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Life & Times Transcript

3/26/07

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

They're talking tough and having a profound impact. Is this what it takes to turn minority students around?

Fluke Fluker>> It was more of a holding up a mirror to them and letting them see some things that maybe they were not ready to see or didn't see before.

Aisha Browne>> Oh, yes. It was definitely tough love. I was like, "Oh, did he just say that to us?"

Val Zavala>> And then, moving slaves out of the shadows and onto center stage. A new look at American history through the eyes of "George Washington's Boy".

It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times.

Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

With additional support for Life and Times by The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation.

Val Zavala>> Some teachers in Reseda got fed up, tired of minority students under-achieving, so they decided to try some brutal honesty followed up with some tough love. They got results, but they also got some criticism. Toni Guinyard takes us to Cleveland High for the story.

Toni Guinyard>> Lunch time at Cleveland High School. It looks like so many other campuses, but there is a difference. It has to do with the African American students. They're being singled out, targeted, and how they reacted is enough to bring Andre Chevalier, the Dean of Students, to tears. You're proud of these kids?

Andre Chevalier>> Very proud of them.

Toni Guinyard>> Do they understand that?

Andre Chevalier>> They know because we love on them and we tell them that we love them and, you know, we're so proud of the things that they've accomplished in such a short time. We have to give them credit for the things that they're doing. It's incredible.

Toni Guinyard>> What Chevalier calls so incredible can be traced back to 2003 when he and teachers, Fluke Fluker and Bill Paden, had a discussion about the African American students, their behavior and their grades.

Fluke Fluker>> Well, our test scores for the African American kids at that time at the school was below English as a second language.

Bill Paden>> I think there was a tremendous amount of frustration on the part of several of the staff members with the image of the African American student on this campus.

Fluke Fluker>> Well, we saw inappropriate language and inappropriate behavior. We saw kids that were calling each other the "N" word. We saw kids that were not really caring about school, not really caring about themselves, not really aware of their future and what it's going to take for them to have a bright future.

Andre Chevalier>> We wanted to, as teachers, pull the African American students out and get them on the right track and get them going in the right direction.

Fluke Fluker>> We were very perturbed and upset, ashamed and humiliated, all those emotions that you could possibly think of, and those emotions evolved into action and the action took the name of The Village Nation.

Toni Guinyard>> The Village Nation. It's a program based on providing a sense of community or family to African American students, a program allowing students to talk about anything. School and home, racism and race.

>> "I don't think it's fair that the two races that are brought down the most in the entire country are fighting against each other. It's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of."

Toni Guinyard>> Not unlike this conversation in the eleventh grade magnet program Humanities class.

>> "That's where the whole racism comes from. It's what's our big difference is. White people and black people, white people and Latino people, and it's like black people and Latino people. Skin color."

>> "We have AP U.S. History, you know. We have AP European History. But we don't have AP Latino history or AP Black history."

Toni Guinyard>> But unlike this class, in the monthly Village meetings, only African American students, staff and faculty are allowed. The theory is that a common thread, race, ties the Village elders with the students, allowing them to take an approach others perhaps didn't dare.

Aisha Browne>> Well, like, yeah, we understand, you know. I can relate to that and I can understand where he's coming from because they also are black people.

Fluke Fluker>> It was more of holding up a mirror to them and letting them see some things that maybe they were not ready to see or didn't see before.

Aisha Browne>> Oh, yes. It was definitely tough love. I was like, "Oh, did he just say that to us?"

Fluke Fluker>> We woke them up the old-fashioned way with a good dose of firm shaking of both love and discipline.

Toni Guinyard>> This concept was unlike anything anyone here at Cleveland High School had ever seen or heard of before, but it was not without its critics. The so-called Village elders were even accused of segregating African American students and parents complained.

Fluke Fluker>> At first, they questioned it and I understand why they would question it. I would have scrutinized that too if, all of a sudden, my daughter came home and I found out that she was pulled out of class based on the color of her skin.

Andre Chevalier>> Especially the parents whose students were doing well in class and doing well in school. You know, this is racist, this is prejudice. Why are you picking on my child?

Bill Paden>> There were ripple effects from a few people and from a few outside sources, but for the most part, everybody was on board with it.

Toni Guinyard>> Since The Village was formed, African American students' API scores, the state's test measuring a school's academic performance and growth, jumped year after year. Fifty-three points in 2004, then thirty-seven, and then twenty-nine points in 2006. Now the pressure is on to expand The Village.

George Diez>> Originally I thought why only African American students? I'd always, you know, wondered why isn't there a Latin version of The Village? Why isn't there an Asian version of The Village?

