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Sisvan Der Harootunian, 75, remembers what it was like to go to school at Spring Valley Elementary in the 1930s.
SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - When W. Carroll Tornroth entered kindergarten at Spring Valley Elementary School in 1918, Jackson Street was paved with cobblestones — and the school had already been in business for 65 years.
“We just had the one building on Jackson, and then around the side were little bungalows with portable desks and wood-burning stoves,” said Tornroth, who turned 96 in April. “We studied history, geography, reading — I learned a lot while I was there.”
Spring Valley is the oldest remaining public school in California. It celebrates its 155th anniversary Sunday, when alumni from the K-5 school will gather and compare notes from their time learning the three R’s.
Former students may also compare playground scars, such as the scrapes that remain on Sisvan Der Harootunian’s knuckles 63 years after he graduated and stopped playing handball at Spring Valley.
“My first day of kindergarten was traumatic, because it was the first time I’d been away from home” — all of three blocks away, Harootunian said. “But I was a good student, and I enjoyed it.”
When Spring Valley opened its doors in 1853, it was at the corner of Green and Gough, and later moved to Larkin and Broadway, where Helen Wills Park stands today. It set up shop at Jackson between Larkin and Hyde after the 1906 quake razed The City, according to Principal Lonnie Chin.
While students came to Spring Valley to study their basics, many also had firsthand experience with national and world events.
Harootunian was in second grade when the United States entered World War II and his young Japanese neighbor and her family were taken to the internment camps at Tanforan in San Bruno.
Because of Spring Valley’s long and storied history, Chin is gathering memories from alumni that will be published in a history book later this year.
However, there are no surviving alumni who remember firsthand Spring Valley’s place in the fight for Chinese civil rights. In 1884, Mamie Tape, a Chinese girl born in America, was barred from attending Spring Valley. When the school district created a separate school for Chinese students, the Tapes took their fight all the way to the California Supreme Court, predating the Brown v. Board of Education desegregation decision by 70 years.
Today, Spring Valley — now touted for its science-based curriculum — has little of its original infrastructure besides its 24-inch-thick walls and “the linoleum,” Chin said. “That stuff is tough.”
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10:22 PM MST on Sun., Jun. 15, 2008 re: "Parents of truant kids hauled to court"
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Homeschooler_of_3 said:
The schools suck but the districts don't care. They just want captives to keep the $ flowing. We only spend a fraction of the $ PS demands. We use <1/3 of the time schools require. Our kids are FAR ahead of their PS peer group. Our kids receive *real* educations. No PS social pathologies, indoctrination, ritilin, co-ed football, dumbed down subjects, bureaucratic forms, etc. If you have kids in PS, I strongly advise that you get them out yesterday. You have no idea how badly your kids are being miseducated. A grades in US PS must be no better than C's in other countries. Abolish public ed & repeal all truancy laws!
15 agree | 7 disagree
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Republicae said:
There is a very vicious circle that takes place at all levels of government because power begets more power. Bureaucrats on every level will do whatever they can to exert and in most cases extend their power. Eventually, every powerful government agency, no matter whether it is on the local, state or federal level, will always become a tool for those who are in power or who can influence those in power. Look at just about every level of government and you will find that they have large, sometimes huge staffs, well paid and the recipients of wonderful benefits, yet they are also the most wasteful because they don’t earn the money they spend, they use other people’s money, our money and they don’t give a damn how they spend it. Those in government, on every level, will ensure their own job security by continually expanding their “legal” scope or reach into the lives of the People. The must propagate themselves through intruding into the everyday affairs and the private lives of the Peopl
8 agree | 6 disagree
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C. Rakish Spagaletto said:
The purpose of government is to protect liberty. Government was never granted the power by the people to use force on parents who choose not to take their children to government indoctrination camps. This government does not represent the people. The Declaration tells us what our duty is when government becomes destructive of these ends.
12 agree | 5 disagree
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Laissez-Faire Liberal said:
The government has absolutely no right to enslave human beings against their will and force them to attend a so-called "school" that is actually an indoctrination facility that indoctrinates them in pro-government propaganda. America needs to return to its roots of freedom and stop treating so-called 'children' as less than human. All individuals are born with certain inalienable rights, among them the rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness (however, there is no such thing as a "right" to happiness). There is no such thing as a "right" to "free" compulsory 'education' in a government school paid for with stolen money (better known by the euphemism "taxes"). This is an outrage. Does The Lord Thy GOVERNMENT have no shame? Apparently, the Jim Crow Laws weren't entirely repealed in the 1960s, as there are still artificial categories of people who are discriminated against by segregationist pseudo-laws.
