Who is educating all the children?

All too frequently, however, the instructors are joined by some of their own students who happily leave their classrooms to secure a day off and, at least in theory, support the adults who are paid to impart important information and knowledge to a new generation of purportedly eager and receptive minds.

For some of us, though, the obvious question becomes: How are these teens and, in some cases, preteens learning English, math, history or biology if they are out on a sidewalk protesting along with their academic elders — or simply pretending and then skedaddling for parts unknown?

Without fail, administrators, when queried, contend that, “Classes are being held as scheduled.” Really? If they are being conducted, presumably by an administrator or someone else with at least a shred of tutorial credibility, how many pupils are actually in their seats and paying attention?

If the footage on the tube is any indication, it often appears as though roll calls are going to turn up a lot of absentees. And then there’s the sensitive issue of finances.

Most public school districts are funded based on full-time student attendance. The more kids avoid school and play hooky (using a strike as the rationale), the less cash will be forthcoming from the state — at least that’s the stated formula, assuming it’s applied as mandated.

It’s worth pointing out that, for all practical purposes, strikes (the withholding of contracted professional services) by public employee unions are usually legal — even though they are essentially job actions directed at the taxpayers (and their children) who pay their salaries, pensions, medical/dental insurance plans and other benefits.

Lest your scribe be seen as somehow anti-teacher, it’s relevant to note here that both of my late parents, Jack and Rose Marie, were public school instructors.

Dad was an English teacher on the first faculty at Hillsdale High School in San Mateo under the no-nonsense leadership of Principal Ray Allee a decade after the end of World War II. Mom, early in her career in the late 1930s, taught the young children of farmworkers in rural Castroville in Monterey County.

The value of learning permeated our modest household. That’s one more reason that strikes at public schools are so painful to observe.      

STIRM HAD LOCAL ROOTS AT PTC: The passing of decorated retired U.S. Air Force pilot Lt. Col. Robert Stirm last month, as detailed here not long ago, stirred some old memories at the Peninsula Tennis Club in Burlingame. Stirm, who died at age 92, spent nearly six years in North Vietnamese captivity during the Vietnam War, much of it in solitary confinement. He was tortured (some of his injuries incurred while imprisoned never properly healed), starved (he weighed less than 100 pounds at one dire point) and humiliated during that grim period. Stirm grew up in San Mateo and he and his family were long-standing members of the tennis club. His father was one of the original club members who were responsible for securing its present property which is located behind Burlingame High School and adjacent to Washington Park, in 1933, according to PTC historian Jeff Tateosian of Burlingame. Stirm was a graduate of San Mateo High School and played tennis there as well.  

IT’S FOOTBALL TROPHY TIME: The eight-school West Catholic Athletic League, which released its 2025 all-league prep football list last week, is nothing if not, well, catholic. The bulging roster of teen honorees is an all-embracing exercise indeed, a stunning grand total of no fewer than 106 players, including 11 from Bellarmine Prep of San Jose alone. For perspective, the Jesuit school has lost 20 of its last 21 league contests and 15 in a row. The league also named 16 players of the year in a variety of categories. Whew. Conversely, there was no coach of the year noted on the WCAL website.