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Chapter IV ENTR'ACTB - 1964—1967
To try to recap, in any comprehensive and compre— hensible way, all of the important events that happened following the exciting days of the recall election and the accepted fact of integration from 7th grade on, is like trying to give a demonstration cooking lesson using such a multiplicity of ingredients that a M edible product is almost doomed to failure. These were busy, fruitful years full of ferment and experimentation — and a large measure of frustration. The diversity that was Berkeley was evidenced on every hand and the School Board was eager to act to meet the needs of its multi—faceted student body.
The climate in the city itself made concentration on normal school problems difficult, if not impossible. These were the days of the Free Speech Movement, of People's Park and the occupation of the city by troops from both the Alameda County sheriff's department and the National Guard. Tear gas invaded some of the ele— mentary schools. Interest in the Peace Movement with its marches and protest demonstrations inevitably filtered down from the university campus into the high school and even the junior high schools. The School Board was forced into discussion and decision regarding students participating in the very real and challenging world on
their doorstep. Sex education and drug education were
studied by citizens' committees and curriculae adapted to reflect the new problems encountered daily in the schools.
A new school principal, Dr. Jerome Gilbert, who had won an enviable reputation as an innovator and perceptive leader in one of the worst slum districts of Chicago, was invited to Berkeley to become principal of Columbus, one of the four west Berkeley schools which had been. newly selected as a "laboratory school" in
connection with the University of California School of Education. This school was specially designated as a teacher observation center for student teachers who
planned to work in Negro or poverty—dominated schools but whose experience in those areas was either limited or non existent. Dr. Gilbert was the man for them to study with! In spring of 1965 he wrote a proposal for funding by the Office of Equal Opportunity which would set up a summer program for children of preschool age up to those entering 2nd grade in September 1965. It would deal with learning readiness for children of poverty.
It was called Egual Start (the year before Head Start was initiated). It was Berkeley's special "Head Start" and owed its success to the careful, perceptiVe planning begun in April of that year.
Dr. Gilbert developed a completely new category of school personnel, a group of communitx aidesi - parents
of school children who were on welfare, whose children
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were on free lunch lists, or whom teachers judged were very close to the established "poverty line" but too proud to step over it. After recruiting these aides, he started a training course to‘teach them to go out into their communities, knock on any door, and seek out the children who might be eligible for the summer pro—
gram. They indulged in role playing. They were taught how to carry on an interview. After the interview they Were encouraged to "show and tell" and feed back any difficulties they had encountered, then helped to mrer— come them. They learned how to bring in children who were alienated and apart from the school system. They were taught by an experienced public health worker who had earned her SPLITS working with poor migrants in Merced County. A skilled guidance worker consulted with them also.
All during the spring, children recommended by these community aides were interVieWed and identified as eligible for the program under the same definition used to select the aides. When schools Opened that summer, eight classes, each having 20 to 22 children, were held in the west Berkeley schools, each headed by a principal and a guidance worker. Parent aides (parents of the children in these schools) were trained and ready to play an important part in this innovative, educational project. Two hundred and sixty parents attended the training sessions (only two dropped out), each parent
learning to prepare and serve nutritious cold 1uncheons at Very low cost, and part time in the classroom learn" ing to enjoy a comfortable feeling with "teacher" and giving much appreciated assistance. Bach parent also had to attend 12 to 14 sessions in group learning led by the guidance worker. There parent participants were encouraged to voice opinions and offer suggestions. They were introduced to Wilmont Sweeney, Negro city councilman, and Dr. Sullivan, Superintendent of Schools, who sat and talked with them. They took trips to the council chambers and to the administrative offices of the schools to see where things happened that daily affected the lives of them and their children. They were coached on how to ask pertinent questions and who were the proper people to query. In these ways they were given the tools needed to become participating clitizens and were respected as such. They were prepared for committee work and readied to be on the boards which, under the directiVes of the federal poverty programs, usually required "maximum participation of the poor." Dr. Gilbert reports that these very open sessions were, for most of the participants, a first experience in how democracy E1“ work.
Under the terms of the grant, each parent aide
received three dollars a day for each day she worked, to cover carfare and any baby-sitting expenses for that day,_
and at the end of the sessions received the amount left
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over from her guaranteed $60 stipend. Classes were designed to open up each child's
horizons- The community was the classroom. Field trips were an every—day matter: walking to the library to see what books they liked, bringing them back for teacher to read; going to a store to "buy like mother"; or watching other kids on a playground, and talking it all {War when they got back to "their room". They were told the walls
on their classrooms were to keep out stray cats and dogs
and not to "keep the world out". Some modified Montessori
methods were used. It was a happy time.
