Who is He and What is He doing Now?

Social Studies Review, Fall 2006 by Geyer, Pat

Born on a farm near Porterville, in the southern part of the San Joaquin Valley with a scenic view of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, he attended Strathmore schools. Working summers and weekends at Guthrie's Cattle Feed Lot while attending CSU Fresno, he graduated from CSU Fresno with a BA in Social Studies in 1960 and a year later, a General Secondary Teaching Credential.

In 1961 he went north to Livingston, a small town between Merced and Modesto, which had the honor of being the town with the last stop light on Highway 99 - finally removed by 2000. There he taught World History at the Livingston High School. However, it was the era of the Vietnam War, and before the end of the year, he had received his draft notice. That summer he and some 20 other local "boys" reported for service. But service was not to be; his physical exam found high blood pressure. In August he was declared 4-F and dismissed.

Luckily, he found a teaching job at Orosi High School, a small town south and east of Fresno. He taught Civics, U.S. History and General Business. The next year, 1963, having time to look for a teaching position, he interviewed and was hired by the Fresno Unified School District where he stayed for the next 38 years.

From 1963 to 1971 he taught Geography 7 and 9, U.S. History grade 8, and was Student Activities Director at Wawona Junior High in Fresno. He proudly insisted that we drive by the school and through the neighborhood, one of the oldest and finest in Fresno.

During the 60's he became a world traveler. Virginia Davis, a colleague and teacher a Wawona Jr. High, had been organizing student tours during the summer months. He became her tour assistant for the next five years conducting U.S. historical tours on buses for 43 days each. In the summer of 1967, they took students to Europe sailing by ship from San Francisco, through the Panama Canal to Europe, by Euro-rail in Europe, and returning by airplane. Another trip highlight was a student tour of Asia, again sailing by ship from San Francisco to the Orient, during the summer of 1970. The students have since grown and graduated, but he still travels with many of the same teachers. Most recently he went on a tour of Holland and Belgium by canal boat.

Going to CSU Fresno part time, he earned a Masters Degree in Counseling and Guidance in 1964. Because of his strong desire to become a Counselor, he talked the Principal at Wawona into giving him one period a day of counseling. It was time to look for a new position. So in 1971 he found that position as a Curriculum Counselor at Edison High School. Edison, a low achieving school on the West Side of Fresno, was the complete opposite of Wawona. Always interested in curriculum and instruction he worked with teachers to set up behavioral objectives of what students should know at the end of each unit. Then they experimented with individualized instruction and team teaching, empowering the faculty and students.

In 1972 Fresno Unified School District began integrating its schools, including Edison High. It was disruptive, students were bused to new schools, good students began to leave the district. Multiculturalism was the current curriculum focus. In 1977 in response to the "challenges" of integration, he developed a course called Basic Sociology required for all ninth graders. It was an effort to get students from different backgrounds to work together, based on the Values Clarification method of instruction. (Values Clarification had become the curriculum method "de jour" as exemplified by the 1974 California Social Studies Framework.). The Basic Sociology course was hugely successful; the enrollment stabilized. Student achievement began to improve.

In 1977, he was promoted to the position of Social Sciences Coordinator (grades 7-12) for the Fresno Unified School District, a position he held, with some modification, until he retired in 2001.

He is particularly proud of his curriculum leadership in Fresno County. In 1982 he became the Fresno County History Day Co-Coordinator. He helped organize school history days and led the Fresno County competition, sending numerous students on to State and National History Day competitions. Now, though retired, he continues to judge local and state History Day competitions.

He has served on the Character and Civic Education Conference Committee since 1985. In 1998 he became a member of the Bonner Center for Character Education Advisory Committee. As such he continues to organize the applications and school visits in Fresno County for the Character & Civic Education competition each year.

But the position of which he is most proud is Coordinator of the 19th Congressional District for the We The People: The Citizen and the Constitution and Project Citizen Programs. Here students compete regionally and earn the right to go to Washington, D.C. for the national competition each April Each year he spends a week in Washington, D.C. at the leadership conference. And to this day, he works to see that the students of Fresno and the San Joaquin Valley participate in regional, state, and national competition.