Class Prepares to Close the Book on 6th Grade
PASADENA — With summer vacation beckoning Friday, it’s hard for the sixth-graders in Room 115 to concentrate on finding Tasmania in their geography books. Or locating the Tropic of Cancer. Or even sitting still long enough to get dismissed by teacher Teri Uyemura when the bell rings for lunch at Washington Middle School in Northwest Pasadena.
It is mid-June, and some students speak glumly about summer school, while others plot vacations to Mexico and day trips to Magic Mountain.
“I’m not going to do anything except sit under the fan,” 12-year-old Camea Gholar announced.
As the year winds down, Uyemura’s students are no longer the timid sixth-graders who first crossed the threshold of the sprawling, Spanish-style campus in Northwest Pasadena last fall.
Today, they navigate the hallways and cool stone stairwells with the sure-footed agility of mountain goats scrambling for home. Some have adopted a swagger; next year they’ll be the seventh-grade veterans to a new class just out of grade school. Some just feel more confident. Others know what paths to dart down to avoid an erupting fight on the school grounds.
Most have praise for Uyemura, who they say cares about their studies, pushes them to do their best but also knows when to slack up and give them a break.
“Mrs. Uyemura is a fun teacher to be with when you are in a good mood and when you are in a bad mood she is always cheering you up,” one girl wrote in an essay evaluating the school year. “I really like her in many ways, even if she screams at me because I do something wrong.”
And many say Uyemura has helped them through a tumultuous year.
“It was half good and half bad,” another girl wrote. “At first there were a lot of fights for gangs. And there still are. That’s what I think makes Washington bad. The good part is you get to meet new people. And you get an education for your later life. . . . I think I can hang for a few more days. But all this gang thing has to stop.”
Many described their initial apprehensions about attending school in this part of Northwest Pasadena, which is known for gang violence.
“When I was in the fifth grade, a lot of my friends who went here said that this was the worst middle school in Pasadena. The first day I came my knees were shaking,” wrote a strapping sixth-grade boy. “But when I came to it, I saw it was a fair and good school, and all my teachers were nice.”
The volatile nature of the community is reflected in Uyemura’s class. Several students affiliated with rival gangs have taunted each other and scrapped in the classroom, Uyemura said. More and more students have taken to skipping class altogether.
“Once they start ditching, it becomes such an easy pattern to fall into,” Uyemura said. “It’s a real shame.”
The sense of nostalgic loss that Uyemura experiences each June, as another 35 students slip out of her life forever, has already started.
But after the rigors of the school year, Uyemura, like her class, is ready for a break.
Students probably never stop to consider, but summer vacation means a three-month hiatus for teachers too. And Uyemura plans to relax and take it easy, maybe paint her San Fernando Valley home.
Which probably doesn’t sound too appealing to 12-year-old Joseph Lewis, who is headed to summer camp in the San Gabriel foothills.
“We sleep outside,” boasted Joseph, who said he is looking forward to the hiking, swimming, fishing and volleyball that will soon consume his waking hours during this week away from home.
Then there’s Jaime Solorzano, 12, who is boarding an airplane and heading south to Guadalajara to visit relatives.
There he will rise at 4 a.m. to help his aunts and uncles milk their dairy cows. But although he likes the placid, lowing cattle, Jaime usually passes on the warm, fresh milk.
“I’ll throw up,” he said with a grin. “I’m used to U.S. milk, to cold milk.”
Warm milk aside, Jaime gives Guadalajara thumbs up because, he said--mustering up the highest praise he could bestow--it has all the comforts of home.
“They have a theme park like Raging Waters, and they even have Kentucky Fried Chicken and Sears.”
