05/07/04

LC040507

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

A public school that works and, as you'll see, they found a
special way to teach some new kids lots of old tricks.

Tim Benson>> It's a different type of learning that we're not
used to, but I think later on when they look back over their
lives and the course of their education, they're going to focus
on this and realize that this is something truly special.

Val>> And then, a plan that could help Angelenos beat the high
cost of prescription medicine without buying from Canadian
pharmacies.

All that and more straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times.

Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

Val>> Southern California's schools are facing so many
challenges that sometimes the problems eclipse all the programs
that work. Well, we found a school that is rewriting the book
on public education. It offers its students a unique hands-on
approach to learning and emphasizes the cultures and events that
shaped California. As Toni Guinyard tells us, at this school
every classroom is a museum.

[Film Clip]

Toni Guinyard>> At first glance, John Sides' eighth grade class
looks like most other eighth grade classes in any school
anywhere, but these Arroyo Seco Museum Science Magnet School
students are different because of what they've been trained to
do.

Jason>> "Hi, my name is Jason. This is my partner --

Melissa>> -- Melissa.

Jason>> "And Paul. We're going to talk to you guys about the
desert."

Toni Guinyard>> Serve as junior docents. They are tour guides
at the Southwest Museum.

Cynthia Zepeda>> Well, I saw this museum on the west side of
Mississippi and I didn't know anything about the museum when I
was little. Nothing at all. I just knew that it was there and
now I really like it.

Toni Guinyard>> They share what they've learned with other
students. On this day, a group of fourth graders is taking the
tour.

>> "You go like this and you have three of them up, you'd get
three of them down, you get one point."

Cynthia Zepeda>> My opinion on museums was always boring until
I got to be a junior docent.

Toni Guinyard>> You're excited about this.

Cynthia Zepeda>> I am (laughter).

Laura Griffith>> The idea really came about once our school
changed its focus and we decided to become a Museum Science
Magnet School. We needed something that would culminate our
experience with our kids for the nine years they're here.

Toni Guinyard>> The idea to develop a junior docent program
came at a time when the museum needed more docents and the
school needed to establish a relationship with a museum. It
turns out that this was a perfect match. The Arroyo Seco Museum
Science Magnet School sits in the shadow of the Southwest
Museum. The Museum Science class is offered as an elective.
The students meet in a traditional classroom setting for three
days each week and head to the museum twice a week. It has
become their classroom outside of the classroom. It's also
become a place to test their knowledge and training.

>> "They would get the acorns. They would pick them up and
nothing would be in the way and they would just put them in
their back."

>> "And if you look at the basket, if you look how it's shaped,
see how it's big here, but then it goes small? It goes to the
shape of your back."

Barbara Arvi>> They've gone through a year's worth of training
and they are doing the job. They do a phenomenal job and they
not only do children and they try to engage the children in the
information they're getting, but they've also done teachers,
they've done adults, they've done American Indian students
who've come to the museum. So they know their area and they
know it in depth.

Jason>> "Here these women are making nets and these nets were
used to catch rabbits and Melissa is going to talk to you guys
about the rabbits."

Melissa>> "Okay. Right here is the rabbit skin that they used.
They used it in the winter for coats and blankets."

Barbara Arvi>> They know the history of the Southwest Museum
and the importance of this museum to the community, but they
also know in depth the importance of the American Indian
contribution to the history of California.

Jason>> "That's just one rabbit."

Jon Sides>> Not only can they tell you about the actual
artifacts in the museum, but they can also tell you about the
people who lived here before, the California Indians who are not
here to tell their stories as clearly as in some other parts of
the country.

>> "It would be very attractive to the fish so it would
distract them and then they would go inside that little hole
right there."

Jon Sides>> They can tell you about how a museum works, how
acquisitions are made, how it's organized.

Toni Guinyard>> What they learn here is applied and reinforced
in their other classes from math to English.

Tim Benson>> There is a great deal of research that they put
in, books that they've read, using the internet to find out
about different Native-American groups of Southern California
and being able to go over to the museum and apply that knowledge
and to make connections with the artifacts, some of which are
hundreds of years old.

Laura Griffith>> We read and we do research and we really try
to put more academic focus on what they're doing, so they're
reading and learning here and supporting what they're doing
there.

>> "And after the Spanish came, like you see, there's metal.
That's when they made. . ."

Laura Griffith>> Every single student will present subjects
differently every single time they do it. They can respond to
their audience and I think that's what education is about.

