As I walked through what COC now calls the “Central Commons” area, I was struck, for the 1000th time, how ugly the first generation of COC buildings are. You know what I’m talking about, the concrete monoliths that were the unimaginatively named C & M buildings from the early 1970s until about three years ago:

In 2009, the College renamed its buildings after people and local canyons, rather than letters of the Alphabet. I give you Bonelli Hall

I say ugly because, objectively, who could love that architecture? It’s stark, cold, purely functional and doesn’t fit in with its surroundings or the environment at all. It’s a beige box PC when what you really want is an iMac.  It’s so out-of-place it’s as if a slate-gray, used and weathered 1973 Volvo was dropped into a Ferrari showroom. It looks like something out of East Germany. It’s almost brutal, isn’t it?

In fact it is! This style of architecture is known as “Brutalism,” and if you’ve ever attended public university or community college in California, you’ve probably spent time doodling in a class held in a Brutalist-inspired building. Here’s what Wikipedia says about the Brutalist style:

Brutalist buildings usually are formed with striking repetitive angular geometries, and, where concrete is used, often revealing the texture of the wooden forms used for the in-situ casting. A common theme in Brutalist designs is the exposure of the building’s functions—ranging from their structure and services to their human use—in the exterior of the building.

…

Brutalism gained considerable momentum in the United Kingdom during the mid twentieth century, as economically depressed (and World War II-ravaged) communities sought inexpensive construction and design methods for low-cost housing, shopping centres, and government buildings. Nonetheless, many architects chose the Brutalist style even when they had large budgets, as they appreciated the ‘honesty’, the sculptural qualities, and perhaps, the uncompromising, anti-bourgeois, nature of the style.

The LA Times adds:

Brutalist buildings are heavy, monumental and defiantly unbeautiful. Their concrete surfaces are intentionally left exposed. Their ambience is austere.

Brutalism evolved as a revolt by certain European architects against a more widely accepted elegant design of the 1940s called Corporate International Style, which glorified “glass box” construction in a style that emphasized lightness, anonymity and rectilinear precision.

Brutalist advocates shunned it, however, maintaining that the International Style was an elitist fashioning that ignored the cold, harsh realities of post-World War II working-class life.

Brutalism also caught on in California from the 1960s-1970s, about the time COC was being built. So it’s no surprise that during California’s great higher education boom in the 60s and 70s, COC was built in this then-popular architectural style,  thus introducing Brutalism to our little town.

As I walked through COC on Saturday, I realized that Brutalism had followed me everywhere. From the cold halls of the C building at COC to Stevenson Hall at Sonoma State University where I did my undergrad work:

When it first opened in the late 1960s, SSU had the unfortunate nickname of "San Quentin North"

to SSU’s Darwin Hall, where I took science courses:

and all the way to CSUN’s library, where I spent hours studying for my graduate program and where I’ll receive my degree this May:

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that I think you can find Brutalist-influence in other SCV structures built around this time too. Take for instance our Civic Center, christened in 1973 which I think shows hints of Brutalism even at it embraced California’s other architectural meme, red tiled roofs:

and perhaps even CalArts’ main building:

I realized by the end of our walk around COC that I found these old concrete structures endearing and special even as I think they’re ugly and out-of-place. Given a magic wand in which I could replace them with something that does fit in, I don’t think I’d do it. They reflect on a zeitgeist so different from what we’re in now that I ‘m glad they’re here to remind us of the past.

And I think it’s really cool that there’s a little bit of European inspired socialist-utopianism even here, in the conservative, individualistic SCV.

If you love -or love to hate!- the Brutalist style, here is a great Tumblr feed with loads of pictures

Already word of his death is spreading among Hart alumni all over the world and the web. A Facebook rememberance page is set up here if you want to add your memories. Next Saturday a memorial will be held at OLPH on Lyons Avenue.

I had the great fortune to have Mr. Pew as a junior and senior at Hart in 1994 and 1995. I’ve always enjoyed history, politics and government classes, but the mark of a great teacher isn’t just in pushing students like me forward. No, the mark of a great teacher is to engage with all his students, even the ones who are resistant or hate the subject. Mr. Pew excelled at that. Look at some of the comments students left throughout the years on one of those Rate my Professor sites:

He is by far the best teacher I have ever had. As a student you gain so much respect for him that you study in order to not disappoint him.

Legit. I love Pew for AP Gov. Don’t slack. He cares.

