Pennsylvania tteachers see many changes in education system By Kevin Haney and Marc Meltzer Philadelphia Daily News   Some of the teachers who responded to the Daily News survey took time to write lengthy essays on their job and its joys and hardships. We interviewed a few of them. FLORINE CREWS Kindergarten­Seven years teaching Florine Crews was volunteering as a literacy tutor 10 years ago when she realized she wanted to become a kindergarten teacher. Crews started as a substitute teacher in 1989, and quickly learned things that her college education hadn't addressed: ``I didn't know I'd run into kids who are capable of throwing chairs across the classroom or kicking tables.'' The behavior often results from child abuse and neglect, she said. ``They haven't learned to deal with anger.'' Crews said she would not give up on a single child. ``If they can be taught when they're young, when they're sponges, then they'll be willing to learn,'' she said. But while there are many dedicated teachers, she says, others are just gliding through their classes. She recalled listening to one teacher say, ``We expect 20 percent to fail.'' Crews said, ``I'm not going to be that one to make that determination.'' She recalled that while she was preparing a lesson at school, one teacher admonished her and told her, ``You don't have to go through all that trouble.'' Crews said: ``There are too many people who care too little about their children. The children are just incidental.'' CAROLE ESTERLITZ First grade­Teaching 23 years Carole Esterlitz has 27 children in her first-grade class this year, and most are well-behaved. But three or four cause enough problems. Some get out of their seats and leave the room if they don't get their way. Some occasionally throw furniture. One student will pick up a pencil to start an assignment, then forget what to do. ``It's difficult to call the class to order,'' she said. She could send her disruptive students to the school's ``accommodation room,'' but that does little good for the child, she said. ``It does not change the problem.'' The children who come from broken families or have other problems outside of school do not get the quick help they need, Esterlitz said. She makes recommendations for counseling or alternative programs, but the child might reach second or third grade before he gets help, she said. ``The wheels turn very slowly,'' she explained. Children overall seem more violent than those in the past, she said. ``They go out to lunch, and they're fighting and they're kicking. They're not playing.'' Classroom teachers could help troubled children better, if classes were smaller, she said. Teachers would have more time to devote to each child if more teachers were in classrooms, rather than administrative positions. ``All the money being spent on putting teachers in supportive positions would be better spent in assigning those teachers to their own classes, and thus diminish class size,'' she said. DIANE AMADIO Fourth grade­Teaching 22 years Kids come to school with lots of problems. They might have two working parents who are too tired to help them with homework. They could be kids who must walk past drug dealers as they go to and from school. It's not impossible to help students with those and other problems learn, says Diane Amadio. But it takes time. ``We've been telling the administration for years that class size should be lowered,'' she explained. ``If it was lowered, maybe you would have time to work on these problems.'' Amadio noted that studies done 20 years ago found that students did better throughout all their years in school if they were in classes with 15 to 18 children through the third grade. Philadelphia School District's average elementary class size is about 30. At Cassidy, Amadio has an easier time reaching her students' parents. Over the year, she meets or talks with all of the parents. At a previous school, she reached maybe a dozen annually. But Amadio detects a change even among some of the working-class parents of her students. ``The parents tell me, `Well, he's in fourth grade. He should know how to do it himself.''' She still has to make the point: ``The kids have to study. You need to read things. There's no way to get around it.'' ROBERT N. MUELLER 9th-12th grades­Teaching 30 School is just not as much fun as it used to be, says Robert N. Mueller. ``That's one of the reasons children are not motivated in school today. It's all work and no fun. We're disregarding the fact that children don't like cake without icing.'' The ``icing'' is extracurricular activities, which have been dramatically reduced over the last decade, he said. ``We're seeing kids at high school level today who have gone through elementary and junior or middle school and now high school without the full extracurriculum programs we used to run a decade or decade-and-a-half ago.'' These activities have been eroded by budget cuts, said Mueller, who also is Dobbins' representative for the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. ``You can't educate a child merely with the core subjects of reading, writing, math, etc. It takes more than that. ``You just can't teach values with academics.'' The other activities help students learn how to socialize, how to be responsible and how to sacrifice for future rewards. Mueller also thinks it was a mistake to impose academic eligibility standards on high school students who want to play sports. ``That student still needs to be motivated to stay in school and have a positive attitude toward school ... If we say you're not good enough, you're