DAY MARKS SILENT TOIL OF NATION'S TEACHERS.

Byline: Dennis McCarthy 

``If you can read this, thank a teacher.''

bumper sticker 

Her name was Mattye Whyte Woodbridge, and if the name doesn't ring a bell, don't worry about it. Hardly anyone remembers what this Arkansas teacher did for her profession back in 1943.

She got the ear of Eleanor Roosevelt, who had the ear of the president of the United States, who had the ear of the country.

Even with all those ears, it still took Mattye and Eleanor another decade to convince the stuffed shirts in Congress that the teachers of this country deserved a day.

In 1953, they finally got one, if only for one year.

Since then, National Teacher Day has been on and off again more times than a Zsa Zsa Gabor marriage. It bounced all over the calendar until 1985 when it officially found a home on the first Tuesday of May.

That's today. So, shine up an apple and throw it in your kid's lunch pail because while a lot has changed since most of us went to school some things haven't changed all that much.

Apples are still the bribe of choice, and there isn't a teacher alive who doesn't like to get a pat on the back once in a while.

Especially now, when their ratings have dropped down in the slum neighborhood with politicians, used-car salesmen and newspaper columnists.

It's a bad rap to knock all teachers for the failure of some, and to blame them for low test scores when class sizes are so large and unwieldy, and so many parents turn a blind eye to their kids' education at home.

But that's another story for another day. On National Teacher Day, the focus should be on the best and the brightest in our community, the teachers making their profession proud.

Every school has them. Every kid knows who they are. Every parent who cares to look knows, too.

They're teachers like Mark Johnson, coach of the El Camino Real High School Academic Decathlon team, which recently won the U.S. Academic Decathlon and received congratulations Monday from President Clinton.

Teachers like Richard Feay and Linda Marsh over at Porter Middle School in Granada Hills. The two were recently named national winners in the Chevron Corp.'s Best Classroom Practices for Science Education.

Teachers like Caroline Piangerelli, who will travel to Washington, D.C., in June to receive the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. She taught for 11 years at Cohasset Elementary School in Van Nuys and Roscoe Elementary School in Sun Valley before moving over to Monlux Math/Science Technology Center in North Hollywood.

Teachers like Barry Shapiro, who has been teaching out of a bungalow in the parking lot of the L.A. Zoo since 1981 as part of North Hollywood High School's Animal Studies/Biological Sciences Zoo Magnet Center.

Shapiro's been named high school science teacher of the year twice, and recently he was chosen as one of 12 teachers nationally to go to Washington, D.C., to present his curriculum to the National Science Foundation because it is so unique and successful.

``You look at the kids over at El Camino winning the national academic title, and teachers from all over the district being honored for doing great work, and you think we must be doing some things right,'' Shapiro says.

If there was one thing this 33-year veteran teacher would put at the top of his wish list on National Teacher's Day, it would be more parental involvement, like he had years ago.

``When did we take community out of education?'' Shapiro asks. ``When you have 300 kids in your school, and only a handful of parents show up at open house, something's wrong. And we're a magnet school.''

In 12 years of teaching, Caroline Piangerelli thinks most teachers are hard-working and dedicated, but seldom get much moral support from outside.

``On a personal level, the children and parents I work with appreciate our efforts, and think their teachers are doing a good job,'' she said. ``But there seems to be this pervasive attitude that overall things aren't working out.

``More moral support would mean a lot because everybody needs a pat on the back once in a while, even teachers,'' she said.

It's a small step that Lee Jackson and Alex Morice, physical education teachers at Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley, want to take for the 38,000 teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

If it works, though, it could pay big dividends in the moral support and pride Shapiro and Piangerelli are talking about.

The coaches have come up with a car decal that is being mailed out soon to all teachers by the United Teachers Los Angeles, the teachers union.

It is a red apple with the word ``Teacher'' written above it. At one side of the apple is a yellow pencil with UTLA written on it.

``We're trying to bring the pride back in our profession,'' Jackson said Monday. ``Today's teachers take the shots when the test scores are low, or something else is wrong, but they never seem to share in the positive recognition when something is right, like the kids from El Camino winning, or the kids from North Hollywood going to the science bowl,'' Jackson said.

``I want people driving down the freeway to see that decal and say, `Hey, there's a teacher.' I want them to be proud.''

Exactly what Mattye Whyte Woodbridge had in mind 55 years ago when she grabbed Eleanor Roosevelt's ear.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

PHOTO Barry Shapiro, who teaches in a bungalow in the parking lot of the L.A. Zoo., works with students.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News