And from a blog post written last year when a former student learned he was sick: ‘

You are the archetype teacher, and since taking your class I have judged all of my instructors based on the standard that you established. I make decisions that I think will make my three parents, little sister, and other loved ones happy. For that brief period from 2007-08, you were the outside party that fit into that category. Now I’m older and more reasonable (up for debate), and I understand that my desire to positively promote you as a figure in my life should exist long beyond my days as your student. Maybe I’ll never stop being your student. If such is true, I am comforted by this thought.

Mr. Pew was all those things and more, but I have two distinct memories of him that I’ll always cherish.

Spring, 1995, a year after the earthquake and right around the time of the OKC bombing. Bill Clinton was in the White House, Newt Gingrich was about to shut down the government, and Rush Limbaugh had a radio and TV show. My classmates and I are in Mr. Pew’s 5th period US History class, covering post-Reconstruction America. Specifically we’re studying the unit on McCarthyism and the Red Scare of the 1950s.

Mr. Pew, tall, handsome, and somewhat lanky, but with a presence that left no doubt who was in command, suddenly hands out tiny slips of paper to everyone in the class. He tells us not to look at the paper until everyone has received one. Then he explains what this is all about.

“McCarthyism was a scary time for America,” he says. “There was a real threat from the Soviet Union as the cold war was heating up, and many Americans were concerned about the influence of communism.”

He then tells us to look at the words on our paper, but not tell our neighbors what it says. Mine says “Communist.” He asks us to hide our slips of paper, then orders us into large groups. We are to determine who among us is the communist, and who is the patriotic American.

Go, he says.

Immediately this got my juices flowing and I took to prosecuting my fellow students with vigor. I sought allies among the group, then accused other students of being communists. They, of course, denied it. Factions were formed among the class, with just about everyone accusing everyone else of being communist, but, as the minutes ticked by, you could see that the more charismatic/popular students in class had larger factions on their side than the loner students like me.

After ten minutes, Mr. Pew ended the exercise and all was revealed. The five or so students who had received communist cards were booed (I think Mr. Pew gave communist cards to the more popular students deliberately), while the vast majority of students who had the patriotic American cards let loose with vollies of “I told you so!”

And then we all sat down, engaged and ready to study McCarthyism. The McCarthyism exercise was the talk of campus among budding political geeks like me.

The other thing I remember about Mr. Pew is the deliberate shroud of mystery he perpetuated on his students. Whether in 11th grade civics or AP Government, Mr. Pew never -ever!- let on what his political beliefs were. He always told us that if there was one thing he wanted us to remember as we became adults, it was that the great debate in America is about the size and extent of government in our lives. He told us, accurately, that debates about the size & extent of government run like a thread in American history all the way from the Articles of Confederation to the 1994 GOP Contract with America.

So, naturally, we students wanted to know what he believed. But he wouldn’t tell us, insisting that we figure it out what we believe before we wonder about his views. When we pressed, as I remember doing several times, he told us that he would tell us whether he was a Democrat or Republican on the day we graduated high school.

And here’s the really crazy and infuriating thing. On that day in June 1995, several students and I cornered him on the COC football field after our graduation ceremony was over. We literally surrounded him and he kept his promise. He revealed to us his real political beliefs, but I can’t, for the life of me, remember what he said! I’ve been racking my brain since I learned of his death, and I just can’t remember what he said to me!

That’s just as well I suppose, because what I do remember is that Mr. Pew was a powerful and wise teacher, a man who influenced me far beyond my years at Hart, a man who inspired me to get my own B.A. in History. I wish I had kept in touch with him over the years to tell him the effect his classes had on me, to tell him that he was my favorite teacher of any subject, and to tell him thank you.

Alas all I can do now is write this imperfect remembrance and ask other students to do the same. Thank you and rest in peace Mr. Pew.

But guess what? The wins keep coming. Take a minute to soak in Joey Gulino’s account of Hart’s 19-14 shocker over Valencia.

The bill, AB 515, would allow community colleges like COC to “establish and maintain an extension program offering credit courses,” similar to extension programs run out of universities like UCLA.

But perhaps more important for students in the SCV, the bill would “allow community college districts to charge students for the actual costs of the course.” What’s that mean? No more $36 per unit hour fee; COC would now charge students the actual cost of the course, without state subsidization. Instead of paying $99 for a given 3 unit course, you might pay $500, or $1000, or whatever the actual cost of hosting a class at COC is.