8 agree | 6 disagree
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Anarcho_Capital said:
Well said Republicae. Parents should start focusing on pulling their kids out of the brainwashing of the fascist school systems. Punishments for "truancy?" This is nothing more than a policy of harassing those who would rather homeschool their kids. The State's power lies in its legitimacy as an idea in the minds of the people, it cannot survive without this. As a result, the only way to amp up their power is to indoctrinate the youth to obey their authoritarian ways or face State punishment. This generally involves courts, fines, jail time, abuse from police, etc., and a complete lack of teaching on the principles of liberty. More than anything else, this policy assumes that the State has ownership of the children, and is specifically there to break down the family. The State wants its slaves to obey government, NOT the family. What better way to force children to never learn who they are or their American traditions, and to abandon all common sense.
9 agree | 5 disagree
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Republicae said:
Coercion is the favorite tool of The State, no matter what form it takes, even when it is suppose to be for the protection of the Rights of others is and can never be a correct stance by government. The people of this country now find themselves coerced in just about every conceivable way; we are fined, taxed, licensed, feed, levied and restrained by government, all levels of government. While I think it is important for every child to get an education, I must wonder what price we are willing to pay to protect the rights of The State over the Rights of the People. The government has proven, time and time again, that it is not equipped to be either the "social worker or the policeman" of the world, much less this country. It usually fails more times than it is successful, perhaps one day we will get tired of the meddling of government in our lives and retake the halls of power.
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Examiner Reader said:
Government Owns Your Children Posted by Lew Rockwell at June 15, 2008 01:01 PM Parents, if you don't force your children to submit to the daily pro-government indoctrination in the government skools, you will be arrested in the land of the free (or is that flea?).
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Examiner Reader said:
Hello there San Francisco Examiner Let's start by giving the correct story.Mr Pomar has been in his son's life for some time now,Mrs Brown has been going though alot of stuff.At the present time Mr Pomar has been trying to be a bigger part of his son's life,his son does not live with him at the moment,he also has'nt had his name on any documents for school,etc for anybody to call him to let Mr Pomar to know what his son was doing or going though,he now has a team of helpers to provied assistences.it's odd to go to court and get called on truanty's i tought the other day when all of us sat down to deal with this it was a done deal or a start,now the news paper is printing wrong info on a parent,try not to have ratings here is one man standing up for himself,not putting down the woman,but Dam!how can you place a man on a hit list when he's getting what he wanted from day one.If you are dealing with parents get those who are 100% wrong and not just to prove a piont! Manny M
8 agree | 4 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
This area is not the Bayview . Who cares where it is. SF needs to wake up and help its young people. This act is proof that it is not happening in the home. City hall is fine when this happens in the "bayview" they want to take the "bayview" from the black people and make this whole city white! Who cares that a kid from this area was shot as long as the kids at S.I. and S.H. and the prep high school in Pac Hieghts are fine, City hall is fine. WaKe up SF! I need the real San Franciscans to charge of this city. Not some hair gel geek from Marin!
5 agree | 5 disagree
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Marty W said:
Every person should know how to swim. Keep the requirement for swimming. For those who come to high school unable to swim, swimming should be taught as a Phys Ed course, so rent a pool.
4 agree | 8 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Move out of San Francisco. In the suburbs, your child can virtually go to any school of your choosing, plus the teachers seem to care a lot more. Having kids take the bus to go crosstown for elementary school is one of the stupiest things anybody could ever think of. Busing has been around since the 70's, and it's just a waste of money. But of course, they can get more money by hitting you up in the form of bonds and property taxes.
7 agree | 8 disagree
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L. Amiot said:
This incident says parents are irresponsible in teaching children about firearms. Or, consider this: the parents are just stupid people who mated and had a stupid child. The gun control freaks will treat this article like a gift from their diety and bang their drums for more laws for GUN CONTROL. As if that will stop irresponsibity, stupidity, or apathetic criminal behavior.
8 agree | 6 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
To Hell with diversity. A kid should walk to school in the first six years, ride the bus or walk for the next three years and travel across town by bus to finish off High School. Anything else is foolish.
10 agree | 14 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
cant the City use the million or so for that weelchair ramp to pay for lunch for hungry school kids? or does the alioto family triumph over common sense again ?
13 agree | 11 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
As the parent of a fifth grader awaiting the NEWS about middle school I am haunted by memories of my first two tries at getting an elementary school... I am so stressed out and I can't wait for that stupid letter to come so I can plan the next 3 years of my child's life...sigh...
12 agree | 11 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
If SF is in such dire financial crisis that hundreds of teachers are being laid off, then why are Ammiano and Newsom launching a million-dollar campaign to post billboards reminding illegal aliens of all the freebies they can get?
41 agree | 40 disagree
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