Taking the ferry over from Kingston to visit the Pike Place Marker. Spot the Space Needle through the window.

While Hanging Out At The Pike's Place Market Is As Wild As a Toad -- Or Should I Say -- Crab Ride, The Luscious Lavender Fields Brim With Peace and Purple Beauty On The Olympic Peninsula

Sometimes called the Soul of Seattle, Pikes opened officially at First Avenue and Pike Street in 1907 after residents showed the need  to buy directly from product producers. On the first day it opened, everything sold out and hundreds of citizens left empty handed. Today, the market touts 200 businesses, along with 190 craftsman and and 100 farmers.

When Pike's was suffering a drop in visitors, Pike's Fish Co. restored the interest of thousands with its fish-throwing antics, a treat to watch. They often toss the fish to each other and have an audience on the sidelines waiting just to witness their humorous sales techniques.

San Pedro High Teacher, Lupe Franco (left), myself in the center, and former San Pedro High Culinary Teacher Sandy Conley Wood who recently moved up to Puyallup, Washington gathered to check out the Pike in a small reunion.

A touch of goods that can be sought or caught at Pike's from fresh fish to crabs and farmed crops as shown below..

A trash bin filled to the brim with locally gathered crabs. Now, that is fresh.

Returning to the Olympic Peninsula on the numerous waterways that surround the area.

Now, the luscious lavender fields of the Olympic Peninsula; Did You Know You Can Eat It!?

The fields, brushed in royal purple, beckon these women to walk through them at Purple Haze Lavender field.

The Purple Haze Lavender farm above and below was a special treat because not only were there stunning views of bundles of purple haze, but it served several types of delicious lavender ice cream. My favorite was the lemon-lavender.

We also enjoyed the Olympic Lavender farm where the owners keep a variety of fun and reasonably priced gifts,. Owners Mary Borland-Liebsch and her husband, Bruce Liebsch, enjoy their farm and even show its hundreds of visitors how to distill lavender oil. Below, he shows off a bottle that he just collected.Visit their website for lavender recipes at http://www.olympiclavender.com

A SHORT TRIP TO VANCOUVER OUT OF SEATTLE SHOWS US A STUNNING ARRAY OF BEAUTY FROM CITY SCENES TO WILDLIFE AT ONE OF THE LARGEST URBAN PARKS IN ALL OF NORTH AMERICA

We stayed at the Riviera Hotel, where we visited 15 years ago. This time, we had a spectacular view and a rather large room hugging the downtown area within walking distance to Stanley Park. The 
natural gem was dedicated as green space before anyone ever thought of that name, opening in 1888. It's laced with hiking trails, thousands of trees from spruce to cedar. It can take more than a week just checking out its hiking trails and historic beauty. This spot, is like a giant arm off the city of Vancouver.

A baby river otter crawls out on a rock along Stanley Park to eat a clam. His mother is teaching him to fish.. He was born in the woods and ventured out into the Burrard Inlet for the learning sessions, park naturalists told us. Below is the other baby eating a freshly caught fish.

 

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Ryan walks along the shoreline at Stanley Park. The Canadian Geese have arrived and claimed the beach in this section of this urban wilderness. A seawall skirts the entire park for 5.5 miles taking in spectacular views all along the way.

A carved dragon overlooks the inlet at the park.

Vancouver's forefathers saw the gem they had in the woods and created the park forevermore for the citizens of the city to enjoy to this day. About eight million visitors attend a year. The park still has wild animals, including racoons, coyotes, mink, bald eagles and many other animals.

A bald eagle takes flight at the Vancouver Aquarium, a way to show that the once nearly deceased birds due to pesticides are at last making a comeback. This bird was a rescue and will remain at the aquarium for the rest of its life.

One of four Beluga Whales at the Vancouver Aquarium teach visitors about the safety these whales need to survive. A baby was born there recently and unlike the older whales, is gray. They turn white with age. The song Baby Beluga came from one of the whales at the aquarium, according to sources.