Now don’t freak out yet: community colleges were and remain the most affordable higher education option, and, I bet, would remain so under this program. I think this is actually a very nuanced issue that deserves some attention.

On the plus side, we’ve read for years how, during this terrible recession, enrollment is booming at colleges like COC at the same time that funding is on the decline. Which means that COC can’t put as many student butts in classroom seats as it would like. Just last year, COC told The Signal that:

COC has lost $12.3 million in revenue during the 2008-09 and current fiscal years. The college expects to have more than 1,300 students that the state will not pay for, Bozman said.

“They need to get an education and we cannot afford to add any classes for them,” Bozman said.

Despite the funding hurdles, COC has maintained a class fill rate of more than 90 percent and hopes to get as many students into class seats as possible.

More than 8,600 COC students have been placed on wait lists during the current spring semester.

I could see a future in which, under AB 515, courses that are not mainstream college courses, but rather are more “civic, vocational, literacy, health, homemaking, technical, and general education” in nature could be offered by COC at an at cost rate. That way, you open up classes to the demands of the market, and those who are willing to pay the full cost of the course would have guaranteed access to them. No more wait lists. No more frustrated students.

And, philosophically, why should the state subsidize a 3 unit course on drafting, or early childhood education, or Microsoft Exchange, for instance? Isn’t our goal to graduate these students to a four year university rather than train them in some vocation? Maybe these types of courses don’t deserve subsidies in the same way that English 101, Math 101, American Literature 150, and Political Science 101 do.  By charging at cost rates for these types of courses, you free up money for the important courses that students who plan to transfer to 4 year universities need.

On the other hand, this idea sets up a troubling precedent. Who determines what should legitimately be thought of as a college-level course versus an extension-type course? And wouldn’t the college logically increase the amount of extension-type courses it offers, to the possible detriment of classic, subsidized courses? Don’t we want poorer students to have affordable access to classes in early childhood education or Information Technology? The bill says it has safeguards against these problems, but I’m skeptical.

Higher education is, in my view, a public good. We as a society benefit when people educate themselves. Community colleges, by accepting all-comers (including high school slackers like your’s truly), add tremendous value to the communities they serve and deserve large subsidies to keep them affordable. This bill would bifurcate their mission, making half the college into a privately-styled & expensive career college and the other half into a traditional, publicly-subsidized college focusing on college-level academics.

I can’t decide if that’s a good or a bad thing and I look forward to seeing this bill debated.

But this is Santa Clarita. Place names don’t mean much here, as Mike’s mental geography exercises have proven. And we like to name our roads, monuments, train stations, parks and buildings after people, many of whom are still alive.

So with that in mind, let’s explore some names for Castaic high School, since it’s obviously not going to be named that. Here’s my list:

• San Francisquito High (Mascot: The Waves.  What? Too soon?)
• Aliklik High (Mascot: Indians. Aliklik is the derogatory name applied to our Tataviam Indians by the snobbish Chumash on the coast, who remarked that the language of the Tataviam sounded like “Aliklik”. I should add Aliklik High Indians is way more appropriate than Hart Indians)
• Del Valle High (Mascot: Barons, named after Antonio del Valle, a real Mexican Land Baron who lived over Camulos way and granted land to our own Henry Mayo, who already has way too much stuff named after him)
• MAC Peterson High (Mascot: Truckers, named after the primary business in Castaic which was and remains servicing truck drivers in many creative ways)
• Chaguayabit High (Mascot: The Spellers, for obvious reasons)
• Bower High (Mascot, The Raiders after the Reverend Stephen Bower who did none of the digging but all of the profiting from the discovery of a cave containing priceless Tataviam artifacts in Castaic. Bower then peddled each item off and now they’re located in Harvard’s Peabody museum).

I just came up with these names off the top of my head. I’m sure you can do better. So have at it- let’s beat the Hart District to the punch and list some good names for Castaic High. We’ll then have an official vote on the best names.

“Messina and his gang of back-room dealers have their own candidate in mind for Gloria’s seat, and Steve is playing along with them in an effort to hold on to his seat.  Fellow board members Paul Strickland and Bob Jensen are playing along as well, lest they be targeted next election.”

(Unfortunately, because it is an ad, there is no link to it on the Signal’s website.  But if you can lay your hands on a copy of Sunday’s paper, the ad appears on page A8.) 