The program, now called Head Start, continued under the schools' jurisdiction for another three years, but the restrictions of EOOBA [Economic Opportunity Organization, Berkeley Area) became very trying and hard to adjust to. Their methods of check-up were difficult to handle and their rule that poverty incomes in Alabama should apply in Berkeley were unrealistic. Dr. Gilbert Visited Washington, D.C. to protest gestapo-like methods of checking up on anything. Eventually, as a result, Head Start programs were removed from the jurisdiction of the schools and run more directly under the local poverty program.
One of the most impressive pressure groups to demand the attention of the Board of Education at this period was a committed group of west Berkeley teachers
who felt the conditions in west Berkeley neighborhoods
and west Berkeley schools demanded a special hearing. They invited the Board to a workshop on November 9, 1965 to demonstrate "the significant and compelling problems that exist in our west Berkeley schools".
They attempted, from the point of view of the classroom teachers who daily experienced the reality of confrontation with the children of deprivation, to put forth "a compendiun of their concerns, an attempt to
shine a light where shadows haVe existed for too long". "We ask the Board to listen," they said, "to the depth of our concerns, the nature of our teaching situations
and our pleas for equal educational opportunities for
our children. "
Speaking for the community, Philip Dinsmore, a.
social worker from the district staff said:
Many of the children from southwest Berkeley suffer from an overall poverty of environment - visual, verbal and tactile — that inhibits or prevents learning, not just in kindergarten or first grade Ln-I- 1-4--- " ' ' V g but later on as well. Unless this sensory depriw vation is corrected, a child has a difficult time taking hold of. our middle—class curriculum and tends to fall farther and farther behind. Forty ,1: 1 - percent of Berkeley's children are in the four southwest Berkeley schools, leaving roughly 60% in the other ten. The schools are crowded, noisy, cold in winter, hot in summer, and the playgrounds are inadequate and run-down. The noise is over— whelming. Approximately 55-60% of children are from one—parent families. Many of the children sleep two or three in a bed and come from homes with inadequate toilet facilities. The school nurses indicate many children are suffering from inadequate nutrition, hunger pains, tension and inability to concentrate. A high proportion of the families live on less than $4,000 a year.
There is a high level of unemployment. Many are
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Entr'acte 1.964- 1.967
or; welfare [maximum allowance, $300 for a mother
kids) gnd some childi‘en, due to high
mobility, haye beep in ten schools in four )T'ears.
Teachers sesk psychplogical tests because they
gre confpsed with whether the children's problem
is mental retardation, or merely academic-feta?
due _to language problems_ and difficulty
with the school curriculum. Mr. Dinsmore suggested that for a solution to the pr0b~ lems of poverty and the way they affect the process of education, it would be necessary "to look down to the nursery school and beyond to the well-baby clinic".
Needs for speech therapy, greatly expanded parent nurseries, much smaller class size, released (but paid for) time for conferences and inservice training,ex13ansi0n of the social services and in—depth work with parents on health problems were vigorously and
compassionately expressed. Figures on the sources of students at McKinley (the continuation school] showed that 86% came from the west Berkeley schools. A comparison of the cost of elementary education in one of these schools (Franklin) with cost of education of a junior high student at Willard, and the contrast in class size, dramatically pointed out the handicaps under which elementary teachers worked.
Sandra Koger, a Negro teacher at Longfellow
School stated that many of these children brought with them to school a lack of learning readiness, a lack of
motivation, and a lack of any positive feelings about
themselves. They lacked perceptual and conceptual
skills. She stated that the traditional curriculum was not geared to meet their needs and noted "a cumulative defect in achievement at each and every grade level;
that, though the few preschool programs, attendance at small Head Start classes, and an occasional field trip were helpful, when followed by a regular kindergarten class of 30, they had very limited effects. "We must change the school," she said, "to meet the needs of the children, while at the same time we must develop their
skills to better meet the demands of the school."