Ryan gets ready for a cruise to see the orcas (or killer whales) that are local residents off the Canadian San Juana Islands. Unlike transient killer whales, who eat mammals such as sea lions and whales and will kill in a pack, local orcas are happy to subsist only on fish, primarily salmon.

Spotting a pod of orcas off the coast in the Georgia Straight., we watched them
  breach, slap their flukes and fins, and show off their calves. Calves breached playfully many times o as we watched from a Vancouver  whale watch boat.

WITH ONE YEAR LEFT TO GO, WE BEGIN EXPLORING UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON FOR OUR SON, RYAN; IT'S A SCARY AND EXHILARATING THOUGHT AT THE SAME TIME

University of Washington's nicknames this library:  "The Harry Potter Reading Room." With it's Gothic appearance, perhaps you can see why.

The Space Needle that has graced Seattle's skyline since 1961.

Ryan and his Dad, Jim, to left, with Cousin Ava, 12, to the right pondering future years at the university. She says she wants to go there to achieve a double major in English literature and history.

A large fountain that graces the  heart of the university can flaunt majestic views of Mount Rainer on clear days. Parents and potential students listen to a tour guide explaining the school's system..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Ryan's mind, no school is complete without a football team. So we peeked into the closed stadium to peer at the University of Washington's football team, the Huskies.

 Whom Should We Pick Among the Candidates—Including the Usual and Unusual Suspects —to Replace Janice Hahn? Despite 15 Who Have Joined the Fray, the List Begins to Narrow Down Quite Easily

By Diana L. Chapman

Old guys jostling to make a comeback. New guys vying for the dream. Big egos snapping at each other like a pack of dogs. No gals have joined the race so far to grab the Los Angeles City Council seat vacated recently by Janice Hahn, who departed for Congress last month.

Somehow, the whole thing reminds me of the children’s book: Where the Wild Things Are (!)

So who has joined the race? A mixed bag of 15 men: two former council members, a state assembly member and political novices. Some have had to move into the district to make it legal to run in the Nov. 8 special election, which is expected to cost us taxpayers as much as $1.5 million. The runoff, if necessary, would be in January.

At least three have moved only recently to the San Pedro area to qualify.  Chop, chop, chop!  They are off my list.

I’m scratching off any candidate who has left the 15^th District (which includes Watts, Wilmington, Harbor City, the Harbor Gateway and San Pedro). To sum things up, if they don’t want to live in the district in the first place, they shouldn’t bother to run.

They obviously don’t love it here. They’re more interested in a pursuing position of power that pays $178,000 a year.

Why should we vote for someone moving in when they are most likely out of touch from a resident’s point of view?

On the list of the “Oh, I got to move back to the district to get the plum job,” are:

--Former Council member and current lobbyist Rudy Svorinich Jr., who served from 1993 to 2001. He lived in Rolling Hills Estates but recently moved to the Averill Park area, according to the Daily Breeze. Evidently he already has a big campaign war chest and finished first in a recent poll conducted by another candidate. (Scratched off my list).

--Gordon Teuber, Hahn’s economic development director, also moved here from the Peninsula. I don’t even need to go into the details of how many residents he didn’t help when he made it easier for an unwanted 7-Eleven store to move into Pacific Avenue in San Pedro as well as the controversial expansion of the Taco Bell on Gaffey Street.  Residents and business owners there still don’t know what’s going on. (Scratched off my list).

--Political newcomer Pat McOsker, who leads the City’s firefighters union, lives in Redondo Beach but moved to San Pedro so he could run. He was born and raised in San Pedro, he told me. I don’t know him. But again, I want to vote for someone who already lives in my district and understands – and truly cares about –what it’s like being tied to an enormously bureaucratic, ineffective city like Los Angeles. (Scratched off my list.)

I’m not very anxious to elect political hacks who have been running from one job to the next while not doing much solid work.

