the dream is alive at franklin - old school projector

Luis Lopez traveled north from Guadalajara, Mexico, illegally entering southern California.
He is 15 years old and is the sixth of 10 children.
His parents thought he needed to speak English to get a job and reported him to Franklin High School in Highland Park.
Now he runs the school.
As part of a project called "principal", I did a day mark with him.
Before I sent a child to the detention center, Lopez was pulling me from class to evaluate the teacher.
In one room, an experienced coach showed the article of the Sandra sinaros story "Geraldo, no last name.
In another article, a projector presents the question of an article about The Great Gatsby: "What is the American dream ? "?
"To what extent is it stable and lasting ? "
"How can Dreams become nightmares?
"The theme is hanging in front of me like the pinata in red, white and blue, and I can't think of a better place to be surprised than Louis Lopez Benjamin Franklin Gao.
As part of the bracero farm labor program, lopze's father came to the United States, but eventually moved to Los Angeles to work at the Frisco bakery to make sourdough bread.
His mother followed by a series of children,S.
1986 citizenship during the amnesty program.
At first, the British confused Lopez.
But the teacher won't let us down with any tricks. -
Including saying what they want him to say. -
By the time of his junior year, the boy was taking a pre-university course.
He ended his studies at a nearby Western College, became a teacher himself, and began to finish his homework at a school in Los Angeles.
He still lives in Highland Park, married to his college girlfriend, raised a family with four children, and talked about returning to Franklin one day.
When he was the principal two years ago, his alma mater was working hard.
Mediocre API test scores in high 500 seconds have become a shame on "Project improvement schools ---
This means that it may face state takeover without rapid improvement.
But when we rip it off on campus, the Walkie-Talkie
The students and staff were very optimistic.
Assen in the West.
Lopez said many schools and colleges have just finished their comments on Franklin's strong self
Improve the plan and decide to re-certify the campus for up to six years.
The main one-day program for the Los Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce is cool, it pushes dozens of knowit-
All the leaders of the company and some smart journalists are against the conventional wisdom: any private
Department personnel with pulse can easily become poor
Turned the school into a well-designed educational factory.
In the two years I participated, the summary of this project
Lunch ends with a confession from the business giant-surprise! --
This school
Things that run are not as easy as they look.
It happened that I had visited Lopez in Franklin before and was as impressed as I was with the fact that he seemed to enjoy his mission.
Today, I watched him pick up the Doritos bag and order the children to drop the hood and write down how his staff taught, arguing with an energetic teacher union representative about the dean's choice, in cooperation with the vice-chancellor's committee, a training course was proposed to integrate the improvement plan more deeply into the psychology of each teacher.
Watching nearly 90-year-
From the old school outside, a tourist saw that the three floors in the fourth floor of the main building had the word "welcome" in Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Italian, German, Armenian, when Lopez's racial eclectic class in 1984 used the walls as a high-class gift, the school's student union spoke Gaelic and 38 other languages. Today 2,600-
Student Main School (
Franklin also hosted a magnet school)
90% are Latino and while most people speak English, many of their parents do not.
The language is Spanish as we stroll to a prefabricated bungalow and meet with parents and community members once a month.
Just a few weeks ago, a suspected gang member shot and killed 15 people. year-
Old students in a neighborhood-
Have a nightmare--
Today, Lopez was anxiously cross-examined with questions about viorencia. . .
Grafiti drogas. . . .
Lopez uses wide gestures and soothing words to keep parents safe on campus.
If he seems to be a Evangelist, it makes sense.
Franklin was his savior.
The teachers guided him away from the influence of the gang, urged him to travel to the university, drove him to the SAT and even taught him to use the utensils "correctly;
Then took him to his first fine dining room.
His parents went there to get information about citizenship.
He knows that people are sensitive to the word "assimilation.
"He is not in trouble.
He believes that the teacher's efforts are due to the fact that all his brothers and sisters have attended at least twice. year college.
He said that now that he is in charge of the school, he will not forget the opportunities or values passed on to him as an "American.
He and his staff are working in local organizations to help the school become a community center again.
They printed their own recruitment flyers. -
"Start your future in Franklin"-
They are working to find housing for new teachers so they can be part of the changing communities and schools.
Forgive my ham.
One hand brings all of this back to the first tricky paper question, but come on: isn't what's going on in Highland Park a good answer?
* Discuss this column or "is the American dream alive in public schools ? " Question?
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Bob Sipchen can be contacted at bob. Sipchen @ latimes. com.