I got called by a member of our PLC a “grandstander” for promoting the Invisibles. And Diana Noonan chewed me out in a comment here a few months ago over my position re: testing, which position more reflects what Claire Ensor is saying, for those who have been reading the blog consistently over recent months and who, like me, perhaps also embrace Claire’s enlightened approach to how we test our kids in language classes (no summative assessments, but rather compassionate formative assessments that measure what kids can do and not what they cannot do).
Maybe it’s my age, but I just want to focus on the positive at this point. So if I can get one email from a group member like John Piazza even once a year, saying the things he says below, I’m good, as they say. I do miss similar reports from John’s Latin colleague over there in Massachussetts and another of my personal heroes, John Bracey. Those two guys have taken more combined heat than anyone I know over the years in bringing CI to their respective programs amidst intense negative resistance. In John Piazza’s case it originated mainly from parents as explained in the next paragraph. In John Bracey’s case the resistance came mainly from colleagues.
So, those who have been reading here for more than a few years might agree with me that perhaps the strongest and certainly the most tested CI warrior in our group is John Piazza. There is not a shred of doubt in my mind about that. He left a strong middle school Latin program four years ago near Grace Cathedral on the hill in San Francisco, a perfectly wonderful gig, to accept a high school position at Berkeley High School across the bay, which, with its University of California faculty (think the University of Paris in the 16th century), expects Latin to be delivered in the same memorized way it has always been for hundreds of years now in programs for privileged kids like those found connected to American universities, to whom Latin is not something to be enjoyed, but only to be put on resumes.
Those who know the story know that John, of course, refused to do any of that when he arrived at Berkeley High three years ago. He just refused. That is no small sentence. By refusing, he basically walked into an electrical storm with a metal rod held high in his hand.
This post is therefore to simply introduce John’s newest and, for some of us, long-awaited Report from the Field on how things are now there in that bastion of conservative Latin out there in California, in now the third year of the electrical storm that John has been walking through. His report is posted in the next article here, and will appear tomorrow.