I’m ready for fresh blood. That’s what’s going to make me bite. Of course, candidates have until Aug. 22 to file, so there may be more to come.

Veteran political observers say Svorinich and Assemblyman Warren Furutani (D-Gardena) have the best chance to win. They have campaign funds and name recognition.  Furutani has some union backing.  Still, I don’t think we have to take it lying down. We can rally around a fresh candidate.

In an earlier post, I spelled out what I’m looking for in my new council member: a visionary who can pull our communities together and represent the entire Harbor Area.

So also off my list are the following:

·        Furutani.  He’s already had his shot at being a board member of Los Angeles Unified,  the L.A. community college district and an assemblyman.  At least he already lives in Harbor City. But he’s hasn’t accomplished anything earth- shattering during his Assembly term, representing the 55^th District that includes Harbor City, Harbor Gateway, Wilmington, north and west Long Beach, Carson and Lakewood. It just seems like Furutani, a career politician, is job-hopping.

·        Former Los Angeles Councilman Robert Farrell, a San Pedro resident (thanks for that!), who represented the 8^th  District in southwest Los Angeles from 1974-1991.  I’ve heard he’s a nice man who does a lot of community service work. But I’m still looking for someone new, someone ready to tackle the old guard in the ivory towers downtown.

·        Another candidate reminds me too much of the old-guard, a well-connected businessman who has too much at stake in the status quo.   Jayme Wilson, owner of the Ports O’Call restaurant and Spirit Cruises, are both docked at the Port of Los Angeles. He remains a heavy-hitting businessman in this whale of a town and is involved in the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce.  That may not be bad in itself, but the same people have run the chamber for what seems like forever and have too much clout in this town. All of that eliminates him from my list.

Who’s left?

Newcomers running for the first time include Los Angeles Senior Lead Police Officer Joe Buscaino; San Pedro Democratic Club President David Greene; John Mavar, a longshoreman who serves on the Northwest San Pedro Neighborhood Council;  Justin Brimmer, a deputy in Hahn’s district office, and Kenneth Melendez, a longtime Wilmington activist who served on a  waterfront advisory committee and lives in Harbor City.

Others declared candidates include Mervin L. Evans of Wilmington; James T. Law;  Kambiz Mostofi, a San Pedro education activist and entrepreneur, and DeWayne Stark, who retired from the computer industry and lives on a boat in San Pedro after moving here several years ago.

More on those folks—and whoever else might jump on board to surf Los Angeles political waves—later.

Mariela Leon and her son peer through the pool's fence to try and watch her three other children.

PARENTS AT PECK POOL KICKED OUT OF THE POOLSIDE IN THE NAME OF SAFETY:

They Say Los Angeles Aquatic Officials Have Ordered  Parents Outside at All City Pools While Their Children Swim Leaving Many to Feel Cut Off and Disenfranchised

By Diana L. Chapman

Frustrated mother Michael Murray sadly watches her son Bobby Oliver, 13, who struggles with a brain tumor, practice on the swim team.  She sits outside the Peck Park Pool’s fence in San Pedro on a sweltering day.

She’s been banished from inside the pool facility and that terrifies her.

It means she can’t talk to Bobby, ask him how he’s feeling or communicate with him in anyway. She  -- along with scores of parents across Los Angeles – it seems are an unwanted commodity when it comes to watching their own kids during swim lessons, while they are on the swim team – or even recreational swim at Los Angeles city pools.

It didn’t use to be that way at Peck after long battles; but the new policy makes Michael cringe – and worse -- feel excluded from her own child who has battled with the tumor since the age of five.  She finds herself sitting among  scores of other unhappy parents who can’t comprehend what they’ve do so wrong that they can’t be inside a public facility.

Parents doomed to their own seats outside the facility are frustrated they can't be closer with their children.

They feel punished for being a parent.

