nothin From Punk Rock To White Chalk | New Haven Independent

From Punk Rock To White Chalk

Paul Bass Photo

Leslie Blatteau in the WNHH studio.

Ten years into her job teaching high school in New Haven, Leslie Blatteau loves her work in the classroom — and sees some unsettling signs in where public education is headed.

She came to teaching through an unconventional path. Before entering the classroom, she played in punk and new wave bands, wrote plays, served falafel sandwiches; she came to the profession after working with teen moms and participating in a short-lived experimental training program at Yale.

Not to mention taking a memorable weekend detour to Estonia and making a 2005 run for mayor as the candidate for New Haven’s political-theater-oriented Guilty Party.

Most recently, Blatteau and some colleagues organized the New Haven Educators’ Collective, a group seeking to inject teachers’ voices more into the public discussion about school reform, independent of both their union and the quick-fix corporate mindset” of some district administrators. (The group hosts a What I Love About” happy hour story slam Tuesday at Cafe Nine.)

The goal, she said, is not just to focus on traditional labor rights, but to advocate for what we know is good for the residents of our city.” She questioned the efficacy of the obsession” over standardized test scores, to the point where young children are wetting their pants” in school. She also questioned whether tying kids to computers for hours helps them learn to read better than focusing more on social and emotional needs.

That’s probably our biggest challenge as a city, and not necessarily that they’re not reading at a second-grade level,” she argued. They’ve experienced trauma. Or maybe not even that extreme. But that their parents are working three jobs. Or their parents spend three hours commuting because their jobs are on the Post Road. “

Blatteau, who is 40 and teaches social studies at Metropolitan Business Academy (and has served as a NARAL chapter president), talked about her unusual path to the classroom and her concerns about the schools’ trajectory in an interview on WNHH’s Dateline New Haven.” An edited transcript of that conversation follows; you can hear the entire interview by clicking on the audio file at the bottom of this story.

Stage vs. Classroom

Allan Appel Photo

Blatteau, right, at a 2012 Greenwich Avenue block party she helped organize.

Why did you become a teacher?

My path to becoming a teacher is not necessarily conventional. I did not think I would be a teacher growing up [in Marion, Penn.].

What did you think you’d be?

I thought I’d be an actress. I thought I’d be a Broadway star.

You do project well …

Yes. People have told me it helps in the classroom. Which I have opinions about. The first paper we had to write for that Yale masters program I was in [was] about our tacit pedagogy: If you just went on instinct, how are you going to teach?

The title of that paper for me was Let Me Entertain You.” I figured: Hey, you get up in front of a room. You keep them happy. You keep them entertained. Shoot. That’s what teaching is.

Oh my goodness. Jack and Linda, who were the professors in the Yale program, made me peel that back. And ripped that idea to shreds. I realized to be a great teacher — of course I’m going to project from the front of the room. But it’s not about performance. It’s about the kids’ performance. I’m really more of a director, facilitator.

I can get their attention if I have to; I will rely on that skill. But it’s not about me entertaining them. That’s dangerous if teachers just entertain their kids.

I’m not bashing charismatic teachers. But there’s more to it than charisma.

I was good at math and science in high school. I started out pre-med [as a Yale undergraduate]. Then organic chemistry changed that.

Wow! I would never have imagined Leslie Blatteau pre-med. 

Organic chemistry killed me. I took a history class jus for fun. It was history of the Darwinian revolution. Again, I was into science. It was a great class. The TA [teaching assistant] in that class told me I was good at history. I never considered that was an option.

So then I started taking more history classes. I was a history major [with a] theater minor. I didn’t become a teacher [after graduation].

What did you want to do?

I had no idea. I learned a lot about the city during the [Yale workers’] strike in 96. I wanted to put some roots in New Haven as a result of that. I was a member of SLAC, the student-labor action coalition. I learned so much during that time about the relationship between Yale and that city. I wanted to stick around.

I got a waitressing job at Mamoun’s.

Did you like working there?

I did. I lived around the corner on Dwight Street.

I do love that place.

Me too. The brothers [who own it] are amazing. Tarek is one of my favorite people on the planet … a philosopher. I learned a lot from them.

And I spent a lot of time playing rock n roll and writing plays.

