bought a steam-cleaning machine to blast the outside walking surfaces clean of gum. Did you know that Vandalism Costs Tax Payers Money?

Continued in Bookie’s Dream, Old Faithful and Chewing Gum – Part 4 or return to Part 2

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

To subscribe to “Crazy Normal”, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

 
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Posted by on January 29, 2010 in American Public Schools, Education, Teaching

 

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Bookie’s Dream, Old Faithful and Chewing Gum – Part 2/4

28 Jan

I couldn’t stand teaching on a field of gooey, carpeted dirt. After a few weeks, the place started to look like fallout from a nuclear blast. I wanted Old Faithful back.

When I asked Old Faithful for a few cans of the spray that removed gum by freezing it, he told me he missed the free goodies.

As he handed me a half-dozen cans, he said, “Don’t let the spray touch your fingers. You’ll get frostbite. Try wearing protective gloves.”


Do you know how much gum 200 students can leave stuck in a classroom carpet?

Great! I earned combat pay in Vietnam for being shot at. I wondered if I should put in a request for hazardous-duty pay.

For the next few weeks, I crawled around scraping gum off the carpet. I also bought a vacuum and used it daily.

I now had two jobs—teacher and custodian while Bookie’s Dream was paid to sleep and place bets.

Some readers might wonder why I let the kids chew gum. Easy answer—I didn’t have x-ray vision and most kids make sure they weren’t chewing when I was looking. Lucky for them too.

If I had superman’s talents, I would have sizzled a few along with Bookie’s Dream.

Discover What is San Bernardino Saying about Vandalism?

Continued in Bookie’s Dream, Old Faithful and Chewing Gum – Part 3 or return to Part 1

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

To subscribe to “Crazy Normal”, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

 
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Posted by on January 28, 2010 in American Public Schools, Education, Journalism, Public School, Teaching

 

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