Francisco Cambera>> Sometimes you get nervous like every other
project, but once you get into it, you start just flowing and it
all comes out automatically. You don't even have to think about
it.

>> "And then after that, you know that this type of acorn has
tannic acid inside, right? So you wouldn't like to get tannic
acid inside your stomach, right?"

Laura Griffith>> They're developing skills that they'll be able
to use forever.

Cynthia Zepeda>> I learn how to present more openly to people
and just not get nervous. You know, presentations go for life.
When you're getting older and getting jobs, you know how to
present yourself.

>> "There's a bigger picture. There's the hot rock, there's
the stirring stick and then there's the acorn. Then after that,
they will make the patties."

Toni Guinyard>> The information presented by the junior docents
to students touring the museum is the same information adult
docents present to adults, but the students are given the
flexibility to develop their own curriculum, deciding what works
and what doesn't work, experimenting with ways to present
information that captures and keeps a youngster's attention.

>> "Throw them. Okay, how many points does he get? How many
do you see up?"

>> "One, two, three, four."

>> "So, if it's four? Zero.

Toni Guinyard>> Huddled in groups inside the darkened
California Room of the museum, junior docents are clearly aware
that in this setting they take on the role of expert and
teacher.

>> "You guys have any questions? No? No questions? Okay,
we're going to now test you, okay? What was the name of the
tree that the acorns came off?"

Tim Benson>> I pride myself on knowing more than these kids,
but when I go and see these presentations, they are amazing. I
mean, we're talking about an entire seventh grade year of
training they've put in and now almost an entire eighth grade
year of training and presentations, so it's very extensive and
intensive and it's remarkable to find out the massive knowledge
that they have.

>> "After they gathered their acorns, they would have to store
them in a thing almost like that behind me. See how it has like
a shelf on top?"

Laura Griffith>> I watch the way they've changed and I have
them all for science as well as having them in the Museum
Studies class last year. I can see the growth that's taken
place. They're so confident and they're secure and they're
proud of themselves and they feel like nothing is too far for
them to reach. They can do anything.

Toni Guinyard>> They are being inspired through hands-on
instruction and, in the process, learning a lot about what they
can accomplish when faced with a challenge.

Tim Benson>> As eighth graders, they look at it and say, yeah,
this is pretty cool. We're going to the museum a couple of
times a week. It's a different type of learning that we're not
used to. But I think later on when they look back over their
lives and the course of their education, they're going to focus
on this and realize that this is something truly special.

>> "Okay, bye. You guys were good."

Val>> Now once they've mastered their museum skills, students
in the upper grades at Arroyo Seco Magnet School become teachers
themselves and share what they've learned with the younger
children.

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Val>> Imagine being able to beat the high cost of prescription
medicine by tapping into a group that gets the drugs at rock
bottom prices. It's not just a pipe dream. It's a plan already
on the drawing board at Los Angeles City Hall. Councilman
Antonio Villaraigosa is leading the effort to buy medicines
through the city and pass the savings on to residents and, as
the councilman tells Philip Bruce, it may be just what the
doctor ordered for scores of needy people.

Philip Bruce>> Councilman, this is a novel idea, a way of
dealing with the high cost of prescription medicines, but who
would benefit if the city of Los Angeles starts buying those
drugs in bulk?

Antonio Villaraigosa>> Well, actually, it's not such a novel
idea when you think of Costco or other market forces coming
together to leverage the numbers that you have to reduce the
cost of an item. What I'm saying is that we should do that with
prescription drugs. We know that, for instance, prescription
drugs are on the rise in terms of their cost. We're trying to
grapple at a national level with what we do with respect to
lowering the costs of drugs and I believe that one thing that we
can and should do in this city is to create a prescription drug
purchasing pool where we leverage the size of city government
and the size of the city in partnerships with the county and/or
the state to create a purchasing pool to lower the cost of drugs
in the city and throughout the state.

I realize that the federal government and the state have been
very slow to exploring their options here and I've said that, in
Los Angeles, we've got to take the lead. I say that because we
know that here in Los Angeles we have one of the highest rates
of uninsured anywhere in the country. We have more children
uninsured than anywhere in the country. We have a public health
crisis, as you know, where our trauma centers are closing, where
the cost of public health is escalating to the point where
people have questioned whether or not we can afford to keep our
public hospitals and clinics open. So I'm saying let's see what
we can do to lower the costs of prescription drugs and drug
benefits, but also even the cost of healthcare plans. In
addition to looking at purchasing pools for lowering drug
benefits, also purchasing pools for healthcare plans.

