The Teacher that Gets the Trick

John Corona and I!!

Larry sent me to stay by the side of Mr. John Corona for three days. He swore Mr. Corona was a great teacher and had met him through a program of Corona's named King High Remembers. I've always been one to pay close attention to teachers, especially lately while considering the occupation. Before I got to talk to Mr. Corona, I sat staring around his room, looking at the signs that beamed down on me MEDIOCRACY IS NOT A GOAL and DO YOU THINK? 

Mr. Seifert and I

I readily started picking up some of his often used phrases, mostly because he amused me so much. He's the kind of teacher who is straight forward.. He tells you upfront that he doesn't OWE you anything and that you should care about your education. He showed me that he'll cuss in class, he'll pick on the kid who wants attention, but not the grade. 'Do I HAVE to take notes Mr. Corona??' While continuing to write the notes on the board he replies, 'You don't have to do anything but pay taxes and die.' His heart is in the job. When a student asked if they got paid to donate blood one day, I could tell his mood was towards the deep end the rest of the day. He was just sad. Here is a man who cares about humanity. I'm not sure what his hope for it looks like, but he wants to have hope... and he'll do all that he can to achieve it. 

He started this program, King High Remembers, as he regularly says  'by accident'. He assigned his US History class the assignment of interviewing a veteran. Over half came back saying that they couldn't find any to interview. Mr. Corona told me, "I'm pretty sure most of them thought they could just get out of the assignment by this little excuse. But not with me!!" So that first year he asked around the community if there were any veterans from mainly WWII or Vietnam that would be interested in being interviewed by his 10th graders. 60 showed up that year, and 120 kids. That first program there were many stories being told for the first time, many tears shed and many connections formed. Mr. Corona told me that after that first day, when he was cleaning the conference room in which it happened, he had a realization that this accident might have been the one event to truly define his career, but more so to shape his life. 

He's continued doing this for about seven years, and as words has traveled around, he has received numerous awards. The principal of King High once told him that this was the best thing he had ever seen in his career in education. I'm so in love with it because it's such a simple idea.. and the change that it can cause is enormous.. So many of the veterans, especially from Vietnam have been told so many times that nobody is proud of them and nobody wants to listen to them that they have finally started to believe it. Many of them think that nobody thinks they are heroes, they don't even think that they have a story to tell. "EVERYONE HAS A STORY TO TELL. And if you ever served any amount of time for our country, you are a hero." Mr. Corona was always telling his students this. "If you ask them to be interviewed, chance is that they're gonna tell you they have nothing to offer. Tell them that's crap."