If the above accusations are true, you have to be pretty impressed.  Joe Messina was only elected to the Hart board a little over a year ago after four unsuccessful bids.  And already he heads a gang of “back-room dealers” which apparently strikes fear into the hearts of all his fellow board members.  Assuming that such a cabal is possible, one wonders what the motivation would be.  After all, Ms. Mercado-Fortine has been on the Hart school board since 1997.  That’s almost 14 years if my math is correct.  And she served two terms on the Castaic school board prior to that.  Her list of accomplishments is impressive.  What has she done that has so enraged this amazingly powerful Republican force?

In a recent Signal article, Mercado-Fortine intimates that she is being targeted because she is Hispanic and a woman.  According to the authors of the ad, Mercado-Fortine is being targeted for elimination because she is the only board member to have called for a forensic audit of district spending — something that no one else on the board feels is necessary and something that would be a significant expense at a time when budgets have been slashed and districts are scrambling to pay for the bare necessities.

Sorry, but neither of those explanations ring true to me.  In her 14 year history as a school board member, I am sure that there have been other issues on which she and her fellow board members did not agree.  And certainly during the course of those 14 years, Mercado-Fortine has always been a Hispanic woman.

The fact is, Mercado-Fortine is employed by Desert Sands Charter High School.  That school apparently shares many of the same officers and administrators, as well as the same letterhead, with Mission View Charter School.  Mission View Charter School contracts with the William S. Hart School District.  While the two schools are legally separate entities, it is obvious that on a practical level, any decision which benefits the officers and administrators of Mission View, benefits the officers and administrators of Desert Sands are as well.  And since Mercado-Fortine stands to benefit from pleasing the officers and administrators of Desert Sands, she has a clear conflict of interest on any issue that comes before the board involving Mission View Charter School.

This obvious situation appears to be beyond the understanding of the Signal and the attorney it asked to review documents.  I am reminded of testimony before Congress after the Bernie Madoff scandal made headlines.  Mr. Madoff always made sure that the proper documents were filled out in compliance with all federal regulations.  And the paper pushers in charge of overseeing such things at the SEC never caught on to his obvious fraudulent activity because they were more concerned with how the paperwork was filled out than with what was really going on.

I don’t know that this conflict is sufficient to force an end Ms. Mercado-Fortine’s tenure on the Hart school board, but her reaction to having this conflict questioned is extremely telling.  Rather than acknowledging the conflict and taking steps to address it proactively, she came out swinging – claiming she is being victimized due to her race and gender, and then following it up with nasty accusations about other people’s characters.

Please.

Ms. Mercado-Fortine, set a good example.  Recuse yourself from decisions which pertain to Mission View Charter School and apologize for not having done so in the past.  Enough of the drama already.

I’ve been a blogger for almost five years now and I’ve called, interviewed, emailed, and informally chatted with several public information officials and behind-the-scenes movers and shakers in our valley and the region.

And I can tell you this: if I had ever received a response like this, it’d immediately make my blogger antennae perk upright. I’d think to myself, “Hmmm. That’s odd. I asked a PIO for a simple statement and instead I got carefully-worded text verbatim from a lawyer. What are they trying to hide?”

It’s also insulting because it appears they lawyered up before The Signal even reported this story. It’s like they knew there’d be questions about how they spent the money, so they brought in a lawyer as part of their communication strategy.

Like you need a lawyer when dealing with The Signal!

Well now, guess what? It is an issue. Because the District’s reflexive need for secrecy over the years has built to such a point that I no longer give them the benefit of the doubt, nor should you. If they want to communicate to us through lawyers, then we should escalate it above their heads. That’s just what the woman in the article, Michele Lecravian, is doing, and I support her.

Next step is to get you know who involved. Where da Tea Party at? Taxpayer money is on the line and the District has lawyered up. I’d say that calls for some protests up Centre Pointe Parkway way. Is there some sort of bat signal that alerts the local Tea Party to trouble? For that matter, why isn’t Joe Messina doing something about this?

The settlement reached between LAUSD and attorneys representing the students prevents layoffs at up to 45 district schools and gives the district discretion in choosing 20 of those schools.

 Naturally, the United Teachers of Los Angeles is not happy about this turn of events.  According to an L.A. Times article, ”Richard Ingersoll, an education expert for the union, argued that the settlement would ‘divert attention from the real problem, which is that these schools are a leaky bucket.’” 

(Isn’t it nice that we have experts to make these kind of pronouncements?  It is so much easier to call a school a “leaky bucket” than to take on the challenge of improving things in whatever way we can.)