The teachers gave one dramatic example after another of the handicaps their children brought to school, their inability to listen and to understand, and their own total inability - with large classes, few resources, little help and inadequate training — to meet the children’s needs. That they, the teachers, had understanding and compassion was indicated in every presentation. M05t had kind words for Head Start but questioned its continuing value when a Head Start child, who had been in a class of 15 to 19 children with five or six adults to help him, now had to be in a class of 30 with one adult. One teacher spoke of the warmth and responsiveness many children had when they first came to school but said that many, even in first grade, began to be hostile and withdrawn. She suggested some new, imaginative and creative .Ways to socialize children.
"We need to integrate our schools; we need to recognize
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all the good qualities of our children; we need to re— vamp teacher education."
Another teacher suggested that the children’s problems "may not initially be lack of motivation or interest on the part of the children, but a gradual build-up of apathy resulting from tiny increments of failure, experienced by children whose needs are not met by traditional techniques in traditional classroom situations ."
The most pressing educational problem expressed by all was the serious deficiency in reading, which negatively affected all other school work. Improvement in teaching of reading skills was definitely first priority. A n0n~reading child is a handicapped child. The Reading Achievement Committee recommended:
2. That elementary schools be integrated
3. That additional funds be made available for special materials and equipment
4. That teachers be trained for remedial instruc— tion by released time, inservicc training
5. That parents be involved and that additional specialists be provided (but onlx after class size had been reduced} These recommendations Were streséed by the whole workshop personnel, who demanded that more money be spent at the elementary leVel, and that there be an extension
and expansion of successful pilot programs.
Entr’acte 1964—1967
In conclusion, the workshop participants laid their heavy problems directly onto the shoeked, chastened and previously ill-informed members of the Board of Education. They challenged the Board to find the money, to lead the community to accept a higher tax rate and to accept integrated elementary schools.
The Board was not able to give an immediate, acceptable response to this shattering report on its west Berkeley elementary schools but later used this
material to help plan and execute a tax increase pro
posal in June 1966. It also was more deeply aware than
ever before of the need to convince the community of the necessity for integration of the elementary schools,
difficult though that would be.
But a new element had come into the picture with the award of Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title I funds from the Federal Govarnment. John Cleveland, formerly a teacher in Oakland, had been made director of ESEA for Berkeley in February 1965, and he was able to direct a sum of over $500,000 to help correct many of these nearly unsolvable problems. The west Berkeley schools were now designated "target area schools". Class Size was reduced and the pupil~ teacher ratio cut down. Parents of children in the
schools, following the successful experiment begun in
Equal Start, were employed and trained as teacher aides.
According to John Cleveland, the hiring of teacher aides
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Entr’acte 2964-1967
created a new feeling in the peeple of south and west Berkeley who had felt like outsiders from the mainstream, who had been rimmed with despair, anger and nagging doubts of self—Worth. Now they felt accepted. The regular public schools were saying to parents of that area: "We need you. We want you. You can give us something that no one else can."
ESEA funds after the first year (1966—67) made it possible in 1967—68 to hire 64 parents to work six hours a day in target area schools. Only parents from the school in their own neighborhood could apply; they had to have at least one child in the school, a low income or be jobless and with dim future prospects for employment. Even with all these requirements, 100 parents were eligible for eight job openings in one typical school. Mr. Cleveland described the objectives of the teacher aide project: It was created to break the isolation existing between the educators at school and the educators at home. ‘It was created to stimulate a new drive for learning in the pupil. It was created to kindle an awareness on the part of the school people of the life style of the community in which they are working — and the concerns; cares, backgrounds and aspirations of the peeple'in it. It
was created to bring new life t5 tile school, név}
The teachers welcomed the aides ahd both they and the aides took inservice training to help them work well together. The aides found particular satisfaction in working on a one—to-one basis with a child.
Mr. Cleveland explained:
Sometimes they just need to talk, one to one. What they have to say may not seem world shaking but it's important to them to be able to say it when they want to, and to have someone to listen and to respond. When a child has a chance to explain his feelings and maybe get a little Counseling from a parent who understands the condition he is living in, oftentimes it makes the difference between learning and not learn~ ing that school day. -
The presence of the parents in the schools for reasons other than because "Johnny was a naughty boy" or "teacher wants to see mama" was a revelation to the
teachers. They reported that they changed their atti
tudes about discipline, acceptable conduct and standards of speech, no longer making judgments about proper care of children until they had some knowledge of the background and living condition of these they were judging. They learned that physical punishment is often applied out of love and fear and from a background of need, that parents are determined their kids "stay in line" so as not to be stigmatized or punished by society, that parents often punish so children won't be vulner—
able to-punishrnent outside the home. And these parents learned to be comfortable about school, to speak out when they felt their opinions
should be heard, and even go to board meetings and
demand rights for their children.