I played guitar and sang. First we were Great Performer. Then we became Kill Gwyenth Paltrow. Then we became The Pretty Ones. Groovski [her next band] was new wave. Kill Gwyneth Paltrow and the Pretty Ones were riot grrl punk rock. I also was in Hygiene Wilder; I was just the singer [in that band]. I wrote lyrics; the guys wrote the songs. The guys were from Beer Scouts of America.

Sub Entree

A year and a half passed. It was 99, and my mom was getting a little worried. OK, Yale grad, what are you doing?”

She said, Why don’t you sign up to be a sub?”

I said, That sounds like a good idea.” It was $50 a day. In 1999 it was [almost] the same as it is now.

So I signed up to be a sub. They give you a big map of all the schools. This woman would call you in the morning to give you an assignment. [One morning] I was home. She says, All right there’s along-term sub position for a teacher on maternity leave at Polly McCabe. Do you want to go?”

That’s the high school for girls who are pregnant …

… and parenting. I had no idea [then]. I said, Sure! Yes. I’ll take it.”

So it’s pouring rain. I go to Roberto Clemente [School]. Because I don’t know where Polly McCabe is. They said, No, it’s down the road!” At the time it was in the Hill Health Center.

It was such amazing work. I got to teach science to small groups of teens. You just needed a bachelor’s degree to be a sub.

I really got to be fond of the community at Polly McCabe. I went to an all-girls school myself. So here I am at an all-girls school which is different from the all-girls school I went to. There’s something different about an all-girls school that I’m a fan of and I believe in. I really learned a lot from working at Polly McCabe.

Then the teacher came back from maternity leave. I went to regular sub rotation. Taking a bus here. Taking a bus there.

[Kids] are not very nice to you as a sub …

I remember at Prince Street [a former city school] I had an amazing time in a bilingual classroom. And I didn’t speak Spanish!

What grade?

Maybe second or third. We made art. They were drawing birds. They were writing letters.

I remember one class — this was not the bilingual class — it was Jan. 28. I was subbing. I told them that it was my friend Alice’s birthday and she was a mermaid. Would they write letters to her for her birthday?

They wrote beautiful letters. I ended up sending them to Alice, who does consider herself a mermaid as an Aquarius and a lover of the Atlantic Ocean.

I did realize I was not so good in the elementary classroom because I would knock desks over as I would walk in between the desks. They’re small. I didn’t fit. I’m kind of a big personality. It was weird moving through that smaller space.

So I subbed for another year.

Did you make a living at that?

I was still waitressing. And rent was cheap! I was paying $200, $300 for rent! It was different from now.

And you were eating at Mamoun’s …

The principal of Polly McCabe brought me into her office months later and said, What are you doing with your life? Because Beverly” — who is the outreach worker — is retiring. I said, Bev, who are we going to get?’ And she said, Get Leslie!’

So the principal of Polly McCabe asked me to be the outreach worker for pregnant and parenting teens.

How did you find those kids?

A lot of them self-identify. They go to the school-based health clinic, which I’m a big fan of. We should really be investing in the school-based health clinic model. It’s where we meet kids where they are.

That job was paid for by a grant. Then because of grants shifting, I ended up being transferred to the Celotto Child Care Center at Wilbur Cross [High School]. I was an outreach worker.

I was able to get health insurance. That I did for six years out of Celleotto. My goal when I graduated Yale was to learn about New Haven; that job taught me so much about New Haven. I was a home visitor. I really got to know the streets of New Haven through trying to connect with young people.

She Can’t Hear You”

Aliyya Swaby Photo

Blatteau at an Educators Collective meeting.

What day do you remember you had your most enduring lesson?

I don’t remember what the dispute was about. I was near the end of my time, because I had got accepted to the Yale [masters in education] program. I was wrestling with some feelings of loss about leaving this job that I loved. And I was getting into it with some young woman. I don’t remember about what.

But my boss, Lorraine DeLuz, an amazing woman, I learned so much from her. She said, Les, come here a sec.” Like nothing’s happened.

She said, Don’t engage with her right now. She’s angry. She can’t hear you. Don’t worry about it.”