Bill Paden>> There's this pull to try to do something for the Latino community, which is why we're trying to make a move to encourage the establishment of The Pueblo, the Latino village, if you will. So there's that pressure that's out there.

Andre Chevalier>> We are in the process of bringing the Hispanic students along and pushing them to greatness as well.

>> "One of the things our great black leaders have taught us is to embrace and to love everyone and all cultures."

Toni Guinyard>> The process begins now, despite the logistical challenges of bringing together the school's more than two thousand member Latino student body. The Village Nation is reaching out by hosting the first assembly for Latino students.

Richard Santana>> "I don't care if you're white, if you're black, if you're Mexican, Asian, Latino, Chicano."

Andre Chevalier>> The program is called "Homeboy Goes to Harvard" and it's a Hispanic guy who came from the Barrio --

Richard Santana>> "A lot of times, I would get drunk alone because I couldn't stand my life. I couldn't stand where I was coming from. I couldn't stand what I represented."

Andre Chevalier>> -- who went to Harvard and got a degree from Harvard.

Richard Santana>> "I don't drink. I don't do drugs. I don't need drugs to have a good time."

Andre Chevalier>> So he transforms from a gang member into a suit and shows the students that, you know, you can beat the streets and that you can be a success.

Richard Santana>> "And it took somebody with love to reach out and to provide the support and to guide me."

Toni Guinyard>> The speaker, Richard Santana, received his Masters degree from Harvard and that's part of the lesson here. No matter your background or race or beliefs, teachers are there to guide and support the students no matter what.

Bill Paden>> They're not always making good choices. I mean, they stumble, they fall, they do stupid things. But the beauty of it is that kids have really embraced what we're trying to accomplish, so they self-check and self-police each other. Their dialog is much different. Their conversations are more respectful toward each other.

Andre Chevalier>> As someone once said, students don't care what you know until they know that you care. We show that we care, so they show us that they care by going to class, by doing their schoolwork, by not disrespecting teachers and administrators on campus. So it's definitely happening.

>> "And The Village came here because three people had a vision. Just three people had a common vision, brought it here and stuff is happening. That's how it happens. None of us are powerless and, you're right, it needs to be done, so do it. Not you, but all of us. Do it."

Fluke Fluker>> We know the African proverb that "It takes a village to raise a child." In this case, it took children to raise a village, meaning adults to do what they need to do in the first place.

Toni Guinyard>> So you put some of the blame on yourself and others?

Fluke Fluker>> Absolutely, the blame is on adults, absolutely. Because we have forgotten these kids. We have not taught them the lessons that we learned during the civil rights movements and we have not translated that into their language for them to understand.

Toni Guinyard>> They're speaking their language now, attracting attention along with criticism and praise. I'm Toni Guinyard for Life and Times.

Val Zavala>> So what do you think of the program at Cleveland High? You can post your opinion on our blog. Just go to kcet.org and click on the Life and Times Blog.

Hena Cuevas>> And now for a Life and Times update. The Burbank City Council rejected plans for a proposed Whole Foods Market, saying it would impact the area too much. As we told you, the new grocery store was going into the Rancho Burbank area, a neighborhood zoned for horses near Griffith Park.

Residents complained that the sixty thousand square foot market was just too big for the area. There were also concerns about the increase in traffic. The Burbank Council is now working with Whole Foods officials to see if they can find another site for the grocery store.

And in Orange County, the Tustin City Council voted to tear down one of two wooden hangars used to house blimps during World War II. Efforts to save one of the hangars failed when the Council determined that the proposed uses just weren't profitable enough for the city.

Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, plus transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org, scroll down the page and click on "Life and Times".

Val Zavala>> He was a chain smoker for more than fifteen years. Then he had a stroke and, believe it or not, after he woke up from the stroke, he had no interest whatsoever in cigarettes. That's the true life case that triggered a fascinating study here at USC about brain damage and smoking.

Dr. Antoine Bechara is part of a team at the Brain and Creativity Institute at USC. They studied data from hundreds of stroke victims and they found that sixteen of them were heavy smokers before their stroke, but quit immediately after the stroke. What did they have in common? They all had damage to a particular part of the brain called the insula. I talked with Dr. Bechara about their findings and the exciting implication it has for other addictive behaviors.

Dr. Antoine Bechara>> In the study, we described one real representative case because that patient was very articulate and said very interesting things. That patient was basically what motivated us to do the whole study. That particular patient was fourteen years old when he started smoking and he had his stroke at age twenty-eight. He was smoking forty cigarettes per day at the time --

Val Zavala>> -- forty?