“They rooted all the parents out,” said Michael squeamishly saying she fears all the time how she won’t make it to her son if an emergency happens. “They said people were abusing the pool, but that’s a small portion. It was abuse of a few.

“We have bleachers to sit on on the inside, a water fountain and a new shady area and we can’t use it. Instead, we have to sit in this nasty, dirty corner,” she says peering down at several pieces of chewed gum stuck to the cement along with litter and dirt and a water fountain cut off from her reach by the iron fence. “I just feel cut off.”

She is.

Michael echoes many parents sentiments across the board at Peck who were all sitting behind fencing on a hot Tuesday afternoon trying to watch the children but  competing to fit neatly in a tiny square patch of shade offered by the pool’s rooftop outside the facility. They wished, instead, that they could sit inside below a large, brand new shade  the city recently installed.

Instead of sitting on bleachers under the shade, they were packed tightly together in a knot with chairs they dragged in on their own to sit outside the facility – hoping for a spot of shade.

Many of them said they felt like they were prisoners behind the fence, severed  from their own kids, ostracized and punished for being caring parents and fearful that they couldn’t react during safety issues. If they spot a child in danger, they have no quick way to tell the staff.  Worse, they said, they are discouraged from being part of their own family.

“I just feel very isolated,” said San Pedro High Principal Jeanette Stevens, who once enjoyed watching her two children, Taylor, 10, and Teel, 8, swim at Peck from inside the facility about a year ago. “It use to be nice. I could watch my kids. I just don’t get it. You want to keep an eye on your kid and now you’re so distant. The programs are amazing, but it could be so much better.

“Why would you want to go backward?”

The banning of parents and adults from sunning on at the city’s recreational pools while their children swim is a rule I fought against years ago when such stupidity allowed gang members to proliferate at Peck Park pool. First, I was told it was done for safety reasons. This time, parents said, they were told it happened because some parents were lying. Those parents apparently said they were going to watch and then jumped into the pool without paying the $2.25 fee to swim.

Parents lamented that they were shut out because of a bad few. In any case, they wondered, couldn’t the city come up with something creative such as stamping the hands of those who have paid?

A call to acting recreation supervisor, Trish Delgado, who oversees city aquatics,  was not  returned Wednesday before the posting of the story.

But cutting off parents didn’t surprise me at all.

 Years ago, a similar attitude happened among city aquatic folks who seemed to have built a mini-fiefdom in their ranks – that deemed parents and other adults sitting around the pool side a safety hazard along with other rules: No towels on the deck, no food. No fun. The attitude seemed: make the pools unfriendly as possible. And guess what, that worked!

Peck became a parentless pool. With hundreds of kids without much supervision, a handful of lifeguards served as babysitters, mentors, aunts and uncles, even though many of them were only 17; I bet this happens at other pools across Los Angeles. In the case of Peck, gang members glorified in taking advantage of the adultless pool and began to throng to the facility. There was no one to call them to account on anything. The lifeguard staff was terrified and who could blame them.

The day this started to change was more than 10  years ago when about five gang members – about 250 pounds apiece and in their 30s – began hurling each other around in the pool. No one stopped them. Suddenly, one gang member flew through the air – slapping down into the pool – a few inches from my son’s head.

I was infuriated.  Another time, a gang member was tossing a tearful 7-year-old around, dunking him repeatedly. The kid was crying – appeared to have trouble breathing   – and had a look of terror that would have broken any mother’s heart. It broke mine and forced me into action.

“Stop it,” I yelled at the gangster. “You’re hurting him. He’s scared.”

“I can do whatever I want,” the gangster yelled back at me. “I’m his uncle.”

No one else intervened.

That was when I decided the kids in our community – whether they are in Watts, San Pedro, or San Fernando Valley -- didn’t deserve this treatment. I spent the next decade – along with others -- battling to get the city to change stupid rules – such as outlawing parents from sitting inside the facility – and to overhaul  Peck’s aging pool. After a $1 million restoration, the pool was opened to families year round  – and families were encouraged to attend—especially by the pool manager at the time.