It was just that moment — which I think about as a teacher now at least a few times a week, if not every day — if someone’s upset, they can’t hear you. Teachers, if we’re battling with our kids, and they’re coming in with something that has caused them upset, and I’m going to come at them and make them listen — that is not a recipe for a healthy community and for effective learning.

It isn’t going to work.

It’s not going to work. The kid’s going to be pissed. The teacher’s going to be pissed. Someone is going to be suspended, maybe. The teacher’s going to blow up.

If kids see teachers blow up, you’re going to lose cred with those kids. There are 25 eyes watching.

A Baltic Detour

You [performed in] Estonia …

We did.

… and Latvia.

That’s a pretty funny story. Folks at an [international] music festival reached out to us.

Why you?

Because they thought we [in the band Groovski] were Polish. [Two band members] are Polish-American: Adam Malec, the bass player and songwriter, and Bogdan Chudy, the drummer.

But you’re not Polish…

No.

They thought we were Polish [from] Poland. They said, Come play our music festival. We’ll pay your way!’

So we were like, Yay!”

They thought they were going to pay for a bus ticket. They said, What bus are you going to take?” And we were like, Oh no.”

And then we said, Screw it. Let’s go anyway.” We bought our plane tickets. How could you pass this up?

What was it like?

It was amazing. They really were excited to have these Polish-American rockers.

What kind of music was Groovski?

New wave rock, early 80s influence.

They loved us. It was a great time.

We said, We’re coming all this way. Thousands of miles. Can you get us another show somewhere?”

They said sure. They got us a show in Riga, Latvia, as well.

We arrived in Tallinn in Estonia. Then we got on a bus and did a six, eight-hour ride to Latvia. We did a a Tune Inn-style show there. [The Tune Inn was a 1990s punk club on New Haven’s Center Street.] People are freaking out; they love us. We sleep on a punk rock chick’s floor. We tour Riga a little bit. Head back on the bus. Tour Tallinn a bit. Play this international music festival. We got to play second to last. Big stage. Big auditorium.

How many people?

Over 500. Maybe close to 1,000. It was a big deal. It was a blast. Fond, fond memories.

Activist Teaching

How did you decide to become a teacher?

I was driving around, maybe doing a home visit, and [heard] an NPR story about [a new Urban Teaching Master’s] program at Yale that was a 15-month program, fully funded, with a stipend. Students would train to be public school teachers and go on to commit to teach in New Haven schools. You got state certification and a masters in education.

I knew I had to start thinking about next steps. This is 2006. I’m 30, 31. Part of me was contemplating a masters in social work, because I was drawn to the work I was doing with the young women [at Cross]. I knew I had to keep going.

I was curious about what was going on in the classroom at this point. I would have conversations with the young women I was working with. I was nervous about what was going on. There are many sides to the story — the teachers have immense pressures.

I emailed Jack GiIlette [a New Haven teacher who co-directed the Yale program]. I got my application in. I was part of the first cohort, which started in 2006.

What was it like?

There were only five or six of us. There was tremendous support and attention for us. I’m pie in the sky, Bernie Sanders-style: I recognize it’s hard to pay for these things. But if you want good teachers [it’s worth paying for these programs].

How many billion dollars is Yale’s endowment?

Yale can pay for it. They claim they can’t. [Yale discontinued the program in 2010.] But they can — and should — if they really care about New Haven public schools.

There was some attrition. Some people realized it wasn’t for them. That is a great thing! If they know they won’t be a great teacher, because they don’t love it, for them to leave is a beautiful thing.

We also co-taught [in city schools during the program].

The first semester, a woman [in the program] and I co-taught in Jack Paulishen’s civics class in Hillhouse [High School]. We taught the Constitutional Convention.

At that time there was the debate about [a proposed New Haven teen] curfew. So we ended up getting the kids in the news. There was a debate at Hillhouse about whether there should a curfew.

I had my first taste of activist teaching.

Can you still do that in this test score [obsessed] world?

Yes. You have to make a choice. That you believe you are going to meet the needs of the young people in the classroom. If you believe they need kill-and-drill to get good test scores, then you do that. But if you believe they need to connect what they’re learning with their world outside the classroom, then you do that.

