Sgt. Sanchez Reports for School Duty

When students at Pioneer High School in Whittier discovered their science teacher, Gilbert Sanchez, was a military man, they opened fire on him.

Only this bombardment came in the form of questions: Did they teach you how to kill? Can you blow stuff up? Can you fly a fighter jet? Where have you traveled? And on and on.

Sanchez, who became a chemistry, biology and physics teacher three years ago through the U.S. Department of Defense Troops to Teachers program, tries to answer those questions. But he doesn’t want his own experience to distract students from their lessons.

“Teaching is definitely a lot more challenging than the military because, in class, you always have to be on your toes. You’re dealing with 35 different individuals who have 35 different personalities. In the military, it is much more uniform and very structured,” said Sanchez, a former sergeant who spent six years in the Air Force.

He is among more than 4,600 military personnel who have moved into teaching through the Troops to Teachers program since its founding in 1993. In California, 400 teachers entered the profession that way, including 60 this year, officials say.

The federal program was founded at a time when the armed forces were being downsized, and the military was hunting for jobs for its honorably discharged personnel. Schools like the idea as a way to find instructors with positive life experiences and an ability to work with young people, particularly those with discipline problems.

The program lost fuel in 1996 after most funding was phased out. Last year, President Bush revived it, increasing funding by $11 million, with an additional $18 million due this year, mainly to pay tuition bills for former military people going back to school for teaching credentials.

“It has really been a shot in arm. Programs are gearing up again, “ said Cindy Moore, director of the California Troops to Teachers division. “It helps teacher shortages, and these men and women are positive role models in public schools.”

In addition, she said, many former military people are willing to teach in inner-city schools and “they’re often experts in math and science, which are high-need areas.”

Under the program, retired or honorably discharged military personnel who have college degrees can get $5,000 to $10,000 for additional courses for teaching credentials. And any veteran who agrees to teach for three years in a high-need school, usually in overcrowded or high-poverty areas, can receive $10,000 toward tuition.

Nancy Brownell, director of the California Center for Teaching Careers, a recruitment service administered by the California State University that works with the program, said efforts such as Troops to Teachers are succeeding.

Although the downturn in other sectors of the economy has also channeled more people into teaching, Troops to Teachers moves educated, talented, reliable adults into classrooms, she said. “One of the things that is advantageous to the teaching field is broader experience, and those who are leaving the military bring a rich history of life experience to classroom,” she said.

In California, teachers recruited through Troops to Teachers often work near military bases, Moore said, for convenience in case they get recalled to duty.

Sanchez, a father of three, still serves in the National Guard. His Whittier school is about an hour west of March Air Force Base in Riverside, where he is stationed.

Sanchez said he took advantage of the program because teaching came naturally to him during his Air Force duties.

He earned his undergraduate degree at Whittier College and a master’s degree and teaching credential from the University of La Verne.

In high school and college, Sanchez tutored fellow students, and in the military he trained beginner troops on how to use explosives. Instructing teenagers to identify DNA or make rockets is really no different from teaching recruits how to handle a bomb safely, he said.

The high school’s principal, Roberta Berg, said she hopes to hire more military people like Sanchez. “He is a great teacher, and he has a wonderful rapport with the students,” she said.

Sanchez, 31, does not bring a military bearing to his classes. He appears even-tempered and remarkably respectful toward his students, addressing each one as “sir” or “ma’am.”

“I expected him to be like one of those drill sergeants,” said student Vanessa Estralla, 16, who found out he is not the rigid leader she envisioned.

Sanchez says the Air Force prepared him for the many personalities in a 1,500-student school. In the military “a lot of times you get thrown together with different people from different parts of the world. You have to figure out how to work together,” said Sanchez, who has served in Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, France and Spain.

But he didn’t know how much teenagers turn to teachers, particularly science teachers, for personal advice about issues, including sex. “They ask you about things they might not ask about at home,” he said.

Sanchez’s classroom walls are covered with photo collages of shells, skulls, dinosaur bones and plants. A poster reads: “Remember, amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic.”

The only hint of his military alter-ego is a figurine of a decorated U.S. Air Force member holding a small jet fighter, on a shelf. That was given to him as a goodbye gift from a student when he was sent to France for three weeks by the National Guard two years ago.

His students know he may have to serve in Turkey if the U.S. goes to war with Iraq.

“It’s scary to them, so I try not to talk about it,” he said. But when students ask why he must go, he tells them: “I’m defending their way of life.”

If Sanchez returns to military service, “I’ll miss him, he’s a good teacher,” said student Valarie McRoberts, 17. “It’s good to help [the country] but it’s sad because he’s the coolest teacher here.”