Philip Bruce>> Now if the city gets into this business, if they
start buying these services and these prescription medications
in bulk, who gets them?

Antonio Villaraigosa>> Well, we're exploring, to begin with,
city employees, but we're exploring if there aren't options to
see whether small businesses and residents in the city of Los
Angeles couldn't participate in a plan like that.

Philip Bruce>> So feasibly, if you live in the city of Los
Angeles, you could be a benefactor of this?

Antonio Villaraigosa>> That's the hope and that's the
expectation. Right now, we've done some research. There's
nothing precluding this on the federal level or at the state
level that precludes the city of Los Angeles from entering into
these kinds of purchasing pools. We're looking to see whether
or not we could actually partner with the county or the state
and, again, it seems that nothing is precluding us from doing
this except for the will to do it.

Philip Bruce>> Now this is not an effort to import drugs from
Canada, right? Because there are other plans in place and other
people are looking at that as a way of getting cheaper
prescription medication in.

Antonio Villaraigosa>> Right. That whole issue of importation
from Canada is actually something that is precluded at a federal
level. There's nothing that legally precludes us from doing
this except for the will to do it. We know that seniors can't
afford drug benefits. Working families are struggling to choose
between paying rent and paying for prescription drugs that they
need and we think this is an important step in the direction of
lowering costs and using the market forces of numbers and
leverage to do that.

Philip Bruce>> Now the pharmaceutical companies are nervous
already because of what's happening on the Canadian importation
and, once again, we point out that this isn't that. But this is
something that could take money out of their pockets. Have you
got any indication that the big drug companies are going to try
to oppose this in any way?

Antonio Villaraigosa>> We've heard that there is a great deal
of consternation among the drug manufacturers. Frankly, there
should be. We believe very strongly that the costs of
prescription drug benefits are escalating to a point where the
average working middle-class family can't afford it, much less
the people who are indigent and the people who don't have the
wherewithal, the working families. So we believe that we need
to move in the direction of using the market to leverage our
numbers and lower the costs of prescription drug benefits.

Philip Bruce>> I know you've been talking with health officials
on the city and county levels here. What's been their reaction
and is there any kind of model for doing this already?

Antonio Villaraigosa>> Yes, on both counts. The reaction from
the public health community has been very, very positive. All
of us are grappling with what we can do affirmatively to
generate cost savings in the area of prescription drug benefits
and there is a lot of support for this idea. With respect to
the second issue, has anybody tried it? Yes. The Department of
Veteran Affairs has been doing this for some time and have
generated somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty to fifty
percent of savings, depending on the drug, in this initiative.
So this isn't something that just came out of the air. This is
something the Department of Veteran Affairs has been doing for
some time.

We know that some states are doing this in a limited area with
respect to reducing the cost of drug benefits and engaging in
pools, so this something that we believe that the city of Los
Angeles needs to take a leadership role in as the author of the
Healthy Families Program which was the largest expansion of
healthcare since Medi-Cal at a time when we're capping that
program. We need to figure out how we can generate savings so
we can put those savings back into providing more care for more
people.

Philip Bruce>> Every time you have any kind of plan, it ends up
costing some money. Is there any concern about what this may
cost the city in spite of the savings you make down the road?

Antonio Villaraigosa>> All of the estimates are that any cost
will be more than offset by the savings that are generated.
Those are some of the factors that we're going to be looking
into as we explore this option.

Philip Bruce>> So what comes next?

Antonio Villaraigosa>> What comes next is that we're in the
process of drafting the ordinance, or the motion, to explore
these options. We'll have the CLA, which is the Council of
Legislative Analysts, and the CAO, which is the Council
Administrative Office, look into these options that we have. We
may start, to begin with, with city employees with an option to
expanding to city residents, small businesses, and then
ultimately partnering with the county and/or the state to
generate even more savings.

Philip Bruce>> And there's an indication that the county would
like to be part of something like this?

Antonio Villaraigosa>> There is an indication absolutely that
the county is interested in exploring these options and these
partnerships.

Philip Bruce>> Well, Councilman Villaraigosa, thanks for your
time on this, and good luck to you.

Antonio Villaraigosa>> Thank you.

To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us
by mail at this address:

Life and Times
4401 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, California 90027

You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or
contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org.

Val>> It's been the scene of countless social events and fancy
dinners rivaling anything at the White House and the owner was a
wealthy petroleum tycoon who got tangled up in the infamous
Teapot Dome scandal. Well, tonight you have a front row seat in
an inside tour with Patt Morrison. She'll show us the treasures
and the secrets of the Doheny Mansion.

