Month: August 2016

Leave a comment Posted on Cornejo's, Handy Market, Joseph Lamar Hair Salon, Tallyrand Restaurant

The Workers That Make Life Worth Living

With Labor Day approaching, this would be an appropriate time to acknowledge working people who we see and talk to on a regular basis, but who are not part of our inner circle of family and friends.

The cashier at the market, the waitress at the coffee shop, the person who cuts our hair—all play an integral role in making our lives flow smoothly and adding a depth of humanity to our existence.

What is peculiar about these brief encounters is that for the worker, one customer is just one of hundreds while for the customer the interaction holds more meaning; it’s easier for us to remember them because we only have one hair stylist, one mechanic, etc.

Take Tony, the owner of Cornejo’s service station for over 40 years.   This is where I get gas and have my car serviced.   Mechanics have a notorious reputation, but I lucked out finding someone who does quality work for reasonable prices.  Beyond that, we keep up-to-date on each other’s families, and Tony’s views on the political scene is worth the visit alone.

For the past 28 years, Petite holds down the fort at Handy Market.  She knows me as the syrup guy since she special orders a maple syrup that my kids can’t seem to get enough of.  When she was in school, she was a slow reader and because of that many classmates made fun of her.   Now, she is the face of Handy Market, entrusted in opening the store up each morning.  The girl who was teased at school has become an integral part of the Burbank community.

The epitome of customer service, Marti works at the Tallyrand coffee shop.  Once you sit down in her area, she acknowledges you within a minute with bright eyes and a happy grin.  For regulars, she doesn’t take your order; she tells you what your order will be from memory, including special requests like “crispy bacon” and “hold the avocado.”

Her energetic personality—“are you ready, ready”—puts a smile on the grumpiest customer.  She often shares segments of her life story, some good, some not, yet retains an optimistic outlook with her faith in God.  May she be there another 20 years.

For over a quarter of a century, Don cut my hair at three different hair salons that he owned.   During that time, we learned a lot about one another’s lives even though each monthly visit lasted barely 30 minutes.

Interesting how we often share intimate details of our lives with service providers, sometimes things we don’t share with people we live with.

When Don retired seven years ago, I panicked, not just because I needed to find someone to creatively cover my bald spots, but because the history we shared vanished, and I had to get to know a new stylist unsure if we would hit it off conversationally.

Fortunately, I met Armand at the same Joseph Lamar Hair Salon. Once a month we converse about how the Dodgers are playing as well as how well he plays golf.  Just as he has gotten to know about my family and career, I’ve gotten to know the career trajectory of his two musical sons.

I feel an emotional investment with these individuals.   I dread the day when I go where they work and discover that they are no longer there.  How hollow my life will be.

What makes these folks stand out is their pleasant attitude, willing to go the extra mile in performing their job with nothing but kindness to motivate them.

As we travel life’s journey, the road would be less familiar without them. Clearly, it is a labor of love for these dedicated folks.

Leave a comment Posted on absences, Average Daily Attendance, California Department of Education, children, elementary school, John B King Jr., parents, President Obama, Public Education, public school, schools, students, teachers, teaching, U.S Department of Education

Absence makes the mind grow flounder

It used to be that going to school on time every day was a given.   Only truly sick children missed school.

Not anymore.

Six million children missed at least three weeks of school in the 2013-14 school year, according to the U.S Department of Education’s Civil Rights Data Collection report.  That equates to 13 percent of all students.

Think of a business that could operate effectively without 13 percent of its workforce.

The bad habits students practice in kindergarten through 12th grade cannot simply be altered like a light switch once they enter the job market.

Name one job where people get paid for not being there.

“Even the best teachers can’t be successful with students who aren’t in class,” Education Secretary John B. King Jr. told reporters last June.

California has a Compulsory Education Law stipulating that “every child from the age of 6 to 18 be in school—on time, every day.”

A student’s education suffers when he is not in school.  Period.

There is a direct correlation between missing school and falling behind academically. According to the California Department of Education, “first grade students with 9 or more total absences are twice as likely to drop out of high school than their peers who attend school regularly.”

Last December, President Obama signed into law a revision of the No Child Left Behind act that requires for the first time that states report individual absences for all students.

It’s not just the learning that suffers when a student isn’t in a classroom.  Money is lost as well.

Schools derive much of their funding based on Average Daily Attendance or ADA.  In Glendale the ADA is $55 per student per day.  With an enrollment around 26,000, that adds up to $1.43 million if all students are present.

If 10 percent of students are absent for one day the entire year, that results in a loss of $143,000.  Multiply that by 180 school days and you have $25.7 million.  Quite a sum of money that could go towards hiring more teachers and funding more programs.

Last semester, I tracked the number of students present over a 78-day period and here are the results:

In my first period class, 25 percent of the time I had full attendance, second period had seven percent, third period had 17 percent, fifth period had 20 percent, and sixth period had 12 percent.

Looking at the numbers in a different way, 88 percent of the time I had at least one student absent in my Per. 6 class.   This makes it quite difficult for a teacher to maintain consistency in lesson planning as well as cooperative learning groups.

I had 25 students who had double-digit absences including one who had 24 (that’s a loss of 5 weeks of instruction in a 17-week period), plus five students with double-digit tardies (the highest 16).

When I returned to work last week, teachers were asked to do more to encourage students to get to class on time in order to decrease the number of tardies.   However, the bulk of the tardies come at the start of school; in other words, due to kids arriving late.

Unless teachers don Uber hats and pick up kids from their homes, the responsibility of getting children to school rests on the shoulders of parents.    Parents need to model to their children good work habits and work habit number one is getting to school every day and on time.