The requirements for employment in Berkeley as a
parent classroom aide included qualities of interest,
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concern, understanding and willingness to communicate in a caring way with children. No parent was rejected on the basis of educational background.
The parent classroom aide program constituted
by far the largest component of the ESEA program that year (1965] in the target area schools. This meant more adults in the classroom to help, but smaller class size was still recognized as a top priority. An exper— iment in integrated education which would also reduce class siZe was planned, beginning in November 1965, to take children from the overcrowded target area schools and bus them to the least crowded of the hill schools. Negro parents had to decide whether they would allow their children — 238 in all — to go to the hill schools. They were asked, "What do you want for your children?" They replied: "To be happy." "To learn to get along with other kinds of people." "To haVe a better life
than we have ever had." "To learn how to live in the world the way it is." "To be able to get better jobs than we could." Some parents, confused as to the wise choice said: "But my child is happy here. He's doing well. Why should he be sent away?" One answer given was: "Because he's been happy here, he'll be happy there. That's why we’ve suggested him for transfer." And some parents replied, "Let's wait 'til he's bigger!"
By February 1966, the plan was put into effect.
The ESEA funds paid for the busing and the District paid
for the eleven extra teachers needed. The receiving schools spent hours preparing to be good hosts to their
new classmates. The children got along together beauti—
fully- An outside evaluation showed:
- A slight rise in achievement of Negro children
— N0 decline in white children's achievement
- Good feeling about social impact on children of both races
— 90% of white parents said "yes" to busing. After this program was evaluated, the ESEA Coordinator said: "The busing has allowed us the chance to show that integrated education is the only quality education.;" Communications with the home were greatly bet—
tered by the publication of a bi—monthly tabloid news
paper in each of the four target area schools, using ESEA funds. These papers were profusely illustrated and in a simple and sympathetic way told the story of what was going on daily in the classrooms. Florence Douthit was their editor. Their titles were delightful:
The Franklin Stove, Tales from Longfellow, The Lincoln
Log, and The Voice of Columbus.
Concurrently with these too-little and almost too-late improvements in the target area schools, important changes were going ahead in related areas - Early Childhood Education and Special Education. Dr. Sullivan was a wise reorganizer. He found that the parent
nurseries, which had been in existence since 1950, were
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administered under the Adult School, with parents as the registrants. The six state—supported child care centers (established under the national Landreth Act during war time for the benefit of mothers working f0 the war effort) on the other hand Were independently administered by Mrs. Barbara Gleason under the original direction of Mr. Bert Campbell, Assistant Superintendent of Schools. The whole picture was confusing.
Recagnizing the growing importance of Early Childhood Education as an essential foundation for later learning, especially for children of deprived backgrounds, Dr. Sullivan urged the Board to create a Department of Early Childhood Education, including what— ever classes and schools fell into this general category, and to appoint Mrs. Mary Anne Kimball (now Kojan) as Director. Mrs. Kimball had been a teacher and program
consultant. She was to run these schools under the top— level administration of Harriett Wood, Director of Ele—
mentary Education.
Parents who were intimately involved in these Early Childhood Education classes were quick to see the need for their expansion and particularly the value of early integration before prejudice could start and grow. Willard Parent Nursery parents became a potent pressure group on behalf of integrated education at this early age. They not only petitioned the Board to form more
classes and to work out with the City continued use of
their facility on Regent Street (an old, spacious, homey brown-shingle house owned by the City and rented to the School District) but also raised money for scholarships to enable minority parents to attend the required hours
in the cooperative nurseries. Many a board meeting was
enlivened by mini-skirted or blue-jeaned young mothers and quite a few fathers, wearing large colorful badges
to identify themselves and their cause. Garfield Parent Nursery. also established an integrated pilot program to demonstrate the value of such a class.
In February 1969, the Early Childhood Education Department was given a great boost when the Berkeley Day Nursery School, founded in 1903, turned over its beauti— ful building and play areas on Sixth Street to the School District, which put them to immediate use as a
Children ' 5 Center.
