TEACHER WHO TURNED SCHOOL INTO MECCA FOR GENIUSES WILL RETIRE.Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer NORTH HOLLYWOOD - The question would flummox most college graduates: What are the fundamental laws of thermodynamics The laws of thermodynamics, in principle, describe the specifics for the transport of heat and work in thermodynamic processes. Since their conception, however, these laws have become some of the most important in all of physics and other branches of science connected to ? But when posed by maverick teacher William Fitz-Gibbon to his class of eighth-grade physics students at Walter Reed Middle School Walter Reed Middle School is a year-round school located in North Hollywood in Los Angeles, California. Its original name was North Hollywood Junior High School. The school is a part of the Los Angeles Unified School District. - the nation's only known middle school with an Advanced Placement physics course - almost every hand shot up. ``To not know the second law of thermodynamics for physics is not to know Shakespeare if you're studying English,'' the pedagogue informed his students. Master AP physics, chemistry and biology, he advised, and ``that will put you in an elite group in this country; even senators - you'll know more than they do.'' Fitz-Gibbon, who in 1971 founded the Individualized Honors Program at Walter Reed that spawned gifted studies programs beyond grade school throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. , will be feted today by officials and students during a ``Farewell to Fitz'' bash. The science-and-math whiz who led math teams from Walter Reed - and California - to numerous top awards will officially retire June 30. ``Fitz, as he is fondly known, was one of the first who understood that highly gifted students are overlooked in our schools,'' said Alvaro Cortes, LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) director of support services support services Psychology Non-health care-related ancillary services–eg, transportation, financial aid, support groups, homemaker services, respite services, and other services for Northeast Valley schools in District B. ``He has worked tirelessly in assisting (them). ``He will be sorely missed by the community.'' Fitz-Gibbon almost missed teaching. The Ohio native with an IQ of 180 was a student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at Cambridge; coeducational; chartered 1861, opened 1865 in Boston, moved 1916. It has long been recognized as an outstanding technological institute and its Sloan School of Management has notable programs in business, when he spent a summer in Louisiana searching for oil. It soon dawned that he could contribute more to the world by cultivating young minds than squeezing oil from the bayou. As a teacher, Fitz-Gibbon saw bright students - including his own gifted children - go unchallenged, he said. After he helped launch a gifted elementary program, he found there was middle school to follow up. So he founded IHP, turning Walter Reed into a citywide mecca - and teaching model - for budding geniuses. ``He takes 'em beyond places they've never been - it's unbelievable,'' said Vice Principal Paul J. Scibetta, director of the 200-student Walter Reed AP program. ``He lets kids know that there's nothing they can't handle, and they all rise to his levels of expectation.'' The chiseled chis·eled or chis·elled adj. Made or shaped with or as if with a chisel: a finely chiseled nose. Adj. 1. Ph.D scholar sat before his physics class, beside a wall of ancient radiators, gushing fundamental foundations of the universe. His collar lay unbuttoned, his shirttail shirt·tail n. 1. The part of a shirt that extends below the waist, especially in the back. 2. A brief addition at the end of a newspaper article. adj. 1. ballooned untucked. His hands, when not scribbling scrib·ble v. scrib·bled, scrib·bling, scrib·bles v.tr. 1. To write hurriedly without heed to legibility or style. 2. To cover with scribbles, doodles, or meaningless marks. v. physical platitudes, swirled to make his point. Students engaged, and responded, to every Fitz formula, every Fitz smile, to every Fitz request as inscribed in·scribe tr.v. in·scribed, in·scrib·ing, in·scribes 1. a. To write, print, carve, or engrave (words or letters) on or in a surface. b. To mark or engrave (a surface) with words or letters. on a needlepoint needlepoint: see lace. needlepoint Type of embroidery in which the stitches are counted and worked with a needle over the threads, or mesh, of a canvas foundation. It was known as canvas work until the early 19th century. in the back of the class: ``More work, less talk.'' For Fitz demanded thought. ``Really, the kids enjoy doing what they're doing,'' he said later. ``Why can't they enjoy studying physics as much as playing video games? Is it right to let these kids move ahead? I feel strongly, yes. These kids, when they grow up, they'll give back much more to society than they've been given.'' Students, bored in mainstream classes, seemed to agree. ``Fitz is the coolest guy,'' said Jesse O'Connell, 14, of North Hollywood, who like many of Fitz-Gibbon's students received extra tutoring at his Brentwood home on Saturdays and Sundays. ``I'm not the best math student, but he's really helped me out in physics.'' Each day, Erich Sorger, 12, of Beverly Hills, joins other advanced students from the Westside in a 45-minute taxi shuttle to Walter Reed. ``He's a different kind of teacher,'' said Sorger. ``He really motivates us - maybe I'll become a physicist, too.'' Added Lauren Kim, 13, of Studio City: ``He is sooo devoted and committed to the cause. His basic mentality is, he could have had such a better job, he could have been a nuclear physicist, but he chose to be a teacher. ``I feel grateful.'' Dana Bartholomew, (818) 713-3730 dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Advanced Placement teacher William Fitz-Gibbon works through a physics problem with his students at Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood. Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion