THE LOS ANGELES TEACHERS’ STRIKE : Class at Home Allows Teacher to Fulfill Two Commitments

While most teachers in Los Angeles are walking picket lines this week, elementary school instructor Mayra Fernandez came up with a way to remain in class with her students and still honor the strike. She teaches at home.

At 8 a.m. each day, an hour on the picket line at Humphreys Elementary School behind her, the 47-year-old bilingual educator, who describes teaching as her “mission,” greets a dozen of her fourth- and fifth-grade students at one of their homes.

The students speak very little English and so they affectionately call the makeshift campus, set up in a sparsely furnished living room in East Los Angeles, La Escuelita-- Spanish for “the Little School.”

Fernandez said she established La Escuelita because she wanted her young charges to keep learning during the strike, but could not in good conscience cross the picket lines.

The Best She Can Be

“I made a commitment to my students and their parents to be the best teacher I can be, but I also need to remain true to my beliefs as a union member,” declared Fernandez, herself a mother of 12.

On Wednesday, the 9- and 10-year-olds met Fernandez at classmate Yeny Vergara’s house, deluging her with hearty hugs and kisses. Afterward, some of the children stretched out on the living room floor while others crowded on a worn velour couch to practice arithmetic and reading lessons, which included renditions of “Romeo and Juliet.”

With only passing complaints about missing their school chums and wishing the temporary classroom was air-conditioned, the students eagerly acted out Peruvian fables they had studied and played games designed to help them learn English.

“All the lessons (at La Escuelita) are the same as those we normally do in school,” said Fernandez, who has been a teacher for 23 years.

“We even have recess like regular school,” said a smiling 9-year-old Manuel Calderon, who was wearing a California Angels baseball cap. “But, the best part is we get to go to the park at lunch and then to the library.”

Wavy-haired Diana Ibarra, 10, added, “I like being with Miss Fernandez more than a substitute. Things are crazy at school right now, but at La Escuelita we can study like always and still have fun.”

Fernandez said she has watched sadly this week as other students ditched classes in their teachers’ absence. Some, including a few of her own who do not attend La Escuelita, are herded into auditoriums for seemingly endless art and physical education classes, she complained.

“I refused to let that happen to my students,” she said. “I’ve put a lot of work and time into getting them this far and I don’t want that to go down the tubes because of this strike.”

Fernandez, who is recognized by her colleagues for her creativity, began organizing La Escuelita last week after deciding she would find some way to support the strike.

“I wrote up permission forms and medical forms, then met with all my (students’) parents,” Fernandez explained. Most of the parents consented to the idea of a home school and district officials did nothing to stop it.

“I planned to have the classes at my home, but many of the parents did not have transportation, so they offered their homes,” Fernandez said.

On Wednesday, for instance, Yeny’s guardian, Adelina Colula, who immigrated to this country from Mexico last year, hosted the class. As Colula prepared sandwiches and glasses of milk in the kitchen, she said, “I am so glad Yeny has a teacher like Miss Fernandez. I am so fascinated by her energy and her true affection for the kids.”

Fernandez’s colleagues, picketing outside Humphreys, seem to share that fascination and each morning they send her off to La Escuelita with supportive pats on the back.

“I think what she is doing is fantastic. I’m awed by the woman. I certainly didn’t think of doing anything like that,” said Sylvia Stachera, a kindergarten teacher at Humphreys. “She is being true to her beliefs as a unionist and a teacher.”

But the handful of Fernandez’s students, who have remained in class at Humphreys with a substitute, hate to see her walk away each morning.

“When are you coming back?,” one long-faced youngster asked.

“Very soon, sweetheart,” answered Fernandez, hugging him. “But, I want you to be a good boy and study hard until then.”

Also contributing to coverage of the teachers’ strike were Times staff writers Sam Enriquez, Larry Gordon, John Mitchell, Sheryl Stolberg, Rochelle Wilkerson, Paul Feldman and Elaine Woo.