Platform

Thousands of high school students across the country are participating today in the Academic Decathlon, a battle of the brains that the students have been preparing for all semester. Among them will be 18 students from the continuation school program of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Continuation schools offer a second chance for students who have dropped out of regular high schools for reasons ranging from pregnancy to discipline. They allow students to learn at their own pace in smaller class settings from 8 a.m. to noon.

Coached by teachers Ed Soos and Robert Spencer, the Options continuation school team members come from all over the city. Five of the team members talked with MAKI BECKER at Patriotic Hall, south of downtown L.A., where the decathlon members meet daily, substituting their intensive practice sessions for normal classes at several different schools.

MARIA HERNANDEZ

17, East Los Angeles

I am a mother. My baby is 10 months old. I’m also a wife. I’ve been married for three years already. I work, too. I have a part-time job as a bookkeeper for a car dealer. I dropped out of school for six months but now I’m already where I’m supposed to be with my credits. I decided to do continuation school because I wanted to spend a little bit more time with my son.

I wanted to do academic decathlon because it’s something different. I got to meet new people. It’ll look good for a college application and on an employment application.

The best part is the competition. It’s a challenge to me to see how much I can do with how much I have learned.

The music is the best part. We have learned about Brahms and Handel and old guys like that. We’re not used to hearing that kind of music. But when you start learning about it, you kind of get interested and you start buying their tapes. I bought the “Messiah.”

I’m able to do it partly because my mom helps me out a lot. My husband’s mom helps me, too. She takes care of the baby while I go to school and to work. I get off at 7 and I pick up my son and then make dinner and everything. When my husband gets home he helps me with the baby and the cleaning.

I want to be a kindergarten teacher. I plan to go to a junior college and then to college. A lot of teachers have made a difference in my life. I want to make a difference in somebody else’s kid’s life.

KIYOMI HANEJI

18, Boyle Heights

I am at continuation school because I need the credits. In my junior and senior years, I really lagged. Got caught up in the wrong crowd. I needed to transfer out of Roosevelt High; it was just such a huge school. Right now, I’m just a junior in credits, though I’m supposed to be graduating.

The atmosphere here at academic decathlon is really cool. At first, it was kind of like, “I don’t want to be here.” There were people from different schools. The whole rejection thing. But everybody gets along really well. Our decathlon coaches, Soos and Spencer, are great.

I was watching interviews on KCET, Channel 28, with director John Lasseter and Steve Jobs. They are computer people--Steve Jobs [started] Apple computers and Lasetter did the movie “Toy Story”--and I totally knew what they were talking about because that’s what we are learning in academic decathlon. I said, “Yeah, this is cool,” and my brother was like, “You’re a nerd.”

My parents think this is great. Before, they would put a curfew on me but now they let me stay out later. Now, I do my homework and my chores. I think it’s made me focus more. Now, I’m getting into the habit of studying every day.

RUBEN NAVARRETE

17, South Gate

I started continuation school about nine months ago. Before that, I had been out of school for two years.

After about six months I found out they wanted me to come to academic decathlon and I was willing to go with it all the way. We all met each other here [at the practice room] and ever since then, we have been working.

Everybody is from a continuation school so there is a sense of togetherness. We know where we are coming from.

We’re not all bad students. We are just kids who had a tough break in life. Academic decathlon is the best experience I’ve had in all my life with school. I’ve never learned so much in so little time. It’s fun. We drill ourselves just to learn and to prepare for the big day.

The superquiz this year is about the information revolution. Before I came into this, I already had a background in computers. I own one and I know about hacker ethics. I think hacking is part of a teen’s life. I like learning about it. All of a sudden, I can find it all in books. It was wonderful knowing that.

Our team has this driving force. In previous years, there was very little expectation for us and very low scores also. I guess they messed around a lot. This year, I think we will contend somewhere in the top 10. At least we can surpass the past years and shake off that continuation school ethic.

JOSHUA CAMPOS

17, South-Central Los Angeles

This is my first year in continuation school, actually. It’s also going to be my last year. After this, I’m going to graduate.

I enrolled in continuation school because I didn’t graduate on time. At first, I was looking at it as a bad thing. But otherwise I would never have had a chance to do this academic decathlon.

I think this is something every kid should do--the whole idea of being in a team with other people. It’s like a whole family. It’s harder to find something like that in [regular] high school.

They say that we are going to be competing against the top schools. It’s kind of nerve-racking to hear that. My goal is get a high score on the superquiz. I also want to get a medal in speech. My speech is about protest art. It’s about the punk movement and the Dadaist art movement, comparing those two. I got really into it.

My goals for the future are to first go to community college and then to UC Santa Cruz to study literature. I write poetry and fiction. I want to be an English literature major so I can also teach.

VITA TECHACHAIPONPOJ

17, Woodland Hills

I have never had to study this much before this. It’s a lot of work. Every day you go home and you have four hours of homework. But I like it. It makes me feel like I’m actually using my brain.

My favorite topics are fine arts and computers.

I’ve never listened to classical music before in my life. First, it was like, “Classical music, what is this?” But when you start listening to it, it’s fascinating. I like Mussorgsky. It’s dark.

Everyone is really relaxed. We all have gotten to get to know each other better now. My parents love it. They think that I’m doing really good now.

After this, I still need credits to graduate so I’m going to go back to El Camino Real and graduate from there.