Saturday Is Next Peace Concert
The next Montero-inspired Peace Concert — featuring two musical groups who will prove diversity is reality, and the handiwork of about 75 students — is Saturday night. Doors open at 6, and the entertainment will begin about two hours later.
The Montero Peace Concert is the epitome of raw, student-driven dedication.
If you play sports at Culver High, or participate in another organizing, ongoing activity, it is easy enough to show up and perform.
Peace Requires Hard Work
But when the concept is as amorphous as stumping for peace, it requires more initiative, more motivation.
This year for the first time there is no public funding.
Sr. Montero said that responsibility for raising the $7,000 to $10,000 it costs to stage the one-night production fell fully on the shoulders of the students.
The Noonan Boys
I am sorry my sons did not have a chance to learn under Sr. Montero, and not only to demonstrate that there is a profoundly different world-view from the one their father holds.
They would not have needed to attend Culver High to know about differently reasoned visions of the world.
But in Sr. Montero’s class, they would have benefited from learning his principles for peace and his strategy for attaining and maintaining peace etched in their hearts as deeply as in their minds.
On Preparation
They would have been better prepared to confront adult life because they would have studied with a master of reasoning, of critical thinking, and a prince of passionately held values.
Like donning an elegant glove, this definition snugly fits my notion of an ideal teacher.
As a philosophical matter, I am sternly opposed to teachers propounding their political beliefs in the classroom, taking advantage of the sponge minds of teenagers.
Making an Exception
Many rules require exceptions, though, and Sr. Montero is one.
He has broad gifts to share with his students.
His highly personalized philosophy and teaching style are tailored to exactly reflect his convictions.
If he were to instruct in an impersonal manner, his effectiveness would be neutralized, blotted out like a giant fog floating over the land.
Montero’s Car Wash
I have heard students say that participating in Sr. Montero’s Conflict Resolution class is like driving through a car wash every day.
Afterward, they feel cleansed, energized, empowered, which I think is why boys and girls come to school every morning.
At the conclusion of classes yesterday afternoon, Sr. Montero and I walked a few feet to a cement bench inside the enveloping serenity of the campus Peace Garden.
This marvelous oasis already is almost five years old, dedicated one year to the day after Sept. 11.
Different Look
Yesterday was the first time I ever have seen him without a sweater.
As, shall we say, a non-liberal, I noticed he was dressed in America’s colors, red, white and blue. His summery, short-sleeved shirt was basically red, but also white and blue, and his trousers were blue.
Just the Right Age
A muscular fellow who says that “I have been married to a magnificent woman for 27 years,” his slender face, deep-set eyes and receding dark hairline complete the framework of this fierce fighter for peace.
At a youthful 49 years old, the Spanish native is senior enough to have achieved full maturity but junior enough to strenuously, joyfully still join in with his students.
As a father of two, a boy and a girl, he has been on both ends of the student-teacher spectrum.
No Changes
Setting out to appraise and laud the unusual zeal — plus the impressive life and professional accomplishments of Sr. Montero — does not represent a reversal of political or philosophical convictions by either of us.
We have had our differences — as recently as last January. Fey, as they say.
This is a different day, and we salute the integrity and pedagogical authenticity of a Culver City hero, Sr. Montero.