The co-teaching was key. You go teach at Hillhouse. You take three or four classes back on [the Yale] campus. Then we spend all night debating how to spend the next day in the classroom. [My partner] always wanted to tie a bow at the end of class. She wanted there to be that closure. Where me, I liked kids leaving a little confused. I thought if kids are laving a little confused, they’re going to want to come back the next day to correct some of that confusion.

Jack [Paulishen] was so welcoming. He provided a space for us to really get wacky and try things and fail and piss kids off because, Why aren’t we just doing what we usually do?” That was OK.

The next semester we did the full-load teaching. I did that at Career.

You must have gone 16 hours a day…

Jack [Gillette] said in the [original] interview, It will be a 60-hour work week at least.” That’s what teaching is. A 60-hour week.

Did you have to give up music to be a teacher?

The music was hard being a teacher. With the day care, my hours were a little flexible. If I went in at ten, I’d work until 5; I worked 30, 35 hours a week.

Was it the Yale program that made you stop [playing in bands]?

I was still rocking with Groovski and Hygiene Wilder. When I started being a teacher — it was hard being a rocker when school starts at 7:30 [a.m.].

Do you miss it?

I miss it, and I don’t miss it. It’s chaotic. It’s stressful. It’s tiring. It’s joyful.

I Burst Out Crying


Flyer from Blatteau’s 2005 campaign.

Where did you start teaching [after graduation]?

I started at CT Scholars [a small off-site high school program associated with Wilbur Cross]. Scholars was a very interesting model. We know that there’s an issue at Wilbur Cross with tracking. A significant number of Latino and African-American students [are not] in AP [Advanced Placement] classes.

They started Scholars to pull achieving kids from the middle schools into a small environment [in ninth and 10 grades] with the goal of getting them into AP classes in Cross in 11th and 12th grade.

How did the teaching go?

It was wonderful. I learned so much as a teacher. I jumped right in. I taught ninth grade at Scholars. I’m so lucky to have started with ninth grade. I teach 11th and 12th now. I have such respect for my colleagues who teach ninth grade now.

Why?

Ninth graders don’t know. They don’t know how high school works. They don’t know how they work. You have to plan just to the utmost to really create structures in the room where young people feel safe, take risks.

I taught world history for ninth grade. I didn’t really study ancient Egypt, ancient Rome, in my undergrad. [So now] I was going to the library, taking out books, taking a crash course. It was wonderful.

You [had already] spent years teaching [as a sub] in New Haven schools. What was the day when you said, This is different”? When something unexpected hit you?

It was a day in December. The kids had a lot of outside stress in their life. A tremendous amount. The first-period class, a large percentage of the kids were dealing with a tremendous amount of stress. They were mean to each other.

I’m an empathetic person. I realize in retrospect I was soaking, soaking, soaking it. One morning I burst out crying.

What happened?

I don’t remember. Some kind of meanness to each other.

They were bringing in real stresses of poverty and violence. To think a kid is not going to bring their full self into the classroom…. If kids are going to bring themselves into the school, we have to welcome them in.

It was horrible. The girls were crying. The boys were covering up giggling because they were so nervous.

It was a weird breakthrough. I’m not proud of it. But I let them know: You are being mean to each other. And this is not how a community can work. What I’m proud of myself for doing was I kept going back day after day.

It must have freaked them out.

It absolutely freaked them out.

I pulled myself together. They knew I was going to keep pushing them to one follow the golden rule and treat everybody with respect, kindness, and to keep working hard and learn about Homo erectus, and learn about ancient Egypt and ancient Rome and the Black Death.

I wasn’t going to quit. They weren’t allowed to quit, ether. They knew I was going to keep pushing them to make them learn.

Magnets

What brought you to Metro[politan Business Academy]?

When they closed Connecticut Scholars. That was 2010. I’ve been at Metro ever since.

They tapped Judy [Puglisi], who was the principal at Scholars, to be principal at Metro. She got to bring some teachers with her where there were openings.

You had a good relationship with her …

I have this theme in my life of amazing brilliant woman as bosses. I think that’s rare in this world, especially for women. I am the skilled teacher and community member I am because of Lorraine [DeLuz], Terry [Freeman], Ann Cowlin, Judy Puglisi, and my professor Linda [Cole-Taylor] at Yale. These women have mentored me.

How did it go at Metro?