Dr. Antoine Bechara>> Yes, at the time of his stroke. So during that time, you know, between fourteen and twenty-eight, he tried to quit a lot of times, but he could not. In fact, he used to smoke at times where he's not supposed to smoke, like the example I gave you about patients walking outside the hospital to smoke. He was like that. He was hospitalized on occasions and he just could not quit smoking.

Val Zavala>> So he was a hard-core smoker.

Dr. Antoine Bechara>> Right. He was a hard-core smoker. Then he had his last cigarette on the evening before his stroke. So when he woke up from the stroke, he never asked for another cigarette. Of course, this was kind of surprising to his family, especially his wife, because this is unheard of. So really it was a complete loss of the urge. To put in his words, he said, "My body forgot the urge to smoke." So he just did not have the interest at all to pick up another cigarette.

This was a long-lasting effect because, at the time when we did this study, we brought back the patient and we did detailed investigations about his smoking habits. He was thirty-eight years old, so that was ten years later. He never went back to smoking and never had an interest in smoking, so it's like a light switch went off.

So that's when we looked and focused on those kind of quitters, those people who quit very easily without any effort whatsoever. Then we looked at what is common about their brain lesions and it turned out to be one particular area in the brain called the insula.

Val Zavala>> The insula is a distinct area located deep inside the brain. It's the area responsible for feelings and emotions, especially those associated with learned behaviors like smoking.

Dr. Antoine Bechara>> This is where the stroke really happened. These are sections of the brain. You can see them here. See this one section where you can see a healthy insula right over here, but you can see it destroyed on this side of the brain. This is an actual patient who had a stroke.

Val Zavala>> So what does that mean? Does that mean that this is a way to treat addiction somehow? Of course, you can't choose to have a stroke and you can't choose to have it just in the right place, but what are the implications for treatment of smoking addiction?

Dr. Antoine Bechara>> Well, what is very important is that you have an area of the brain, you know, that looks like if you go after it, it's a target area and, if you can interfere with its function, then you're very likely going to disrupt addictive behaviors. Not only smoking, but I think it also applies to many other addictive behaviors like alcohol and maybe obesity. You know, over-eating.

Val Zavala>> Drug addiction?

Dr. Antoine Bechara>> Drug addictions, of course. From a therapeutic perspective, of course. You don't want to go around and lesion peoples' insula because, I mean, these people happen to have a stroke. There are ways to target that area and that's what makes therapeutic intervention's insight because you know a specific area of the brain that you can go after.

One can go after it in several ways. You know, with pharmacological therapies, but that's something that has to be devised. So one has to target the receptors within that area with drugs and you may help people quit smoking easily. There are other ways. Some of them are invasive, but I hope for some non-invasive techniques to come around.

Val Zavala>> Invasive meaning surgery.

Dr. Antoine Bechara>> Yes. I mean, it's not surgery, though. As I said, you don't want to lesion the insula. There are deep brain stimulation techniques where you may use electrodes and you stimulate parts of the brain.

Val Zavala>> That can reach way down.

Dr. Antoine Bechara>> Right.

Val Zavala>> So what's the next step? You and your team have discovered this. What happens next? Do you explore more or are other people interested in building on your research? What happens next?

Dr. Antoine Bechara>> Well, somebody taught me once that you never give out your research plans (laughter). They're secrets. But absolutely right. I mean, there are so many obvious questions that need to be answered, you know, following this.

First of all, we need to enlarge the sample, so we need to look at more patients just to make sure that this is a reliable phenomenon. One should look at whether this also applies to other substances of abuse. I mean, one can look whether this is also true for alcoholism, for hard drugs like methamphetamine, cocaine and so on.

Val Zavala>> And, as you said, even obesity.

Dr. Antoine Bechara>> Even obesity, of course, yes. So these are quite a few obvious potentials (laughter) that can be tried and should be pursued and, of course, we cannot pursue everything. But that's what science is all about. You know, there are a lot of colleagues, other scientists, who would be able to pursue some of these questions.

Val Zavala>> Dr. Bechara, congratulations to you and your team for a fascinating study. Thank you.

Dr. Antoine Bechara>> Thank you. Thank you very much.

Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address:

Life and Times
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You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org.

Val Zavala>> He knew our first president better than almost anyone else. He was his confidante, his personal servant, his slave, but what would history look like from a slave's point of view? Well, that's the approach of a new play called "George Washington's Boy". Vicki Curry talked with its writer and director, Ted Lange.

Vicki Curry>> Ted Lange, your new play is called "George Washington's Boy". What is it about?

