Laying down the law: Chet Martine and Marna Blanchard

In honor of Valentine’s Day, we’re celebrating the unexpected friendships that have formed between some of our volunteers and teachers. We sat down with a handful of volunteer/teacher pairs to talk about how their partnerships have unfolded since they started working together. Check back each day this week for a new story.Volunteer Chet Martine — better known to many as Grandpa Chet — has become an integral part of Marna Blanchard’s social studies class over the last seven years. Chet, a former lawyer, signed up to help Marna host a mock trial in her class in 2008 and never left.Q: What brought the two of you together?

Chet: I had been working in Sunnyvale and living in Orinda and driving back and forth. Working too much there, working too much at home and finally my doctor said, and I still have the prescription, ‘Stop working.’ If I was really smart, I would have found a dominos group or something. It was actually my wife who found this opportunity.Marna: I had volunteers in the past, but I got blessed when Chet came in. I had put a call out for lawyers or people with legal background to help with my first mock trial. Chet came with that and stayed and stayed. What was amazing for me was that I found a co-teacher. You constantly bring in things. The fact that you love to write poetry and that you share it with the kids is huge.

Q: How has Chet made a difference in your classroom?

Marna: I can think of two very clear examples where having Chet there was completely invaluable. One was with this kid who had a huge attention problem and Chet was working on the mock trial with us and she was one of the lawyers. Her attendance was spotty and he made arrangements to come in to meet her and to work with her. She just loved it. She just came alive and engaged. Then, when it came time for her part in the trial, she won for her side, because she really understood it and got it.

Q: How did having two of you make the trials more manageable?

Chet: What helped make it work was the extra facilitation. It was cooperation, but it was a lot more than any of us got in terms of effort and trying to get the students to understand that you can take this little paperback book and turn it into an actual trial.

Marna: I couldn’t have done that work if I didn’t have Chet.

Q: What’s made your relationship successful?

Marna: The thing for me with a volunteer is it’s somebody who really enjoys working with the kids, really has a solid academic background themselves and really knows how to talk to kids.

Chet: I have five of my own, so…Marna: Especially middle school, the kids are so in-between everything, and everything is a huge thing.Chet: They’re finding out who they are as individuals.

Q: Why start speech and debate at your school?

Marna: It’s critical, but it’s really hard to do. You have to find materials that will engage and are at an appropriate level. You’re also getting that career to college piece by having a volunteer with Chet’s background. Since the first trials, I always have the kids dress up. Chet got us over 100 ties. Even the girls are wearing them, and sixth-graders are saying, ‘Oh, in eighth-grade you get to dress!’ It’s becoming institutionalized. It’s so critical to get kids to speak. Then, on top of that, it’s how do you get them to speak? It’s having a volunteer like Chet who can pull some kids aside and do small group work. It’s having someone who will bring in the donations like ties. When you dress up somebody, it changes their persona and suddenly the timid child’s shoulder are back, the head is up a little higher, the voice is a little bit better because they feel different. Being able to get our quiet ESLs comfortable and confident and to be able to speak out, it’s what it’s all about.

Q: What advice do you have for someone who is thinking about becoming a classroom volunteer?

Marna: Volunteers who show up once a month or once in a blue moon, you don’t build a relationship with the children. For the populations that Chet has worked with with me, they’re all high-risk. Those high-risk kids need to know that there is a consistent adult in their life. Knowing that when they’re really stuck they can go to him for help, that’s beyond measure. These are kids who don’t have any consistent role models in their life, so being able to have the consistency in the teacher and volunteer in the room, that speaks volumes.

Q: What’s surprised you most about being a volunteer?

Chet: It’s a comparison between what is written about the U.S. education system in general, in all its failure, and seeing the whole faculty and principal and administration here really grow and come together in terms of working with every student and in every way. The surprise would be that if it can happen here, why can’t it really occur in other places? It’s great and I think the reason I’ve been interested in staying here is because everybody cares. It’s a real together group.

Q: What do you admire most about Marna?

Chet: She cares 100%, which is probably 120%. She will do anything to make good things happen. She’s always looking for new ways to make a point.