Teacher Stays Put to Keep Kids Moving

Simone Lehaf stopped the boy as he erased the paper, blotching the pencil mark over the page.

“You did this very well,” Lehaf said. “Please don’t try to erase. Just keep going.”

The boy, an 11-year-old working at the first-grade level at best, protested. His paper was ugly, he said.

“No, it’s not ugly,” Lehaf reassured gently. “It’s OK. Just keep on moving. The important thing is to keep on moving.”

As a special education teacher at Robert Fulton Middle School in Van Nuys for 27 years, Lehaf encourages her students to keep moving, hoping that the learning she puts into their minds will not be erased.

On her first day on the job she was filled with trepidation as she waited for students to arrive. One girl who walked into the room would remain for three years and become very special to her. For weeks they studied addition and subtraction with double columns of figures.

“Then spring break came,” Lehaf said, “and she had forgotten everything.”

She had been warned that she would burn out within three years. She was advised to get a certificate to teach more traditional education or to be an administrator, so she could move on. She got the certifications, but remained at Fulton, staying on the job because of the children.

“I fell in love with them,” Lehaf said. “They are the sweetest, nicest kids in the school.”

Lehaf came to Los Angeles 28 years ago from her home in Cairo and lives in West Los Angeles. Her husband died five years ago, but she has a 35-year-old son, a grandson and newborn twin granddaughters. Her way with people and her dedication to the students have earned her the respect of her co-workers, who like to point out that Lehaf speaks five languages--French, Arabic, German and Spanish and, of course, English.

“She’s a giving person, not a taker,” said Rick Resnick, her classroom assistant for nearly three years.

“She has lots of patience,” said Resnick’s wife, Judy, a clerk in the school’s counseling office.

“She’s a truly gifted teacher,” said Nancy Fox, a teacher mentor at the school.

Earlier this school year, when sixth-graders were added to Fulton, Lehaf thought about retiring. The younger students were a bit more unruly and had made the job more difficult.

“Thank God I turned 55 and I can retire,” she found herself saying.

But by going back to the basics, rewarding students for good behavior, she soon found she could control the older youngsters and she wouldn’t have to leave the children she loved. “Now I’m very happy,” Lehaf said. “I don’t think I’m retiring.”

On a recent day, Lehaf sat down at a table with four students poring over a basic language skills book. Repeatedly and patiently she went over an exercise on contractions.

In correcting a line in his book, the 11-year-old boy again started to make unnecessary erasures. “No, honey,” Lehaf said. “Not the whole thing, just the first letter.”

He paused, and then asked why there was no school on Monday. Lehaf explained that only teachers have to come in for meetings. But he wanted to come to see her, he said.

“You would rather come here on your day off to see me?” Lehaf said, beaming and slightly embarrassed. “My goodness.”

Personal Best is a weekly profile of an ordinary person who does extraordinary things. Please send suggestions on prospective candidates to Personal Best, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Or fax them to (818) 772-3338. Or e-mail them to [email protected]