He knew that true safety meant having more adults on his deck. It provided more eyes and halted his staff from turning into just babysitters for hordes of children who were once dropped off at 9 a.m. and left until 6 p.m. because parents weren’t welcome. He was a smart man.

Having adults -- more importantly parents -- as a second set of eyes changed the entire atmosphere at Peck. Gang member attendance shriveled to zero. Families came together and picnicked and made a day of it. Little girls, who once feared stepping outside of the facility because of threatening boys, didn’t have to worry anymore about leaving the pool. There were too many adults watching.

Aquatic officials often argued with me that in the name of safety parents shouldn’t be hanging around the pool because they cause danger. They interfere with swim lessons and impede in safety when they are lying around the deck, they said.

They claimed in the past it makes it easier for the staff to keep everyone safe.

Does it really?

Actually, I think not only does it take away good parents it tears down the very fabric of what we so need to build in a giant metropolis of Los Angeles. We need to celebrate families and the health of our community!

Mother Suzie Lind, who finds it difficult to shield her one-month-old baby Nathan from the powerful sun while watching her son Silas, 7, perched outside the facility’s fence just wishes she could sit inside where the city recently propped up a pricey shade. She’s trying to be a great mother, she adds, and isn’t feeling too encouraged with the city’s recent boycott of parents inside the facility – unless they are actually in the swimming pool.

“Last year, they made us start sitting out there,” Suzie said as she carefully shaded baby Nathan with a blanket. “We use to be able to be inside. Last week, (Silas) hurt his leg in the pool and I needed to go in and check on him. I had to get the stroller, and walk all the way around to the front to get inside.

“I can’t leave my son alone. We live in a day and age where you just don’t leave your kid at a pool with strangers.”

Mariela Leon, who comes to watch her three children, Reina, 10, Frank, 9, and Andrew, 8, on the swim team, says she tries to understand it from the city’s point of view.

On the other hand, she really misses the days when the parents of the swim team congregated inside the facility, and mapped out future plans for the team – from bringing the kids snacks for tournaments to determining car pools for different events.

“We just felt more united,” Mariela explained of the parents involvement.. Sitting outside, “changed all of that. It’s not the same anymore.”

Of course, it changed the entire atmosphere.

Leave it to LA to figure out how to tear down the fabric of a family and a community just by lame rules that help no one but the staff – and even more so their bosses, who make thousands off of who – us, the residents and parents who care and love their community and so desperately want to do the right thing – and be with their kids.

Why would anyone in their right mind – city officials or not – use a fence to cut off parents from their children  -- especially a mom who is fighting just to keep her kid alive? And I have an even bigger question: where are our City Council members? Why aren’t they out advocating for us?

Or is this the way they like it: a city with services so unfriendly no one wants to go -- or visit.

Image of the Lap-Band.

ENCASED IN FAT NEARLY ALL MY LIFE, I SAY NO TO THE FDA APPROVING LAP-BANDS FOR TEENS UNLESS THEY ARE GROSSLY OBESE; HERE’S WHY

By Diana L. Chapman

Rotund, unhappy, and driving my parents to deep vexation due to my weight,  my mom and dad dragged me to the doctor at age 11 begging him to save me from the fat curse and to lure me into dropping the pounds.

Appetite suppressant pills and months later, the doctor grew frustrated when I hadn’t lost an inch. He grilled me: “Do you want your parents to be sad? Do you want them to keep wasting their money when you visit me? Take this seriously.”

After that, I did.

I reduced my food intake dramatically to something like 1,000 calories a day. I  cleaned house for exercise and within probably six months, dropped fifty pounds. My parents were thrilled. My doctor ecstatic. I felt great – and boys noticed me for the first time in my life.

