Post by dolores on Apr 24, 2018 17:25:32 GMT
Your answers are giving me more questions, so I did download the book, and will start reading it tonight. I also ordered the other book referenced on the recommended post, and will read through that as well. (Thank you!)
My dad taught in Rancho Cordova from about 1963/1965 - 2004. He taught many grades (1st - 8th), but he started with 6th grade, and back then they allowed "all boys" classes in public schools. He got the tough kids (mostly) in these classes. Someone mentioned that he did not send the kids to the principal's office. He had been instructed not to. They started the all boys class (and I don't know how many years that went on) because there was a unusually terrible group of boys one year. He was their teacher and their disciplinarian, but mostly disciplined on a reward system. My dad loved his students, even the worst of them, and was an eternal optimist -- always believing the best of people (not just his students). Honestly, this optimism was sometimes his greatest flaw. If he had a tough student, he took the "tough love" approach. As I stated in my original post, now that I'm an adult and a parent, I can see how someone with severe mental challenges may not respond well to that approach. Someone mentioned something about gum under a desk. My dad STRONGLY disliked it when kids put their chewing gum under their desk, and would assign the scraping of all gum off all the desks in the classroom, AND the cafeteria tables if he caught them. He caught me once (I was a student at one of the schools he taught at in the 80's)... the consequences were grim, and I still have a gag reflex when I see chewed gum on a surface.
If my dad had someone like the EAR in his class, he would have desperately wanted to help a kid like this. He probably would have tried to keep in touch with the parent(s) and/or the student even after they left his class. With that said, my dad was a hard, but fair, teacher.
Cancelled field trip: In the 60's and 70's, he took his hardest case kids who made a turn-around in school/behavior on a long weekend wilderness backpacking trip (my dad was also an environmentalist and avid backpacker/hiker/fisherman). If a kid made a series of mistakes before this trip, they would be given warnings (that could be erased through excellent behavior). After a certain number of warnings (and my dad could be very strict about this), a kid would not be able to go. He also had an approach, in general, of "all for one, one for all" or "what we do, we all do together", which could have meant he would cancel a field trip if one child or a small group of children were being terrible. I don't know if he did this, but I can definitely see him doing this. Also, there were two years in the early 70's where my mom would have been very pregnant in the late spring, and my dad probably cancelled the backpacking trips those years (but I need to see if my mom remembers this). Also, the early 70's cancellations were probably too late for the time period for the EAR to be in 6th grade, unless he is younger than anyone has thought.
I'm not sure about General Custer essay... but I would recognize my dad's handwriting easily if someone knows where I can see a copy. My dad did have a matrix he used for grading papers, and it was usually in the lower left corner if a student did not make a cover page/folder (which was usually a requirement of my dad's). Honestly, though, what teacher doesn't use a grading matrix in the lower left or right corners of papers? I had so many that did this in my education from junior high - college. This may just be one of those coincidences.
I believe my dad was the only male 6th grade teacher in the Folsom Cordova Unified School District in the 60's and 70's. I'm not completely positive on that, though. I don't know how anyone else made the connection. For me, it was reading a segment of the journal found (on Wikipedia). Upon reading it, I just felt the teacher was my dad. It hit way too close to home with the sentence writing. My dad made me do that, too ... it was the worst (other than the gum scraping).
I have to say, the Bonnie thing is creepy. My mom was a very young woman when she married my dad (who was much older). She used to joke that there was a time when she was closer in age to my dad's students than she was to my dad (which is true). She was also gorgeous in her early 20's (around the time my dad would have had someone the EAR's age in his class) and would help out on field trips. My mom and I have talked a lot over the past few days. She does not remember any particular student that was particularly troublesome (there were many over the years that would frustrate my dad because they were not living up to their potential). She also doesn't remember anyone ever questioning my dad about this. She thinks he would have told her. I tend to agree with her, as they had a very close marriage/relationship. However, my dad could also be the master co-dependent and (again) the eternal optimist. I'm not sure he would have ever thought one of his students was capable of this, and if he did, there's a chance he wouldn't have told my mom out of protection.
I'm going to read the books, and then I'll let everyone know what I think. I am still 50/50 on the skepticism/coincidences, but just from the little I know it makes me want to know more.
Thank you, again, everyone for the quick responses and the kind welcomes. This is very out of character for me to be on one of these sites, and I hesitated on joining/posting. Your kind welcomes certainly help me feel more confident in my choice to join.