Patt Morrison>> In 1901, Edward Doheny who first drilled for
oil in Los Angeles paid $120,000 cash for this house. His wife,
Estelle, begged him not to. When she walked in the door, she
said, I was heartsick at what I saw. It looked like The Addams
Family had lived here. But over the course of the next fifty-
some years, Estelle Doheny turned the Doheny name into a
philanthropic name in Los Angeles and turned the Doheny Mansion
into a civic treasure that we're now going to be able to see.

Maryann Bonino is the curator here. She loves the place in
spite of some of its curiosities and we are going to tour today
the places the public is now able to see for the first time in a
very long time.

Maryann Bonino>> Absolutely, and welcome to the Doheny Mansion.

Patt Morrison>> Thank you very much. I wiped my feet before I
came in (laughter). I'm sure it would have mattered.

Maryann Bonino>> Well, when you first came in in the original
days, you would have looked at something that very much
resembled the outside. Elk head on the wall, bear skins on the
floor and Victorian horror everywhere. Heavy drapes, heavy,
heavy, heavy.

Patt Morrison>> This was the house that had been built in 1898
or 1899 --

Maryann Bonino>> -- 1899.

Patt Morrison>> -- that Estelle Doheny walked into and thought
oh, God, he really doesn't want me to live here, does he?

Maryann Bonino>> No. But, as you say, over the course of the
next fifty years, she exercised and learned taste and rebuilt
and re-modified and made it her own. You'll see the results of
it today.

Patt Morrison>> And much of this is still original? Unlike
other great houses in Los Angeles, it hasn't been gutted?

Maryann Bonino>> Not, it hasn't. But original in the sense
that she went through several processes herself of revisions --

Patt Morrison>> -- Oh, I understand. I got rid of the Formica
coffee table too (laughter). We're going to take a look at some
of the rooms and some of the features and we're going to wind up
with one lollapalooza of a room. Now the Doheny name occupies
two places in Los Angeles history. There is the philanthropic
Doheny who established Mt. Saint Mary's college.

Maryann Bonino>> Well, the Doheny Foundation.

Patt Morrison>> The Doheny Foundation.

Maryann Bonino>> The Doheny Eye Clinic --

Patt Morrison>> -- was very generous to the catholic church?

Maryann Bonino>> Correct.

Patt Morrison>> Left a legacy of books and certainly wealth,
but there's also the Doheny of the Teapot Dome scandal, the oil
scandal. Oil is where he made his money and oil is where he
came close to losing some of his reputation.

Maryann Bonino>> That's true. The Teapot Dome, however, was
not his. He was in Elk Hills and Buena Vista Hills in Kern
County --

Patt Morrison>> -- and he was drawn into the scandal and
acquitted?

Maryann Bonino>> Acquitted.

Patt Morrison>> But never quite --

Maryann Bonino>> -- well, everyone else went to jail, but he
was acquitted. We'll never know the full truth, unfortunately,
because on the night of his funeral, at his request, Estelle
Doheny and her sister Daisy Mae --

Patt Morrison>> -- had a bonfire.

Maryann Bonino>> Had a bonfire. She regretted it later. She
really seriously regretted it.

Patt Morrison>> Well, let's look at this house. Now we have --
this is the Grand Hall?

Maryann Bonino>> Great Hall.

Patt Morrison>> Great Hall, Grand Hall.

Maryann Bonino>> Same thing.

Patt Morrison>> And these reception areas were very common in
that era. If one was to be a great hostess, one had to have
great areas to receive.

Maryann Bonino>> Rooms for different functions.

Patt Morrison>> And this, of course, is the Music Room.

Maryann Bonino>> This is the Music Room, as you can see.

Patt Morrison>> With the same kind of piano that Chopin had.

Maryann Bonino>> Chopin's favorite piano was made by Playo.
This is a Playo custom ordered from Paris.

Patt Morrison>> Did the Dohenys play piano themselves?

Maryann Bonino>> Whether they played or not, I don't know, but
they did have concerts. John McCormack, who was the great Irish
tenor -- and, of course, Edward Doheny was of Irish origin --
gave a recital here. In what room, I'm not sure, but that's
quite remarkable.

Patt Morrison>> Now the Dohenys were not born to the purple.
They were very humble people. She was a telephone operator
before she married him. He fell in love with her voice putting
through all those calls when he was hither and yon. So she was
really discovering her taste as she went along.

