Kitchen-Table Teaching : Principal to Take Message of Praise to Inner-City

Last week, with the smell of nearby agriculture heavy in the air, the principal of Valley Center Middle School was perched on the banister outside a school bungalow, cajoling the kids to hurry into the classroom to begin working with him.

In September, Paul White hopes instead to be roaming the dingy hallways of an inner-city school, applying his enthusiasm and sense of mission to a whole school full of low-achieving students rather than to one or two classes.

Not that the Messianic White hasn’t enjoyed his special sixth-period sessions, where he liberally mixes praise with criticism while moving among the 16 seventh-and eighth-graders, checking their progress in other classes, offering help on a writing or math assignment, and scolding those who have not yet organized their schedule to finish longer-term projects on time.

His efforts--in addition to the normal routine of a principal--have turned around the academic world of these students, many of them minority and all of whom previously achieved at low levels. Every one of the youngsters volunteered for the daily class that White created to employ more of his many ideas about helping at-risk students.

But White no longer is satisfied with his accomplishments in Valley Center, a North County citrus and avocado center which, despite pressures of population growth in recent years, has far fewer of the big-city problems such as dropouts, drugs and child abuse that bedevil urban schools.

The 37-year-old White wants to be administering at an inner-city school next fall, leaving behind the 600-student middle school where teachers and administrators from urban districts fiercely compete for occasional openings.

Applications Are Out

In February, White resigned his Valley Center post effective June 30, despite entreaties from district administrators urging him to stay. White has applied for positions with several urban school districts around the country and while he has no firm offers yet, his confidence in landing a desired job stems from the same philosophy he drums into his students.

“I tell myself what I tell every kid I’ve ever counseled,” said White, whose devotion to education has touched every staff member in Valley Center, whether they agree or disagree with his tenure. “I don’t believe that God would give me or anyone else the capabilities that we have and not allow us to apply them to our lives.”

Assistant Superintendent Jeff Mulford, who as the previous principal hired White as his assistant, said, “I’ve never met anyone quite like Paul . . . he has no personal time constraints, he takes kids on trips, he’s practically adopted a few.”

Continued Mulford: “Most of us spend our lives trying to get to a place like Valley Center,” pointing to the school’s high test scores, few discipline problems, as well as attractive physical plant of large playgrounds, a pool, and an experimental farm. The school district, with the middle school and two elementary schools, is about 65% white and 35% minority, consisting of Latinos and Native Americans.

“But Paul sincerely believes that he can do more for mankind by going to the inner-city.”

‘Run for His Money’

Patty Christopher taught several years in urban schools, including Baker Elementary in Southeast San Diego, before coming to Valley Center. Now the assistant principal, she said that White “is going to have a real run for his money in handling an urban school.”

“Those schools can really use someone like Paul . . . and I think it’s great that people like him are willing to try.”

But White recoils from being labeled as idealistic.

“I think that is the lowest blow you can give me,” he said. “Calling me idealistic is to write off people like myself. Realism is believing that all schools can offer productive education and that all students can be productively educated.”

In addition, White did not make his decision unaware of the pitfalls in urban areas. Before coming to Valley Center as an administrator, he spent eight years in Vallejo, a blue-collar city north of San Francisco, motivating so-called “problem” elementary students.

In Vallejo he honed the approach that has won him plaudits from students and, albeit grudgingly at times, from colleagues.

White calls his style “surrogate kitchen-table parenting.”

When he first started teaching, White found himself intrigued that while parents are able to talk to and discipline their children and still receive affection, teachers and administrators have always found it hard to correct kids and still command respect.

“But it dawned on me that parents achieve because when things go well for a kid, the child gets limitless congratulations,” White said. “So as a teacher I can give out hard-rock discipline when necessary, but also there is no limit to my praise if they do well, either.”

The turning point came on a Friday two weeks into his first class, a hard-to-discipline group about to be dismissed for the weekend. White was explaining that he never leaves the house without telling his wife that he loves her, because he never knows if that might be the last time he sees her.

“So I told the class I wanted them all to have a good weekend and that I loved all of them,” White recalled. “At first, I thought they might think I was the biggest idiot in the world, but instead, you could have heard a pin drop in that class.

“And after that, I never had problems. But the first commitment was mine, that I was willing to let the kids know that they are loved, but also that I was there to peer over their shoulder, as a parent should, and keep them in line as well.”

Walks a Fine Line

Mulford said that White walks “the fine line between discipline and caring about as well as anyone I have seen. He plays the parent role beautifully and the kids know that he is sincere.”

Veteran Valley Center teacher Donna Sowers praised White for helping students understand how to organize their study and how to take responsibility for their work. Colleague Taide Pereyra said White has devoted more of his own time and money to working with students than anyone she has seen.

“He’ll shake them up wherever he goes because he is always giving 150%,” teacher Val Taylor said. “They’ll either love him or hate him.”

If White has shortcomings, Sowers and others said any faults come from impatience.

“Sometimes I think that he might have been better off to stay here another year, to learn more about building relationships with the staff similar to those easily exemplified in those he has with the kids,” Sowers said.

“I understand he has a strong mission to succeed, but I think that every person on a staff has a similar mission, but may go about it in a quieter way.”

Mulford said that the transition from assistant principal to principal is difficult because the top position presents a much broader spectrum of ideas and requirements in working with people.

“But Paul has no personal ego involved and I think he has grown tremendously,” Mulford said.

White himself said that administration “is an ongoing lesson” and that he has learned that more can be accomplished when credit is spread liberally. But at the same time, he said that “nothing will change (at a school) unless I and everyone else will change and give our best efforts. . . . in too many cases, we haven’t given our best efforts.

“My strongest calling is to be with the most difficult kids and I, along with everyone else, must be willing to pay the cost and personal sacrifice involved in education.”

Mulford has applied to school districts in Santa Ana, Los Angeles, Whittier, San Francisco, Oakland, Memphis and Detroit. His three letters to Oakland were never answered and his three to Detroit resulted only in a mimeographed flier giving details on substitute teaching.

“I guess those experiences are indicative of the problems that education has,” White said.

But both San Francisco and Whittier have responded with interest, he said. White had an interview in the Bay Area this past week and will be part of a second round of interviews in Whittier for an opening as principal of a continuation high school.

“No matter where I go, there will be no magic to what I do--just hard work, sacrifice, going toe-to-toe with students, rewarding students, in essence breaking down goals into workable parts and getting everyone involved,” White said.