Willow Glen Resident

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Photograph by Vicki Thompson

New Direction: Presentation High School director of math and science John Howe has transformed the school's curriculum and gotten the students excited about science and math.

How Howe inspires students in science

By Mayra Flores De Marcotte

At the age of 5, Albert Einstein had one of his most riveting life experiences--Einstein realized something in empty space was moving the needle of a pocket compass his father had shown him.

Einstein would become known as a master of observation. He would view his surroundings down to the smallest detail, and in the end he created theories and formulas that changed the way we live.

He was known to have said, "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."

This frame of mind was prevalent during World War II, as scientists and mathematicians made breakthroughs.

One mathematician and scientist was so moved by the atmosphere of the time that at the age of 8 John C. Howe, now director of science and mathematics at Presentation High School, knew his life direction.

"It was an environment that supported mathematics, science and music," says Howe, who grew up in the Highland Park district of Los Angeles during World War II, "but not necessarily in that order."

Howe met two scientists who would have a profound influence on him. Both were Jewish professors who had fled Nazi Germany. One was a geophysicist and the other a specialist in anatomy and physiology.

"They were people in my community," Howe says. "They became my mentors."

Howe found two more mentors--Robert Preston Phipps and Glen Erickson--during his high school years at Woodrow Wilson High School.

"They made a big difference in my life and gave me the framework to come back and work with students," says Howe, referring to his mentoring role at Presentation High School. "It's because of what they did that I came back."

The first 35 years of his career, Howe participated in mathematics and science through his involvement in the aerospace defense industry and government service work.

In 1997, Howe decided to retire, but not before amassing a considerable number of prestigious scientific awards.

He was honored by the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences and received a Presidential Award for Excellence in science and mathematics teaching from President Reagan. He was honored as an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. But even with the accolades, it was the teachers from his childhood years that brought him back to teaching.

"My coming back to teach is all about payback," Howe says.

So the mathematician and scientist spent a year at UC-Riverside as a professor.

While he was there, he observed a real problem.

"The incoming freshmen students had problems surviving their math and science classes," he says. "I asked myself if there was a way to solve this problem at the university level and decided that there wasn't anything to be done at this point."

The only way to tackle this problem was at the earlier levels.

"So I decided to leave UC-Riverside and branch out to influence younger people," Howe says. "I wanted to do something for the disadvantaged."

Howe says there are two kinds of disadvantaged people--those who are disadvantaged by poverty and those who are disadvantaged by gender inequalities.

He decided to focus on biases against women in the fields of science, math and medicine.

"I heard about it through my wife while she was struggling to become a physician in the 1950s," he says. "Bottom line, we could do better than this."

It was then that Howe came across an opening for a mathematics teacher at the Willow Glen private all-girls Catholic school.

Howe came to Presentation school eight years ago with the idea of helping out for a year.

"At that time, schools couldn't find qualified mathematics and science teachers because of the dot-com boom," he says. "Most were in high tech."

But just weeks into his new job, a shift occurred.

"Somewhere, halfway through the school year, I proposed to the former director of science and mathematics at the school that we should encourage the girls to enter national competitions," Howe says, "but he said our girls wouldn't make it. I disagreed."

It was the catalyst that started a whirlwind of change at the high school.

Howe created the Presentation High School Mathematics Colloquial and brought in distinguished mathematicians as presenters.

Two years later, it became obvious to Howe and the school that the mathematics wasn't enough, so the program was changed to the Presentation High School Mathematics and Science Colloquial.

"To date, we have had more than 60 speakers come, some who are world renowned in their respective fields--math, science and engineering," he says.

Five years ago Howe ratcheted the program up another notch. He began working with the students on independent research and entries for competitive science fairs.

"So we did it, and it blossomed," he says.

Along with launching and encouraging programs at the school, Howe has become a mentor to many students.

The outcome of his efforts has begun to materialize.

"Girls are now beating a path to my office door to learn more," he says. "We're opening up windows to the natural world that the girls never thought possible."

And that path has been fruitful. In the last two years, the school has had two girls reach the semifinalist phase in the Intel Science and Talent Search, known as the "Junior Nobel Prize."

"John's innovations are limitless, and the opportunities in mathematics and sciences for the girls are also limitless," says Presentation High School principal Mary Miller. "Together, it's magic. None of this could have happened without him."

Although Howe credits Miller's leadership for the growth in the school's mathematics and sciences, Miller says all she does is give him support and the resources he needs and then gets out of his way.

"He dreams up ways for the girls to be more involved and with his phenomenal contacts makes them happen," Miller says. "He wants them to see themselves in the speakers that come here, so he tries to get women in the field to come as well."

Miller says in the field of education, teachers are not paid to be passionate and they are not compensated for all those extra hours they devote.

"He does all this for the kids," she says. "He ignites a light in them. There's now a quiet army of girls became involved in math and science; it's because of him. It's amazing. It's an exciting time for women."