disenfranchised from being part of the socialization process.'' CAROL ADAMS English teacher and department chair­Teaching 26 years Carol Adams says that for her, Schools Superintendent David Hornbeck's reform effort has meant more meetings for professional development and sometimes with a newly minted level of administrators in the Lincoln High School cluster. That means less time for her students -- more than 100 each day. The cluster, which includes all the elementary and middle schools feeding students to Lincoln High School, is one 22 established by Superintednent Hornbeck as part of his reform plan. Each cluster has six administrators whose purpose is to help teachers with problems and help them keep abreast of new teaching methods and course requirements. ``It's hard at this point to know if it will be positive,'' she said. Meanwhile, the district has cut the number of secretaries and school aides so that ``everyone is totally overworked'' and students are being neglected, she says. She recalled the case of a student who missed 150 days of school, but teachers did not know why because the district no longer has truancy officers. Another student has been in ninth grade for at least five years because he does not work when he shows up in class at Lincoln. She's skeptical that Hornbeck's plan will work, based on what she's seen. ``In the current situation, I don't see how they can help much, because the problems are so monumental.'' COZETTE R. FERRON Special education in the 9th-12th grades­Teaching 22 years Expectations are a critical part of a successful education, says Cozette R. Ferron, who believes expectations remain too low for African-American students. ``My deep concern is we don't have enough staff members who really care and are sensitive to our children,'' said Ferron. All children could learn, she said, if there were a concerted effort to heighten expectations and motivate them to succeed. ``You have to allow children to find out who they are ... that they do have a place in society, that they are important, that they can achieve,'' she said. Schools still teach too much European history at the expense of the other cultures, said Ferron. Children Achieving, which features a new standardized curriculum, is expected to emphasize other cultures, Ferron said. Teachers need greater parental involvement, she added. ``It's a partnership. We have to do this together ... We have to work with outside resources to improve our schools. We can't do it alone.'' Ferron said teachers, too, need to be ``seriously evaluated.'' Some of them need to be told they no longer are allowed to teach. ``It takes a very long time to have a teacher dismissed,'' she said. ``They can fight it. I've seen teachers stay almost until they've retired, and done almost absolutely nothing ... The school system is political. It's who you know.'' LOUISE DeJESSE Kindergarten and 5th through 8th grades­Teaching 18 years Louise DeJesse says Vare teachers and students are better off than they were a decade ago. Ten years ago, Vare was a junior high, not a middle school; that depersonalized education. When Vare evolved into a middle school, small learning communities were developed. ``Before, the bell would ring and students in the whole building would move,'' the South Philadelphia resident said. ``Each learning community has its own roster. The rosters are smaller, creating less opportunity for conflicts to happen -- fights and things like that.'' The school does not have a high density of students in the hallway at any one time. Instead of 1,000 students in the hallway, there are only 150. DeJesse explained that the small learning communities determine their own needs with their own budget, permitting more flexibility and opportunity. That means, she said, ``I can plan ahead.'' DeJesse is a team leader for 175 students. ``I get to know each and every one. They stay on the same team for three years.'' Still, teaching can be frustrating, DeJesse added. ``On a day-to-day basis, it emotionally wipes us out ... I can understand teacher burnout real easy.'' BARRY WINDERMAN 3rd grade­Teaching 30 years Morale among teachers at Loesche Elementary School in Far Northeast Philadelphia is about the same as it was five years ago, despite a decline in performance among students, Barry Winderman says. Loesche ranks 16 th among elementary schools citywide. ``The problem is our school has gone way down,'' said Winderman, noting it once ranked first or second. ``The problem we now have is our school is at least 50 percent new arrivals to the country.'' Virtually all of these students need to take an English-as-a-second-language course, he said. ``That is why even though we're doing just as good a job, it is harder to expect better scores.'' Although the school has three instructors who teach English as a second language, ``the problem is it takes children a long time to get acclimated to a new country,'' Winderman said. ``But they're still tested. There obviously won't be as high test scores as when the students were all'' born in the United States. ``Our school is still one of the best in the city,'' he said, ``even though 60 percent of the students are below poverty level.'' Winderman said the lack of two-parent households, with one parent at home instead of working, makes teachers' jobs more difficult. ``If the parent had been home all day, she would help the kid with homework. If the parent works all day, a lot of them say do it on your own. I'm tired. I've worked all day.'' Visit Philadelphia Online, the World Wide Web site of the Philadelphia Daily.