Los Angeles is not the only place where battle lines are being drawn over the issue of seniority and tenure.  There are moves in a number of other states, including Florida, New Jersey, Utah, Wyoming, and Rhode Island to eliminate tenure.  And in Illinois legislation is pending which would allow teachers to earn tenure only after being rated as “proficient” four years in a row, while allowing for the loss of tenure following two consecutive years of being rated as “ineffective.”  http://knowledgecenter.csg.org/drupal/content/teacher-tenure-ropes

While seniority and tenure are not solely responsible for the poor state of education in LAUSD, they have wreaked significant harm, as the recent series of articles by the L.A. Times shows.  Their analysis also showed that had teacher performance been the criteria for the last round of layoffs, rather than seniority, the district would have saved an estimated 25% more teachers from layoff.  http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-1205-teachers-seniority-20101204,0,4822071.story

I am not unsympathetic to the plight of older teachers.  As somone now eligible for the “Senior Slam” at Denny’s, I know how difficult it is for older people to find work and keep it.  And recent Supreme Court rulings have made it very difficult for workers to win age discrimination lawsuits.  It’s always a cost saver to let older workers go, as opposed to younger employees, because older workers generally earn more.

But I have also seen ineffective teachers shuffled between schools and allowed to negatively impact students when they should have been summarily dismissed.  And that is something that just should not happen.  One local teacher, I was told, never submitted report card grades for his students, but due to the rules governing how teachers are dismissed, he could not be fired immediately.  The district had to instead hire a long-term substitute and then assign the incompetent teacher to work at the district office doing busy work until the wheels of “teacher justice” reached their conclusion.

When I saw news footage of teachers in one SoCal city picketing in protest of pay cuts, I, like many others, was infuriated.  Most everyone in the country has seen their earnings go down in the last couple of years, and our states and cities are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.  How is it that people who purport to love children and wish to serve their community can act in such a selfish way?  Don’t they know how lucky they are to have jobs at all?

McGrath Elementary, the school where I spend most of my working hours, is one of those schools that has struggled mightily since it opened, with a student population which is comprised mostly of economically disadvantaged children and English language learners.  Leading a cadre of young, very hardworking teachers heavily schooled in the latest research and highly trained in working with the population they serve, Principal Larry Heath has succeeded where so many others have failed.  The school boasts an API of 859 — unheard of in other schools of comparable demographic makeup.  But will that progress hold?

More state budget cuts loom.  Subsidies from the federal government which saved jobs at the beginning of this school year, will not be in play for next school year.  More layoffs seem inevitable.  As teachers and the Newhall School District enter into negotiations in the coming week, it will be interesting to see how the seniority issue is handled locally and what the impact will be.

For those interested in what we can expect next school year, the SCV Special Education Advisory Committee is holding a “Parent Workshop” entitled “The Impact of the State Budget Crisis on Public Education in Santa Clarita Valley” on Monday, February 2, @ 7:00 p.m.  A group of school board members and administrators representing all five of the local school districts will be there to discuss the projected cuts for the coming year.  The advisory committee says it “will assist you in making your opinions known to our State Legislators following this meeting.”  Of course expressing an opinion is one thing; getting them to act on that opinion quite another.

West Creek Academy Principal Cory Pak

Music is the centerpiece of the curriculum at West Creek Academy, and details on the program have firmed up in the past few days.

As we reported in Februrary, music is a required subject at the shiny new school, and students can choose from violin, piano, cello or voice (the latter two are offered in the upper grades).

The recent West Creek Academy newsletter spells out more details: the program will be administered by Dr. Susan Allen, Associate Dean of Music at Cal Arts.  The lessons will be taught by Cal Arts graduate students, and there is talk of a future connection with the LA Philharmonic.  Dr. Allen is an accomplished harpist with an impressive list of credentials and experience.  Her website has all the details, including this tidbit:

David Cotner of the Los Angeles Weekly wrote, “CalArts dean and persistent purveyor of the nude piano that is the harp, Susie Allen has spread the gospel of new music across the world, from The Today Show to National Public Radio, Carnegie Hall and Gaudeamus Contemporary Music Week in the Netherlands. She’s lectured internationally on music in general and has recorded for Brian Eno’s Opal label. A snappy studio savant as well as an intuitive improviser and an initiate on the kayagum, she moves birdsong moments through trilling vibrations – inverse, obverse and beautiful.”