Thrilling. But within the year, the weight plus some extra jumped back on me like a rolling blanket of fleas. Now, instead of being 50 pounds overweight, I was 60. Haunted by what I call “the fat curse” – which became the story of my life -- I yo-yoed back and forth, losing, gaining. Losing. Gaining. Trying every diet conceivable and every alleged “weight loss cure” known to man – and more likely – women, nothing worked for much more than a year. Getting it off always was the easy part of the equation; keeping it off was the trouble. Like the common cold, there still is no cure – even with all our new-found technology. In my case, misery prevailed when I refused to wear shorts, bathing suits, go to reunions, discovered I might be too fat to ride horses -- and continued living with the stress of being a size 7 one day, and a size 18 a year later.

This is exactly where I fear the Lap-band  will take -- and leave our youth.  The Lap-Band is not the answer for our teens despite children’s obesity rising radically across America, so much so that it seems it’s in the news every week.  I know we are all seeking a solution for the thousands of us --- teenagers and adults alike -- who live with this agony.

But truly, I don’t see the Lap-band, which Allergen Inc. has taken to the FDA as a possibility for teens as young as 14, as much different than those appetite suppressant pills and 1,000 calories a day, because that’s in fact what it will do to a kid.

It provides them with a way to eat less without using much brainpower – and in fact is likely to steam up that ever-ready roller-coaster slipping insidiously toward the fat curse. If the teen has the desire to ever take the band out or it comes with too many complications for their system, I’m betting that teen will break out in rolls of fat once they quit using it.

Simply put, the Lap-Band surgery inserts a silicone ring that fits around the stomach basically reducing the appetite. The good news is it can be adjusted if that fat starts creeping back to decrease the food intake. The bad news is it can slip, become infected and a myriad of other troubles.

More importantly, we have to remember that teens bodies are growing by leaps and bounds and are changing daily. This is a terrible time to give them surgery when exercise and not diet – but eating right – can get the same results.

Exercise for kids remains a huge key to the kingdom for dropping fat, so I don’t care if a kid does Zumba Fitness, swims, surfs,  bowls, leaps up and catches eggs flying in the air, plays tennis, skateboards, roller blades or makes up their own peculiar form of exercise.

 This will make major changes in their lives, combat depression which often accompanies those who are overweight, and remains a much better solution than restrictive diets, which is basically what the Lap-Band does.

The reason I believe we see thousands of people like me walking around – losing, gaining, and losing and gaining again – bloating up like big distended balloons -- stems from recent theories that fat cells multiple. I believe this, because once a person reduces food intake, there’s not much chance for many to return to eating normally again.

That signals, for many us, an automatic weight gain.

This alone makes me uncomfortable about the use of Lap-Bands  for teenagers who may jut upward a couple more feet, drop weight naturally as they take on more exercise or have possible medical conditions.  For instance, my son had excess weight despite his frazzled activities and his drive to play sports, all sports, all the time.

One thorough allergist encouraged me to have his thyroid checked since thyroid issues ran in the family. When we did, it turned out Ryan, at age 11, had no thyroid, a huge regulator of weight and growth. Once on thyroid medication, he immediately began  shedding the pounds.

Kim Kromas, San Pedro nutritionist and chiropractor, calls Lap-Band alarming for youth.

My friend, Kim Kromas, a chiropractor/nutritionist in San Pedro, calls the Lap-Band for teens alarming.

“The thought of the FDA approving lap surgery for children is frightening,” Kromas said. “Without addressing the psychological components of obesity, Lap-band surgery is just another band aid. Our children do not need band aids. They need education and guidance in food and exercise choices. This will increase their knowledge and self-confidence and teach them that the goals are worth working for.

“Teenager’s bodies are still working towards equilibrium,” she added. “Any surgery to disrupt the function of the body is adding a weakness to their body—and mind – for the future. Teach children how to eat properly. Educate them on the importance of daily exercise. This will breed self-confidence. That is the way to raise healthy children.”

