Teachers Union President Tours Schools

By Jorge Casuso

Jan. 16 -- Given that he attended the same college as Supt. John Deasy and was taught history by the superintendent's father, it was fitting that national teachers union president Bob Chase would make a stop in Santa Monica Tuesday during his tour of LA schools.

Chase spent the morning at Edison Elementary and John Adams and Lincoln middle schools and talking with teachers, principals and students. Then he spent the early afternoon addressing the PTA Council at district headquarters.

With every encounter, the former middle school teacher dropped words of encouragement and hints of a teaching philosophy honed over the course of 25 years in the classroom with 150 to 160 students a day.

"I had a chance to impact 3,800 young people," Chase told teachers at John Adams during a reception in the school library. "That is an awesome responsibility. I know of no other profession where you have the opportunity to impact so many lives.

"The quality of what we do has to be utmost and foremost in our minds," he said. "Schools don't exist for us or for the entrepreneurs. They exist to educate kids."

During the tours, Chase peered into classrooms where music students clapped hands to learn a new beat, science students prepared to mix and heat a concoction and communications students picked apart the components of a successful poster.

And he quizzed students about what they had learned in their life skills class. (The most recent lesson was balancing checkbooks.)

"Keep your eyes open," Chase advised the group of students, who will tour nearby Santa Monica College. "Look at things you normally don't look at."

At John Adams, principal Jerry Kantor shared some of his vision with the union president as they walked through campus: "We live in this community so things go beyond these walls... Schools shouldn't be shut at 3 o'clock... Science is not something you read, it's something you do... The only thing I ask my staff is don't accept the status quo."

At Lincoln, Chase visited a strategy session of English teachers and glimpsed the campus' efforts to implement "clear expectations standards."

"It's easier for parents to know what we're doing and kids to know what they're doing," one teacher explained.

At the PTA Council meeting, Chase acknowledged that as a young teacher, he felt that parents should "drop off their kids and pick them up and leave the teaching to us because we're the professionals."

"I know now what a huge mistake that was," said Chase, who is donating the proceeds of his upcoming book to a union foundation to improve education. "There is no way educators can teach kids without full parental involvement. The world of adults needs to come together to make the wo
rld better for kids."

He questioned the nation's purported commitment to children: "There's this thing in this country, this belief that America loves its children... Prove it. I think that's rather mythical. We have a responsibility for all kids."

Local teachers union president Harry Keiley, who accompanied Chase, along with Deasy and School Board president Julia Brownley, had high praise for his national counterpart.

"It's my belief that Bob is a true American hero and the greatest advocate in this country for teachers, the children we serve and the education community," Keiley said before presenting Chase with a plaque.