CYPRESS : Teens Share Own Verities With Class

For students in Donna Barasch’s fourth-period English class, it started out as just another lesson. A slight reprieve from Shakespeare, spelling tests and the verb always agreeing with the subject. But still an assignment.

What resulted was far more than basic grammar. Rather, it is a personal glimpse into the lives and lessons learned by 10 high school students who spend an hour or so each day in Room 113.

The lessons are about buying your first car, taking your girlfriend to the prom and fighting with your little sister. Learning that life isn’t always fair and that high school isn’t always fun. It’s about being a kid in 1993.

“I think sometimes teen-agers don’t realize that some lessons in life you learn on your own,” said Barasch, who has been teaching for 15 years. “They are not found in school.”

Barasch got the idea from a poster in her room that says “Live, Learn and Pass It On” and offers bits of wisdom from people aged 5 to 95.

She decided to let her students give it a try to get them thinking beyond their textbooks. In order to get credit, each student had to write 10 “life lessons” they had culled from their 16-, 17- and 18-year-old lives.

What she discovered delighted and sometimes surprised her, Barasch said. In their simple words, the youths had some very important and often profound things to say.

“I’ve learned that you should fight for your right to be free,” reads No. 8 on Jason Gehrman’s list, which follows the proclamation that Carl’s Jr. has the best hamburgers.

Gathered in a circle last week, Gehrman and his classmates shared what they had written. In the room where they talked, the walls are decorated with world maps and human anatomy diagrams, leftovers from a class that meets earlier in the day.

Some of the students offer typical examples of teen-age Angst , while other offerings, like Gehrman’s, are serious insights into what it is like to be a youngster today.

The lesson about standing up for one’s rights is something that the 17-year-old learned this year when he decided to confront another student on campus for making racist remarks; it ended up in a fight. “He kept saying things that weren’t true,” said Gehrman, an outspoken senior. “He was a racist.”

His experience left him a little wiser. At least wise enough to surmise that basic rights need to be protected and, as he puts it in No. 2 on his list, if you stand up to someone they will usually hit you.

David Horrie has discovered the ocean. “I’ve learned that the ocean is one of the most beautifulist places in the world” reads No. 3 on his list.

Horrie and his bodysurfing buddy David (Little D) Ramirez take the bus to Laguna Beach to catch the waves. The 10th-graders are working on getting their licenses so they can drive Horrie’s VW Bug on their treks to the sea.

“My mom says if I get good grades and go to all my classes, I can get my license in May,” said Ramirez with a grin.

While many of the lessons are serious and include the importance of friends, families and, yes, even school, some of the wisdom these students have gotten is just plain practical.

Take Frank Speer, who has learned how to do his laundry. But most important, the senior has learned never to mix red with white clothes in the washer.

“My underwear turned all red,” said Speer, clad in a green sweat shirt and baseball cap. “My girlfriend looks at my socks and they are all pink. I hate that.”