Meanwhile, it is true, thousands of adults have had success with Lap-Band.

While my friend did it, loved the weight loss and feels much better about herself, she warned, there are issues. Sometimes, she gags on food and feels like vomiting. She’s suffers hair loss. Other times, she barely wants to eat so she just drinks water or juices. And of course, not everyone can stand to live with such a device in their stomachs.

But let’s be realistic with children. Caution should – and must – prevail when it comes to kids.

Before we go jumping into Lap-band for teens, we must explore the fact that the FDA approved this in 2001 for adults with severe weight problems and by 2007, we are into the third generation of “adult” Lap-Band users, according to a Lap-Band site.

But we also now know there are troubles, as there are with all surgeries, infections, slippage of the device and possibly the band shifting through the stomach’s wall – and in some extremely rare cases, death.

This is not what we want for teens. I’d much rather see what former Los Angeles School Board member Mike Lansing did for students who maybe don’t like running, or traditional (often boring) forms of exercise in schools that in reality some students just can’t do.

He installed three brand new state-of-the-art gyms at three different middle schools so students could discover other ways to fight obesity and get in shape, from pumping spin bikes, to using resistance bands and medicine balls – a form of exercise most students will never see until they become adults and join private gyms.

As far as the Lap-Band, let teenagers wait until they are adults to make that choice and have had the chance to physically change their bodies – while they are young and still have the chance to do so.

Judy Elliott, Chief Academic Officer for LAUSD, led the 10 percent cap on the value homework can bring to grades.

Do We Need To Change the Way Los Angeles Schools Shell Out Grades When It Comes to Homework Even Though the Superintendent Stalled a New Policy That Outside Work Can Only Count for Ten Percent of the Grade?

By Diana L. Chapman

At first, I was appalled when the Los Angeles Unified School District officials announced  intentions to adopt a policy that homework must only count for ten percent of a student’s grade due to inherent inequities that had coursed their way across the sprawling school system.

Say what? Once, all of us did vast amounts of homework, did we not? At least that’s how I recall it.

When I heard the news, all I could hear were these little voices in the back of my brain: But homework prepares kids for life experience, shows them that school doesn’t stop at three  o’clock and reveals how each year gets a bit harder. Homework is how a student makes the grade.

More concerning: Kids aren’t stupid. As soon as they understand homework is only ten percent of their grade, many will shrug their shoulders and conclude, if that’s the case, why do it at all?

Before I finished interviewing the folks that were all for the plan so I could come to understand it, LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy pulled the plug after a storm of complaints from many teachers and parents and asked for a revision to be turned in by Jan. 1.

“After careful consideration, I have decided to postpone implementation of the district’s homework policy,” Deasy wrote. “While well-intended, I am not confident that the initial policy received sufficient comments and general input from parents, teachers and board members. We cannot and will not implement this policy of this magnitude without actively soliciting and incorporating recommendations from key constituencies.”

So for now, the plan is delayed (if it will ever happen) and Deasy asked his Deputy Superintendent of Instruction Jamie Aquino to revise and craft a new policy.

Because there are reasons that the original policy was nearly approved,  I decided to talk to those who support it and what led to such a revision, starting with Judy Elliott, LAUSD’s Chief Academic Officer who led the proposed policy change.

Inequities across the board is what banded together two teams of parents and educators, many of whom were complaining that homework was misused by some teachers. For months, they studied why homework wasn’t a reflection of how students did when it came to standardized tests, Elliott explained.

The ten percent value was not meant to prevent teachers from demanding homework and did not include reports, projects or book reports. A revised policy of a ten percent cap was to make the district more uniform and to get a better view of how students were actually doing in the classroom, she said.

Amongst some of the troubles, Elliott explained:

--Some teachers weighted homework for as much as 60 percent of the grade. This led to an imbalance. Students who studied and received As in the classroom failed standardized tests. In turn, students who didn’t do their work failed the classes, and yet did extremely well on standardized test scores. Therefore, students and their families were not receiving a true measure of a child’s abilities.