The kayagum is a Korean string instrument that looks and sounds this:

So… how is the Korean language instruction going?  Our son comes home each week with a couple of new words that he has learned from his peers (he managed to impress our favorite berry farmer at last week’s Farmer’s Market with a Korean greeting, the names of a few fruits and a goodbye — the eastern equivalent of Dora the Explorer’s success with his Spanish). Principal Pak has implemented a closed circuit TV system that is intended to replace the peer instruction within the coming weeks.

You might also recall that students of the now-defunct Bouquet Canyon Elementary were given guaranteed admission to West Creek Academy.  Bouquet’s leftover PTA funds were used to fund the new West Creek PTA, and the PTA Board is largely made up of Bouquet Canyon veterans.  A recent PTA meeting revealed two political ‘power vectors’ at the school: Bouquet parents and Korean parents, both jockeying for position and favor with Mr. Pak.  The PTA meeting went something like this: Bouquet Canyon parents held court on the stage of the multi-purpose room, while about a half-dozen Korean-speaking moms held sidebar conversations with Mr. Pak during the meeting.  Pure pwnage.

Aside from some politics and a few wrinkles in the startup, we’re thrilled to be a part of WCA.

I’m impressed with Mr. Pak’s approach of leveraging available resources to enhance the classroom experience.  Some examples:

• Integrating Cal Arts – the gem in our own backyard – to handle music cirriculum
• Having kids lead some of the foreign language instruction
• The use of Google Sites as a collaboration tool for parents (Google provides its services to public education for free)
• Taking advantage of simple streaming technology to broadcast special events into the classroom — like this week’s award ceremonies.

We feel our son is getting a top notch education, daily exposure to innovative approaches with the added bonus of being a part of a diverse student body.

So Jeff….you have “witnessed” TMC students all over town? How do you know they are from TMC? Are they all carrying Bibles, wearing signs and singing hymns? Are you stereotyping? I thought flaming lib types didn’t stereotype.

First of all, I’m honored you’d think of me as a “flaming lib.” I’ve worked hard to earn that title and it’s nice to see my work hasn’t been all for naught. I would have accepted “bleeding heart” or “commie pinko” as well, but I’ll settle for “flaming lib.”

Secondly: yes, it is just that obvious, literally. Let me give you an anecdote.

My wife and I (moreso my wife) are foodies. We love and appreciate good food. And as such, we appreciate Fish Tail, a Copperhill/Newhall Ranch Road Asian Fusion restaurant that specializes in great seafood entrees at a decent price.

One night we had a Fish Tail craving, but it was getting late. At 8:50 I rang the restaurant and begged them to take our order as we skedaddled north in our flaming liberal Subaru Outback, the official car of SCVTalk. They graciously said they’d stay open past 9 pm, as long as we ordered our food to go.

And when we arrived, they were true to their word, handing us a bag of delicious fishy entrees wrapped in styrofoam containers and bidding us adieu.

Naturally, we wanted to eat on site, but the restaurant was closed. So we snuck into the outdoor Chipotle dining patio, hoping our brown bags of food would fool the ever-present and helpful Chipotle employees. We had the entire patio to ourselves, and I looked forward to a great meal with the best of company, my lovely wife.

But then it happened. One by one, clean shaven, clean-looking college youth poured out of Chipotle. They said “Excuse me,” as they bumped my chair. They politely asked if we were using all our chairs. One of them did in fact carry a gold-leafed Bible. They didn’t cuss or swear and they wore crosses around their neck. Some of them had Southern accents, not unlike the ones I imagine Fred to have.

Soon, five of them grew to ten. Then 15. Then 25. We were surrounded by cleanly shaven, well-behaved college students. It was a Master’s College confab right there in the Chipotle patio.  Naturally I blurted out, “Hey, are you Master’s College students and is this welcome week?”

“Yes” a few of them stated, grinning ear to hear, “How could you tell?”

So dear reader, to uninformed SCVers like you, maybe it’s not very obvious which college a 20-something youth in the SCV attends, but it is to me. When I worked as a bag boy at Lucky’s Grocer, I could totally tell the Master’s students apart from the CalArts student. The COC student, in contrast, looked like a high school student (I plead guilty), but Master’s students and CalArts student dressed the part and were easily identifiable by their behavior, dress, and mannerisms. Not that CalArts students weren’t well-behaved.

I think it’s really great that SCV has one of the most conservative Christian colleges in the USA (one or two steps left of Bob Jones U) and one of the most renowned, liberal art colleges in the USA too. It all adds to the spice of SCV life and makes me look forward to the fall season.