I learned how to teach in the 9^th grade.  It was in a required Civics Home Room class at Charles W. Eliot Jr. High School.  What I experienced in those two semesters shaped my view of education and how to teach for the rest of my life.  The teacher, Sam Soghomonian, came from a law school background rather than from traditional education.  He later went on to teach citizenship classes for immigrants at Pasadena City College.  You can see his influence in the movie “Stand and Deliver."  Jamie Escalante, the extraordinary teacher featured in the film, completed his citizenship classes at Pasadena.  I am not really sure if Soghomonian and Escalante ever crossed paths, but when I saw the movie, it was like time travel back to the 9^th grade.

 

       Here is what happened.  Imagine facing a class of thirty 12-13 year olds.  They are not there because they want to learn civics, they are there because it is “required.”  Your job is to teach immature, hormonally unstable, unmotivated, proto-teenagers things that most people at any age consider boring and uninteresting.  It had to be the ultimate teaching challenge.

 

        We did not begin with civics.  We began with Sam’s vision of what we could accomplish.  He laid out our choices and developed a contract with us requiring our unanimous agreement.  He made it clear that he had very high expectations.  We were going to do work expected of college level students.  There would be a weekly 50-question test every Friday.  In 9^th grade we had to memorize the Constitution of the United States.  By Christmas break, Sam expected us to know enough about our Government and the Law to take his version of the Bar Exam.  At the end of the year we had to hand in a 50 page handwritten or 30 page typed research term paper, spelling and grammatically correct, complete with footnotes and bibliography that met the standards of the Stanford Guide for Term Papers.

 

        In return, Sam promised us fun.  The Friday exam was not a test; it was the “Frantic Friday Final Finale.”  The last question was a bonus question.  If you chose to answer it, you risked gaining or losing 10 points on your exam, one whole grade.  The question could come from anywhere.  Most were like riddles.  They were trick questions that made you think and take risk.  But, it was your choice to try it or not.  I still remember some of them.  It was manna from heaven if you needed additional points, it was a tragedy if you guessed wrong.   We corrected others' tests and had to report our own grades out loud as Sam recorded them.  There was no curve grading.  We competed only with ourselves.  Forty-five questions right was an “A,” period.  If one whole row of students got A’s on the test, he promised to do a handstand on his desk.  As the year went on, he delivered his promise on increasingly more occasions.  By the middle of the first semester we could not wait for the Frantic Friday Final Finale to arrive. 

 

        The Bar exam did not count on our grade.  It was pass-fail, just like the real thing.  If you passed, you could serve as a Judge, Lawyer, Prosecutor, or Public Defender in the upcoming court system.  If you did not pass you could be a Legislator, Sheriff, Deputy, or Citizen.  We took the Bar exam in December and about 20% of the class passed.  It was a voluntary one-day exam (on a Saturday) that covered everything we learned in the first semester.  We came in on our own time.  We studied in teams.  The peer pressure was intense.  No one missed taking it.    After the bar exam we held elections and passed laws for our class.  Chewing gum, not paying attention were some of the misdemeanors.  Things like cheating on tests were felonies.  The Sheriff and deputies wrote tickets and enforced the laws.  On Friday we held Municipal and Superior Court.  Those of us who got citations went to trial and if convicted had to pay fines.  We collected the money and deposited it into a savings account.  At the end of the year we had a party, paid for out of the fines.

 

        During the year Sam’s role changed.  At first he laid out the rules, set the standards, and created the vision.   He told us what were going to do, when we were going do it and how we were going to do it.  He stuck to the rules with rigid discipline.  He expected us to do the same.  As we developed our understanding of the material, we gained confidence and began to ask deeper questions.  Gradually he shifted the control of the learning to us.  He presented us with problems and challenges and it became clear that our job was to act increasingly on our own.  He was funny, entertaining and used peer pressure like a virtuoso. By the time we had the court system in full operation, Sam’s role shifted from controlling teacher to coach and friend.  He treated us like adults for the first time in our student careers.  His methods made learning more important than attaining grades.  He transformed us.

        What I learned in 9^th grade has lasted a lifetime.  Besides a fundamental understanding of how our government works, I formed my educational philosophy.  The most effective education occurs in a context that interests the student.  Student and teacher share the responsibility for success.  Success occurs when the student can apply knowledge in a way that expands his or her horizons.  It should be playful and fun, yet done in an environment of very high expectations.  It begins like the start of a hike to the top of a mountain, with lots of planning, effort and initial pain. The teacher’s job is to shift control and responsibility to the student in ways that encourage self-motivation and achievement.   Great teaching is the most creative of human endeavors.

 

        We should all be lucky to experience a great teacher like Sam Soghomonian at least once.  He, Jamie Escalante and all the others like them, give us a gift for a lifetime.

 

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Richard T. Mallard

 

            A California native and product of the Pasadena City School System, Richard has over 28 years of business management and educational experience.  He holds a Masters Degree in Managerial Development, a special major, from California State University, Fullerton.  In 1982, he co-founded the Westside Energy Services Training and Education Center, WESTEC in Taft, California. His work experience includes being the Associate Dean of Lake Tahoe Community College, the Training Director for Williams Brothers Engineering at the Elk Hills Naval Petroleum Reserve, the Director of Management Development and Training at Fluor Engineering, and a former flight instructor.