Portait of my Mentor:
Pamela Volker
Headmistress
Warren-Walker Elementary School
Point Loma:
4605 Point Loma Avenue
San Diego, CA. 92107
Mentor Interview Highlights:
1.~Q: How did you come to be in the career you are now?
~A: "I started out teaching in Escondido for 10 years, and during that ten years Mr. Volker was teaching at Francis Parker. We would come home and share our stories about public school, private school, public school, private school; and although I loved doing what I was with the kids I began to realize that my philosophy of education was not in sync with the public school philosophy of education. I realized that I needed to leave public education and go into private education. The story is this: One day when I was so frustrated with the things that were going on in the school district, we drove by a one room school house and i said ""Ray all I want is a one-room school house, if I just had a one-room school house of my own I could teach the way I want to teach and do what i want to do and I wouldn't have to deal with the school district."" I didn't mean it at the time but that's what I said to him. Then, he was at Francis Parker at the time, and before he had gotten his masters degree at USD in administration and was looking for a job as a headmaster. The former person who ran this school, Ruth Sweeney, called Francis Parker saying she needed to hire a headmaster, and they recommended Ray. So she interviewed Ray, saying she was ready to retire and wanted someone who would not only lead the school but buy it eventually. He came home from that inter view and said ""Pam do you remember years ago when you said that all you ever wanted was your own one room school house? Did you mean it?"" I said ""Absolutely, I want out of public schools now!"" So Mrs. Sweeney interviewed both of us and we decided it was something we could do."
2.-Q: What is your philosophy on education?
-A:"Basically it is that my goal for these kids is yes to have a challenging program that will get them into a challenging high school program but to do it in a way that is broad so that they have experience in music and art and all different things and all sorts of experiences so they can see themselves being successful in a lot of different ways. Rather than just put them on a track this is strictly academic, our goal is for them to get to college and see their many talents and many choices, so that's really our goal to help children be all they really can be."
3.~Q: What is your favorite part about being headmistress?
~A: "Having alumni come back! hahaha No really, truly, it is seeing the fruits of your labor. I go to eighth grade graduations and they used to want me to present but I couldn't do it because I'd always cry. So I said ""no I'm going to go to the 8th grade commencement and I'm going to enjoy every minute of it, so I can really see who these kids have become and just experience it."
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