Maryann Bonino>> Both of them, you know, had a high school
education and they had enormous curiosity. He had great
instincts, obviously. He had a nose for where the oil was,
among other things, and he started out as a silver and gold
prospector. Eventually, it led him to oil. But both of them
had this enormous curiosity and they grew and learned as they
went along.

Patt Morrison>> So she walks into a house that does look like
The Addams Family. It's really grotesque. Thinks she can't
live here, but then ends up living here for more than fifty
years.

Maryann Bonino>> She died here in 1958.

[Film Clip]

Patt Morrison>> This is the Pompeian Room?

Maryann Bonino>> This is the Pompeian Room.

Patt Morrison>> 1906, the piece d'resistance of the Doheny
Mansion.

Maryann Bonino>> It was the place where they entertained, and
grandly.

Patt Morrison>> Quite grandly. What was it before?

Maryann Bonino>> Before, it was an open courtyard. In fact, if
you look as we move around the room, you'll see the outlines of
the original building. It was called the El Jandra Court with
tile and a fountain in the center and it had tea parties.

Patt Morrison>> Very standard Southern California (laughter).

Maryann Bonino>> (laughter) Yes, exactly, but this is not your
standard add-a-room. This is a very special place. The dome is
by Louis Comfort Tiffany composed of 2,853 pieces of gold
febrile glass.

Patt Morrison>> The biggest lampshade you have ever seen
(laughter).

Maryann Bonino>> (laughter) Yes, that's true, and it changes in
texture and quality as it goes up to the top. It's very lovely
at night, but it's particularly striking during the day.

Patt Morrison>> And she put in --

Maryann Bonino>> -- well, there's marble from Tustin quarries.
Some of this marble at the foot of these pillars is from North
African marble. The furniture is copied from ampere pieces in a
museum in Rome. The walls are painted with bronze and gold to
affect a kind of leather feeling and then there are Wedgwood
medallions in Pompeian red to cap it all off. Additionally, we
have some colored glass by the Los Angeles Art Glass Company.
As a whole, I think it makes a very harmonious composition.

Patt Morrison>> What happened in this room? There was no
longer a fountain or Spanish tile, but it was much grander.

Maryann Bonino>> Right. Grand dinners. She had a table -- we
still have it today -- that the entire length has a mirror top
and it seats forty-two people. She had, you know, small tables
along the side. She dined in splendor here. She hosted Edward
the VIII. She strung orchids from the ceiling from her hothouse
which is just outside the building.

Patt Morrison>> Oh, my goodness.

Maryann Bonino>> Put a strand of pearls at every woman's plate
and you could look from your meal down at the table and see the
dome without having to crane your neck.

Patt Morrison>> So you wouldn't get a stiff neck looking up.
You could just look down at the table.

Maryann Bonino>> Right.

Patt Morrison>> So she really became a fairly well-known
hostess.

Maryann Bonino>> She was a well-known hostess and loved it.
She really loved it.

Patt Morrison>> She came into her own.

Maryann Bonino>> Came into her own in many ways. That was one.

Patt Morrison>> When Mrs. Doheny died in 1958, she left a great
deal, including this building, to the church and the church has
turned it into --

Maryann Bonino>> -- well, it's now part of -- it's owned by Mt.
Saint Mary's College. It's a very important part of our mission
because this mansion is an embodiment of all sorts of things
that we stand for. Reverence for history, love of beauty, a
sense of possibility because the Dohenys came from nothing.

Patt Morrison>> Reinvention?

Maryann Bonino>> Reinvention, yes, growth, and giving back to
the community. That's the most important thing. We try to
inculcate all of those values in our students.

Patt Morrison>> And that's why you're opening it up for the
public to see as well.

Maryann Bonino>> To share with them as well.

Patt Morrison>> Part of the legacy of Los Angeles.

Maryann Bonino>> Exactly.

Patt Morrison>> Good. We'll be back.

Maryann Bonino>> Oh, good. Thank you.

Val>> Mt. Saint Mary's College has owned the Doheny Mansion for
the past forty years. It's been off-limits to the general
public for most of that time, but the college has decided to
open the house up for regular tours. That's our program. I'm
Val Zavala. For all of us at Life and Times, thanks for
watching.

Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

Val>> Next time on Life and Times, a major development
encounters an Indian burial ground. Now the battle is on over
what happens next.

>> This is an extremely high number because it is an intact
cemetery. This is a village site. This belongs, and always has
been respectively belonging, to the Tongva people.

Val>> That's next time on Life and Times.