That year, too, a state-funded program (AB-1331)
for children from "aid to dependent children" families
involved parents from those families in working coopera—
tively with regularly registered fee-paying parents and
children by combining the new AB-1331 families with its
already existing parent nurseries. The parents who registered in the parent nursery classes on a regular basis paid the usual fee. They were chosen for accept—
ance in order of registration from long waiting lists,
although circumstances occasionally dictated deviation from set rules. In the nuISery school classes themselves
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Entr’acte 1964—1967
there was absolutely no difference in treatment or atti— tude for any parents and children, whether they were AB-1331 parents or fee—paying parents, and the mixture of the two groups gave a beautiful mixture of minority and majority group children.
At the time the Department of Early Childhood Education was established in 1965, there were 270 children in parent nursery classes and 215 in children's centers. Today there are 450 in the 18 parent nursery classes [including the AB~1331 children} and 305 in the children's centers.
The satisfaction and increased sense of compe— tence of the parents and staff and the high level of trust that has developed are largely doe to a policy of decentralization of administration into smaller units which can work closely together. Children are able to receive a deeper and wider range of response to their separate needs. Parents are able to speak up and have a recognizable impact. They, too, go to school board meetings and do not hesitate to ask for what they feel is due them.
The excellence of Berkeley's Department of Early Childhood Education has been recognized by Dr. Wilson Riles, State Superintendent Public Instruction.
Mary Anne Kojan was a valued member of a state-wide study committee in this field and also serves as coordi
nator of a demonstration day care project funded by E00,
one of ten school programs selected from 200 surveyed for a two—year grant for replicable models. Parents trained in these early childhood classes played a vital role in develOpment of a comprehensive plan for child care in Berkeley, jointly supported by the School
District and the City. The Hadsell Committee had recommended more day care centers and so had the west
Berkeley teachers group. Dreams were beginning to become realities.
At the same time, the Special Education field was moving ahead under its new director, Robert White— nack [formerly a teacher of aphasic children and speech therapist) who was appointed in 1966. time, there had been excellent classes for blind children, aphasic children and children with speech difficulties. HQWever, it was not until all special education classes and the high potential program were put under one
director that it was possible to see the total picture
clearly; not was it possible to pay for this type of expensive education until the State permitted special funding [State excess override tax) to meet the needs of the many children whose problems could not be met by just the usual methods.
The potential demonstrated by a privately devel— oped nursery school for trainable mentally retarded
youngsters, supported by the parents and the Service
Guild for Retarded Youngsters, led the parents to
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petition the Board of Education to include their chil— dren’s important and expensive education in the public school program. The District responded affirmatively and started a Trainable Mentally Retarded (TMR)* class at Longfellow School. Today an expanded program for 65 trainable mentally retarded children is housed in bungalows at King Junior High campus.
Classes for slow learners (EMR) or Educable Mentally Retarded“ children had been held since 1947 in some of the all-Negro elementary schools, at Burbank Junior High and at the high school. One psychologist was added to the staff in 1947 to help in identifying children in need of special education. The aphasic class, Open to pupils from other locations in the county, was begun in 1959-60 and located at Le Conte School.
Work experience classes and opportunities were opened in 1959-60 for high school EMR students and an excellent effort was begun to train and place these high—school—age young people in remunerative jobs, leading to later employment pessibilities. The students worked in laundries, at the animal shelter, Alta Bates Hospital, the Post Office, Hinks and Pennys department stores, restaurants and the School District warehouse.
*TMR — Trainable MenPally Retarded - those with severe
learning prob lems '.
MEMR - Educable Mentally Retarded — those with learning n-r-nkinvm- ._...:11 . .- .
problems but still able to regular school programs. '
By 1962 an experienced team (psychologist, social worker, doctor, speech therapist and curriculum specialist) was assembled to help students and their families request or accept needed help. In 1963—64 a class for the Educable Mentally Retarded was opened at Hillside School, giving recognition to the fact that some Caucasians.were retarded too! The next year a similar class was started at Garfield and the one at Lincoln was closed.
Questions were beginning to be raised regarding the identification of retarded children. Were the tests fair to Black and Chicano kids? Were language problems holding them back? Was prenatal care or poor nutrition at the root of seeming retardation? More psychologists were added in 1965—66, and by 1966—67 a group of nine were available to help discover just what the capacities of students were, to determine when they could move on to regular classrooms, and to recommend how best to help them develop.
These nine psychologists were able to do a much more careful job of identification of student disabili— ties. As a result, the number formerly classified as Educable Mentally Retarded was reduced almost 50% to 70 so classified. The psychologists had discovered that many of the Chicano youngsters formerly classified as EMR really had language problems, not low academic
ability, and many other children had learning problems,