It was a magnet school. It was much different. At CT Scholars it was all New Haven kids. The magnet kids [at Metro] changed that dynamic. [There was] a wider range of socioeconomic status in the classroom.

You think that’s a good idea?

Absolutely.

Some people think magnet schools exist to help the poor children. No, magnet schools exist so that white kids in the burbs can get a real education.

Some people don’t like that in New Haven. [Desired] spots get lost to suburban [kids]. So much of the money is dedicated to suburb[an kids’ education].

I understand that line of thinking. I see in action the benefits of having a diverse classroom socioeconomically and racially and ethnically. It’s an amazing thing.

Give me [an example of] a discussion you had in class that benefited from that.

It was in AP Gov. We were speaking about political socialization: How did you get your politics?

A young man from North Branford raised his hand. He said, As you know, I come from a pretty right-wing family. I really have to say, going to high school in New Haven has really helped me understand some arguments for why some other ideas might be OK. [It] has moved me a little bit toward the left.”

How were the kids from New Haven benefiting from having the North Branford kid [in class]?

I’m not sure. They don’t need him next to them.

Malala

Why did you do the I am Malala” [class project]?

This young woman got shot [in Pakistan by the Taliban for attending school]. I first learned about it on Facebook. I thought it was interesting to tell my class of 11th and 12th graders, Hey I saw something on Facebook last night. …” At that point Facebook was for gossip and petty stuff. I was beginning to show them that social media can be a place where we learn about things and where we get active about things we care about.

They worked for a long time on a teach-in that we would put into the school library. And students form other classes would come in to visit so they could learn about what happened to this woman, about issues related to girls’ education and how to make a change. Maybe sign a petition, hold a sign that says, Girls’ education matters” and maybe tweet it or post it on their [Facebook] wall.

What was their reaction?

They were amazed that a young woman was fighting so hard to get to school when some of them admit they sometimes drag their feet a little bit [to come to school]. It was a reminder that schools are a valuable place and we want to be in them.

How does teaching about Malala fit into your approach to being a public school teacher?

The classroom really is our world. If we’re not engaged in these issues, what’s the point of them showing up? You can learn the reading and the writing and the research skills through issues like Malala. It can be something current and engaging. That’s something I believe works the most.

Test Score Mania

What made you and your colleagues organize the Educators’ Collective?

The teachers union had just ratified a contract. A small group of teachers were somewhat concerned about what was in that contract. It made us want to come together and connect more with regular teachers and engage more with our fellow teachers and say, Do you really know what’ s going on in this contract? What’s really going on in your school?”

One of the challenges of being a member of a teachers’ union is the fact that teaching takes up so much time. We were trying to get creative about ways to get teachers together.

Did you feel the teachers’ union was failing to play that role?

Maybe [it was protecting] too much of the status quo. There were some frightening things in the contract. Like our raises were being paid for by a national grant. Negotiations for the next contract are going to start [and the question will arise of how to replace the money from the expired grant]. It can potentially fit into the narrative of those greedy teachers,” which is the national headline. That’s frightening for folks like us who certainly don’t think we’re being greedy when we want cost-of-living increases and want to protect the work we do with young people.

It definitely put us on guard. As well as the stipends that were given [to some teachers based on performance] — it wasn’t exactly merit pay. It seemed on a slippery slope to merit pay. We don’t believe that teachers, students, schools should be evaluated by test scores.

We wanted to get in and have more of a voice [for] not just we’re going to protect our collective bargaining rights” [but also] what can we do as a social justice union so that we can get more involved in the issues that affect the families and the young people who go to New Haven Public Schools?” Not just be a union that protects us, but be a union that advocates for what we know is good for the residents of our city.

It sounds like test scores were your biggest concern.

Absolutely. We don’t believe as teachers that we need that one standardized test to indicate how our young people are doing. You can ask a teacher of any grade at any level how their students are doing. They know how they are doing. They don’t have to wait for SBAC [Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium] scores come back next fall.

How are you as a social studies teacher affected by testing?

I’m in a school that does not seem to obsess over standardized test results. We really look at the whole child in our work with young people at Metro. The leadership at that school does not live or die by test scores. So I am working from a privileged position. I don’t have to operate by fear if my kids don’t perform well on tests.

