A Family Affair: Or, Six Degrees Of Education

Jejak PandaSelamat Datang Kembali Di Blog Kesayangan Anda
bandar cemeIt was Saint Patrick’s Day, 1986. I was seventeen years old and celebrating the day with a few friends at the Knights of St. Patrick, where my paternal grandfather, a long-time New Haven city alderman, was the permittee. One of the men tending kafetaria was a New Haven cop whose daughter was dating my good friend Jack. I introduced myself as a friend of Linda’s boyfriend. Officer Mahan asked my name and of course recognized my surname when I said it. My father was the fifth of ten children. Officer Mahan asked me, “Whose son are you?” I told him I was Gary’s son, number five. His eyes widened, and Officer Mahan said, “The one who married Captain Fitchett’s daughter?” Captain Fitchett was my maternal grandfather. He was on the New Haven police force for thirty-five years, and had served as both Chief Inspector and Chief of Police at different times in his career. I said yes, and what ensued was like the scene out of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer when Tom, Huck, and Joe Harper appear in church after everyone in town believed they had drowned. I was like the long lost Dauphin returned to claim the throne. Both families used to be like lesser royalty in New Haven, and I was the only son born to both lines. Among all the Irish cops, I was a prince.

My family had lots of cops within my grandparents’ and parents’ generations. Besides my grandfather there were also my uncles Billy, Mike, Ric, and Wayne. But for all those cops, we were (and are) mostly a family of teachers. My mother, father, and step-father were teachers, and so were my aunts Winifred and Betse, and my uncles Red, John, and Joe. Within my generation, in addition to my wife and myself, my cousin Brian and his wife Jackie, and my cousins Jennifer, Nikki, Stephanie, Karyn, and Kevin are all teachers. My brother Steve is a PhD candidate in Math who teaches Introductory Calculus here at UConn, and my cousin Gabby is a UConn freshman who hopes to become a high school math teacher. More than likely, I’m also forgetting someone.

So there are days when I feel as if I belong to teaching royalty, or as if I am playing a game of Six Degrees of Education. I used to joke that if you were from New Haven, someone in my family had either instructed you or incarcerated you. Now, as I work with more and more teachers each year, I know that if I ask enough questions, sooner or later I will find a connection to one of the teachers in my family.

Earlier in the semester I discovered that my cousin Gabby was taking the same Calc class my brother was teaching, though a different section. Steve and Gabby are not related to each other, and before this semester didn’t know one another, but now Steve tutors Gabby. She gets some free help and he gets some practice being a teacher. And just a week or so ago I discovered that a student in my Advanced Composition class had been a student of my cousin Jennifer’s at Lyman Hall in Wallingford. He even traveled with her to New Orleans on a field trip.

But that’s not as surprising as an incident that happened several years ago. I had a student named Lauren who mentioned in her literacy narrative that she had attended elementary school in Hamden. I asked her to name her first grade teacher, and she said, “Mrs. Zito.” That’s my mother. I asked Lauren to let me borrow her cell phone, and without explaining what I was doing, I called my mother. As soon as she answered, I handed the phone to Lauren and said, “Say hi to Mrs. Zito.”

Even today, I learned from my son’s third grade teacher that one of my advisees and current students is doing her clinical placement in her class. The three of them only just figured out today the relationships among us, and then it was like a race among the three of them to see who could tell me first. (The teacher won).

With such a large family and so many teachers, I should get used to this sort of thing, but it continues to fascinate me. Like the time last semester when my colleague was singing the praises of one of her students, and when she named the student I just smiled and said, “Oh, that’s my cousin.”

Teacher Appreciation Week

Jejak PandaHello.. Selamat Datang Kembali Di Blog Kesayangan Anda
bandar judi ceme -->

About this time of year, Amy and I both receive lots of thank you cards from students.  Amy got a beautiful note from a father the other day thanking her for all she did for his daughter.  Earlier this week, I got two very sweet handwritten notes from former students for whom I wrote letters of recommendation for graduate school.  I have kept all such notes over the last, well, 21 years if you count student teaching and three years teaching as a grad student at Humboldt State.  I have a very swollen folder in a file cabinet in my office at home, and many of the most recent notes are propped up or affixed somewhere in my office at UConn.  I also have several tchotchkes and other gifts, like books, that I have been given lining the shelves of my office.  One very considerate former student sent me a Spanish-language edition of Moby-Dick this year for Christmas and a very nice copy of Dos Passos’ U.S.A. trilogy for my birthday.  Another from my first year teaching in Connecticut just sent me a signed copy of her first novel. 

Of course social media has changed this dynamic, and often I now receive emails and Facebook posts or messages to thank me, and of course Facebook lets me keep in touch with so many of these former students.  Just today I wrote a happy birthday message on the wall of a beloved former student I named my daughter after.  I love being able to stay in touch with so many former students this way.  They send me articles they think I’ll find interesting, or write me with funny classroom stories.

I’m also really amazed and pleased to see how many of my former students have become not just teachers but English teachers!  The same is true for Amy.  Many of her former students have gone on to study languages, travel and study abroad, and go into teaching.  The last two Outstanding Scholars in Spanish at UConn were Amy’s former students.  And at this point, I’m starting to see more and more former students come back to take graduate coursework with me in the Summer Institute.  Four of this year’s participants are former undergrads!

I, too, have managed to locate and be in touch with several of my favorite former teachers, like my high school Spanish teacher Kathy Bonn or my English teacher Joe Miata, both of whom are still teaching.  But there are so many, especially from elementary school, that I have completely lost touch with.  One former teacher I’d love to locate is Mr. Brucker, my second grade teacher at what was then High Hill Elementary School in Madison.  Mr. Brucker was an amazingly kind and gentle man who softened a difficult year of transition for me after my family moved from Hamden to the shore line.

When I first sat down to write this evening, I debated whether or not I wanted to rail against Malloy’s reform proposals, or promote some of the CWP’s May events, like our 30^th Anniversary Reunion or Recognition Night for Connecticut Student Writers magazine (the 11^th and 15^th, respectively, in case you’re wondering).  But then I got thinking about the thank-you’s Amy and I received this week, and I also realized that Teacher Appreciation Week is coming up next week, and it made me think about the teachers I appreciate most, not just the good teachers, of whom there were many, but the ones who made more than just an intellectual impact.

I know from the stats page that Blogger provides that many more people read this blog than ever post responses.  (I might get only two or three posted responses but a typical post gets about 125 views).  We’re all so, so busy, but if you can find a moment, please post something brief about your favorite teacher or about a student whose appreciation made you feel special.

I imagine most of you have read the reports about how demoralized teachers are these days, so let’s all give ourselves a boost by celebrating our profession.  Use this space (or my Facebook wall, which often times gets more posted responses to the blog than within the Blogger account!) to share a good anecdote, or even shout out a name.  Who do you appreciate for their teaching?

OK, so this is the last week of the semester at UConn, and I’ll be taking a break from this blog for the summer.  Do check out the CWP’s website for upcoming events, and think about us next year for PD in your school or maybe a recommendation for the Summer Institute.  Have a good last few weeks.  Enjoy your students, read some good books this summer, do a little writing for yourself, and I’ll see you in September!