Ted Lange>> It's about George Washington's favorite slave who was with him throughout the American Revolution and throughout his years as our first president. The play is from his point of view. It's what we see him see and feel as George Washington historically goes through the things that he went through.

Vicki Curry>> So it's based on a real person?

Ted Lange>> It is real, yeah. I did a lot of research. I found the guy accidentally by reading a book by Joseph Ellis called "His Excellency, George Washington". This character popped up like four times in the book and I was like, "I never heard of this guy. Who is this guy?" Then to find out that he was with George Washington, he carried his spyglass. He was on the battlefield with George Washington. You never see anything about this guy.

So then as I started doing research on the character, some other slaves came into view that were just as fascinating, so I wove a story around sort of the black point of view on the American Revolution and on our first presidency. Everyone in this play is real. There are no made-up characters and the events are true.

[Film Clip]

Vicki Curry>> Why was it important to you to tell this story?

Ted Lange>> Because no one knows it. I mean, I had to dig through tons of books. I had about forty-six to maybe fifty books that I had to go through just to get information and then it was all scattered. It's an anecdote here, it's something there and, overall, you get a kind of view of what it was like to be a slave at that time, what they were going through and how these lives evolved.

I did some research at Mount Vernon. I went to Philadelphia and I would ask the docents if they knew about Billy Lee. A lot of times, they didn't, but they knew about some other slave called Hercules and another slave called Oney Judge. They knew about those slaves. So it's like that. It's like finding that and then re-educating and then, at the same time, hopefully entertaining the public about our history. That's my history, that's your history, but it's hidden and I want to uncover the history. I don't want it to be hidden. I want people to know what it is.

Vicki Curry>> What did you learn about Billy Lee?

Ted Lange>> The more I peeled away the artichoke leaves and got to the heart of it, the more I found that this was a fascinating guy.

[Film Clip]

Ted Lange>> Billy Lee was a horseman. He and Washington rode all the time. So out of that relationship of them being great horsemen, because Billy Lee was a wonderful horseman, a bond grew. My thesis in the play is, if you research Washington, there are some things that he did that historians cannot explain why he did certain things. It was totally against his character. I think that he was talking to his slave and the slave said, "Hey, Massa, what do you think about this?" and then he would reconsider maybe what he did. I don't if it's true. I don't know if it's true, but that's my thesis and I'm sticking to it (laughter).

[Film Clip]

Ted Lange>> Billy Lee falls in love. When they're in Philadelphia, he falls in love with a free woman. Her name is Margaret Thomas. What is the dilemma of that? Here you are a slave, she's free, and yet you want to be lovers. You want to get married, but the system that you're living in does not facilitate that really. What is the inherent drama in all of that? That's some of the things that the play addresses.

[Film Clip]

Ted Lange>> Billy Lee learns how to read. You have two slaves sitting in a kitchen reading the Declaration of Independence. That's the template for me. What are those two guys thinking when they read this?

[Film Clip]

Ted Lange>> The play follows those things, but it ends on Billy Lee who never, ever escaped or ran away from Washington. But on his deathbed, Washington gave him his freedom. He was the only slave out of all of Washington's slaves. One slave got his freedom immediately and that was Billy Lee. The others were to have their freedom after Martha died.

So what was the relationship between these two men? He was the only founding father to free his slaves. Jefferson never freed any of his slaves. What was the relationship between George and Billy Lee that George felt compelled to give him his freedom? That's what the play is about.

Vicki Curry>> So you've had this long career doing a number of things and yet you're best known for your role on "The Love Boat". What is that like for you?

Ted Lange>> It's great because it's a double-edged sword. Sometimes you go on an audition and it's not a good thing. Sometimes you go on an audition and it is a good thing, so you kind of live with it. Hopefully, you're not dictated by that, but it's just a part of your history.

Vicki Curry>> Has the show's success helped you pursue more of your theater work?

Ted Lange>> Oh, yes, absolutely because they know that you have a certain fan basis in television and that you can draw an audience. The great thing is that, hopefully, as an artist, you grow. Whether it's writing plays or acting different parts or directing or whatever, I've been very fortunate in that I found that I have skills in a couple of different areas so that I can direct television or I can direct theater. I can write plays or I can write screenplays and I get to express myself through my art.

Vicki Curry>> Ted Lange, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us.

Ted Lange>> Thank you very much.

Val Zavala>> "George Washington's Boy" is playing at the Horseshoe Theater at Los Angeles Valley College in Van Nuys through March 4. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.

Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

With additional support for Life and Times from The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation.

Sponsored in part by:


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