Jeanette is a graduate from UCLA with a major in music and a minor in English. She goes to work at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles. Garfield later becomes world famous for its math teacher, Jaime Escalante and the movie "Stand and Deliver." While working for the Los Angeles Unified School District she begins a double life that includes meeting and associating with some of the most famous musicians of the era: Jim Morrison, the Rolling Stones, P.J. Proby and James Brown, plus the Dave Clark Five, the Hollies, Keith Relf and others. These form just a part of the memoir that Jeanette shares as her life unfolds as both a teacher and a rock and roll junkie. Jeanette works at Garfield High School during the radical "sixties," and the nation is at a boiling point with student protests, anti-war demonstrations; rebellion is the name of the game. Later she transfers to Venice High School on the Westside. The year is 1968 with demographic changes affecting the very fiber of education. Students now are challenging all authority while education is turned topsy-turvey. The heart of this book is that teaching is an art, but she expresses continuing concerns about the realities within the classroom as well as the difficulties now faced in education. Teachers need administrative support, along with the ongoing understanding of the difficulties so frequently experienced within the classroom.
About the Author: About the Author Jeanette, a UCLA grad, is torn between following her natural inclination of being an opera singer, to that of following her love for literature. Growing up in L.A., she attended L.A. City College for two years and then matriculated to UCLA where she graduated with a major in English Literature and a minor in music. Even now, she divides her time between music and literature. She also attends a 12-step meeting, ACA (Adult Children of Alcoholics), and continues to pray for a grandchild. Jeanette has made L.A. her home. She and her husband have lived in Los Angeles, the Los Feliz area, for the last 37 years. However, she has made five trips to Europe and Israel, widening her worldview. Jeanette married an Israeli, John Haddad, and they have one beautiful daughter, Christina, who finished three years of college and is now married. This daughter has yet to determine what course she will follow in life, but she is happy and that is the main thing. All together Jeanette worked for the Los Angeles Unified School District for 35 years. She spent five years at Garfield High School and 30 years at Venice High School. When she first arrived at Venice High School it was a turbulent time. This was during the walkouts of 1968 and 1969. Students were over-turning desks, running in and out of the rooms and were completely out of control. Police were both on campus and off the campus. There were helicopters overhead. After 35 years as a teacher, Jeanette believes that schools have become a political quagmire of disruption and teachers need to be free to teach, as only they know best. Schools need to be a place for learning. And finally, Jeanette emphasizes, to her wonderful, beautiful daughter and her daughter's great father, to whom this book is dedicated. "John Haddad has stood by each of us," Jeanette says, "through the years. The two never finished college, but they didn't need to, finding happiness in what they are doing now, without the stress of teaching."