I have a feeling it’s much more complicated and much harder for elementary [school teachers]. That’s where teachers are being held to the fire and being told they have to teach tot he test.

There’s a concern that at that level kids start behind, and it’s hard to catch up without learning basic reading and math.

The problem is if you start off telling a kindergartener they are behind, they’re going to associate with reading and math that they’re behind for the rest of their life. That is very concerning to me and to New Haven Educators’ Collective. I know it sounds trite, but the love of learning has to be fostered. If you’re giving a kid a number in first grade and if they don’t improve by x amount, they’re a failure, their school is a failure, their teacher is a failure —this is not the approach to learning that’s happening in wealthier districts, even when kids might be behind.

Reading Early

Melissa Bailey Photo

Student-made posters inspired by Malala.

The flip side here is that some people say, We want to have those test scores as an assessment tool, not to punish kids and say they’re behind … but to do what the district did a month ago: at schools where reading scores are so low, we’re going to make a fun Saturday academy for four hours. The kids come and get a different approach to math and reading help.”

I worry about the Saturday academy if the [students] are sitting on computers. I was heartened to see that they’re doing some social emotional team building. The original headline was they would be sitting at computers. There is research to show that young people’s reading does not improve by sitting at computers. Young people’s reading is not improved by preparing for a test. Young people’s reading is improved by reading.

Your kid is two months old. Are you reading to her yet?

Pretty obsessively. There are some great plot lines in children’s books, to be honest.

In those wealthier districts, the reason test scores are higher [is in part] because those kids have been read at an early age.

But learning is developmental. Just because a kindergartener might be behind because maybe they weren’t read to as much as your kid or my kid, doesn’t mean that they’re not going to achieve. It doesn’t mean that automatically, come third grade, they’re never going to read.

Agreed. My question is: What should the district do? Should there be testing to assess? Should there be testing to judge [teachers and schools]? Should they have Saturday academies? What should they do to help kids starting out in New Haven who haven’t been read to since they were little? How do you get them the same support to learn to read as well?

I think first and foremost, ask the elementary teachers what do they think.

What do they think?

I’m not an elementary schoolteacher. But I would think that really focusing on students, allowing students to bring their own culture into the classroom, validating that, and allowing the classroom to be a place where the whole child is valued so that they can actually still play in kindergarten, in first grade, so they can be exposed to art and music and physics …

… which is how those higher-test score districts do it? 

Absolutely!

Contributed Photo

Blatteau with husband Jim VanCampen and 2-month-old daughter Francine this past weekend at a New Hampshire rally for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

So Mayor Harp says, We want a city that reads. We want to start in the young grades.” So what would you do in addition to talking to the teachers about what they need, in addition to making it culturally sensitive, in addition to not tying [students] to computers and putting pressure [through] tests score and just having them be zombies … What else would you do?

In addition to doing those things and promoting a culture of literacy in the classroom, [make] sure young children’s social and emotional needs are met. That’s probably our biggest challenge as a city, and not necessarily that they’re not reading at a second-grade level. They’ve experienced trauma. Or maybe not even that extreme. But that their parents are working three jobs. Or their parents spend three hours commuting because their jobs are on the Post Road. These are the real issues that — to bring it back to the union, we believe our union should be more activist on those issues, because I believe that’s what’s going to help young people thrive in the classroom. When their needs are met.

So if we had a more compassionate and supportive society, that might take care of test scores …

I’m not saying we shouldn’t be explicitly teaching kids how to read and how to do math. There’s a role for direct instruction. Absolutely. But the obsession over it, to the point where young children are wetting their parents because they’re in a charter school and they’re so nervous about the charter school’s rules — that’s not going to promote the love of learning. That might work with some kids, that level of strictness.

How do you feel about school reform in New Haven?

This quick-fix corporate mindset …. I don’t think some of these people [guiding the reform plan] are going to be very long in the field. They go off to work for with the numerous consultant groups that now exist, that thee feds are throwing money at. They get to work in an office and visit us to tell us what to do rather than empowering teachers who are working with kids.

Click on or download the above sound file to listen to the entire interview with Blatteau on WNHH radio’s Dateline New Haven.” The music at the beginning and end of the episode is by the band Groovski.

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