--Many students due to family issues, from babysitting for their siblings, working to help the family or having no area to do their homework – were punished tremendously in the classroom when homework was an unusually high part of their marks. It didn’t matter how well they did in the classroom or on classroom tests, they were still being dramatically marked down for lacking their homework.

“It was just fuzzy all over the place,” Elliott said, who had two different teams of parents, administrators and teachers construct the new plan. “There just came an outcry of the inequity of homework across the district and it was driven by teachers. For A kid to get an F or D and then gets high marks on (standardized) tests, that’s a little alarming.

“You don’t want to hold kids hostage for their homework.”

She likened the new policy to a child practicing basketball. The child, she said, is not considered a great basketball player for the practice; it’s what he does in the game that proves his worth. It should be the same way in the classroom, she added, arguing that students should not be graded heavily  on their attitudes or homework. In addition, students will learn that prior to college that their studies will not count for anything toward their grades.

If the second largest school district in the nation agrees to the 10 percent grading cap on homework, it will be following trends of schools across the country that are not allowing instructors to use homework as a large part of a student’s grade, the Los Angeles Times reported.

That got me to thinking; perhaps I’m wrong and led me to explore why so many want the 10 percent cap.

I started interviewing teachers who surprised me with their agreement over the policy– even though I was opposed to it. One first grade teacher told me she rarely gave homework as her students were too young.

Another, Tim Howe, an elementary teacher for seven years before he took a post with Los Angeles School Board member Richard Vladovic, said he always found homework one of the most frustrating issues for him. As a teacher, he said, he would embrace such a plan.

Homework, he said, was always torturous. He tried to achieve a good balance for his students between outside and classroom work and wanted to find homework that was meaningful to his students, not busywork.

And yet, he didn’t want homework that the parents were doing for their children either. He learned quickly, he said, that once a child reaches their frustration level with homework, they shut down anyway and quit learning, “making it meaningless.”

What he found himself doing, he said, was tailoring his assignments toward the needs of the children and their families.

“Homework was never a huge part of my grade,” Howe said. “I always felt like it was practice for the child and I didn’t want it to negatively impact their grade. Over vacation, I wanted my kids to learn in other ways, go to museums, go to plays. They need a break.”

San Pedro High Math teacher Richard Wagoner said the new homework policy designed by Elliott and her teams was right on target.

For years, he said, students have passed their math classes in lower levels and were sent to his higher level math classes, such as Algebra, where he found many were stalled at a fourth grade level or lower. They have passed their lower grade math classes, he said, not through tests but via homework and when they began failing in high school, parents and students were aghast.

Wagoner does not want the policy postponed and wrote the superintendent to say so.

“This policy was frankly long overdue,” Wagoner wrote asking Deasy not to halt the plan. “Kids who cannot pass algebra in schools usually have a 3^rd or 4^th grade mastery of mathematics. We could have done something, but now we choose to continue the mistakes of the past.

“Please reconsider your decision to delay implementation of the homework policy. You are hurting the very children you think you are helping. And our high-level children will continue to be burdened in classes filled with the unprepared…if they chose to remain in our schools at all, that is.”

I still have those little voices in the back of my brain going: No, homework is good. This policy hurts our kids. But then I wonder am I right? We don’t want to pass kids up who have only achieved success through their homework. That is unfair to the child and their parents.

Complaining profusely to my mom about the new policy, I asked her what she thought.

“You know,” said my 82-year-old mom, “Remember that teacher you had in sixth grade, Mrs. Taylor? She refused to give her students homework. She said kids needed to play and spend time with their families. You got the best education from her.

“Now,” my mom added. “That’s my kind of teacher.”

What do I think of the policy now? I’m trying to separate myself from what seemed right for my generation and what is right for now.  Maybe, just maybe, these people are right and we need to take the time to listen.