Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Palmdale Teacher Honored at the White House : Education: Richard Chapleau, lauded as state’s top instructor, aims to pass along encouragement and optimism to youths.

Richard Chapleau, 40, became a high school teacher only six years ago, after waiting tables and an assortment of odd jobs. Nothing that Chapleau, who now teaches chemistry at Palmdale High School, did during his pre-teacher years made him a likely candidate to be honored in the White House Rose Garden.

But on Friday, he was there as California’s Teacher of the Year, honored with his counterparts from around the country by President Clinton and Education Secretary Richard Riley.

“It’s up there with the top four in my life,” said Chapleau after the ceremony. “It comes right after getting married and my children.”

Clinton, who used the ceremony to focus briefly on the anti-terrorism initiatives he has proposed in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, lauded the group of teachers as the front line in the push for an educational system that meets the challenges of a global economy.

“We owe it to the children of this country to make sure each of them has the best possible education,” the President said.

Chapleau said in an interview that he aims to pass along encouragement and optimism in the classroom. He also did some of that in the Oval Office, where he thanked the President for keeping the country out of war in Haiti.

“I told him he was my hero for that,” said Chapleau. “There are not enough thank-yous in the world. The reward of saying thank you is priceless.”

Chapleau also thanked Alaska’s Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles when the two crossed paths after the ceremony. With the energy that helped bring him Teacher of the Year honors, Chapleau showered the governor with praise for “being in public service.”

Knowles was escorting Alaskan educator Elaine Griffin, the 1995 National Teacher of the Year, from Chiniak School on Kodiak Island. A team teacher in a one-room schoolhouse, Griffin was singled out for the national honor in part because of her efforts outside the classroom.

Chapleau is a San Fernando Valley native who dropped out of a graduate program in molecular biology at Cal State Northridge when a girlfriend broke up with him. The shake-up led him to several jobs, finally that of an electrician.

After teaching training classes for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Engineers, Chapleau knew he’d found his calling. He pursued a teaching credential and landed in the science lab at Palmdale High School.

As the state’s Teacher of the Year, he is called upon often to speak throughout California, lugging the class papers he needs to grade along with him.

“The worst part,” Chapleau said, “is that the most honored class has the most absent teacher.”