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"He Saw in Me What I Didn't See"
Prominent Bostonians recall their favorite teachers
Teachers pass in and out of a child's life with each school year but some stay a lifetime, remembered as a beloved teacher who inspired a student to reach beyond all expectations.
SENATOR EDWARD KENNEDY REMEMBERS...
...three cherished mentors. The first was Reggie Nash, a history teacher and baseball coach at Milton Academy. "As a coach, Nash had a different approach to students. He really brought out the best in them." Kennedy recalls almost 60 years later. "He was a fun teacher, a lively teacher."
It was Nash who gave Kennedy a love of history but it was Milton Academy Headmaster Arthur Bliss Perry who gave him a love of the English language.
"He had a very serious presence," Kennedy says of Perry. "At Christmastime, he used to sit in front of this fireplace in the library at Milton and read 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens. There wasn't an empty seat in the place. He made that Dickens story come alive. He did all the accents, and it was just an enormously powerful rendition, one that has stayed with me ever since."
At Harvard, Kennedy met the teacher who would inspire him politically. Arthur Holcomb was teaching a course on the American Constitution when the young Kennedy, following in the footsteps of brothers, Joseph, John, and Bobby, signed up for his class.
"He awakened an interest in me about the Constitution and government and the lessons of government with his eloquence and passion for liberty," Kennedy recalls. "I remember talking to my brothers afterward and they had the same experience."
CONGRESSMAN BARNEY FRANK REMEMBERS...
...Harvard Professor John Dunlop, who had served as the Secretary of Labor under President Richard Nixon and was teaching Labor Economics when Frank, then a college junior, enrolled in the course.
"He made a great impression on me because he stressed the importance in public policy of trade-offs," says Frank, who entered politics two years after taking Dunlop's class. "He stressed the importance of recognizing when desirable goals might conflict with each other. I really found my approach to issues influenced by what he said."
BOSTON POPS CONDUCTOR KEITH LOCKHART REMEMBERS...
...his second-grade teacher at Fishkill Plains Elementary School in Wappingers Falls, NY, during the mid-1960s. Virginia Breglia saw something in him that others did not.
"She was the first teacher who really took special notice of me, singled me out, pushed me harder," says Lockhart. "She took me under her wing and told me, 'You don't need to read what the rest of the class is reading. You need to read this.' She was pushing the envelope for me, maximizing my potential, which is what a good teacher does."
Years later, when he was first named to lead the Pops for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a letter arrived from Breglia addressed to him. "She started off with, 'I don't know if you remember me,' but I knew exactly who she was," says Lockhart. "The best thing you can give back to a teacher like that is to say, 'Yes, I do remember you.'" Lockhart also remembers Charlotte Smith, a professor of music theory and analysis at Furman University in Greensboro, SC, as being another big influence in his life. They are still in touch.
"Most students hate their theory and analysis classes and I was never a huge fan either, but she really opened my eyes to the process of thinking about music. When you're learning to play the piano, you learn the physical difficulties of the instrument and not the intellectual basis. She opened my eyes to how exciting the knowledge behind the music is," he says.
NEWSCASTER LIZ WALKER REMEMERS...
...Theesa Roundtree and Charles Lance, who stepped into her life exactly at the moment they were most needed, leaving educational gifts that have lasted a lifetime. Walker first set eyes on Roundtree as a first-grade student at Gibbs Elementary School in Little Rock, AK, and was almost immediately enthralled by the petite, energetic woman who doled out peppermints for a job well done.
"She made reading come alive for me," says Walker, recalling how Roundtree acted out the scenes from children's books for her students. "She was so engaged in teaching us how to read that I loved reading all my life. She was a delightful, charismatic, energetic person who was just passionate about teaching. You couldn't help but learn from her." It took another teacher, Lance, to fuel the veteran Channel 4 broadcaster's zest for news. As a junior at Little Rock High School in 1964, Walker came into her teens shortly after desegregation opened the all-white high school to black students.
"It was just a horrible place if you were a black kid," Walker remembers of those awful years at Little Rock High. But then, into her life came Lance, a white journalism teacher who found a spark of creativity in Walker's writing.
"He saw in me a writing that I didn't see," and encouraged her to join the school's newspaper staff, where she soon became assistant editor. "He certainly opened the door," she says.
SENATOR JOHN KERRY REMEMBERS...
...the Reverend John Walker, a history and social studies teacher and the first African American educator to be hired by St. Paul's School, in Concord, NH, where Kerry was a student.
"He got us interested in the growing civil rights movement and, frankly, taught us a lot about life," says Kerry, recalling his junior year in Walker's class. "It's been over 40 years, but I will never forget the lessons I learned from him. His convictions on justice and morality continue to guide me every day."
CELEBRITY CHEF TODD ENGLISH REMEMBERS...
...the guidance he received from history teacher and Little League coach Fred Black at the Galloway School in Atlanta, GA. Their relationship turned into a lifelong friendship that exists to this day.
"At the time, I was nine or 10, my parents were going through a divorce, and I was having a rough time at home, but he was there for me as a mentor. He kept me straight," says English, who now owns Olives, Figs, and Bonfire, among other restaurants.
"He was a go-getter, a happy guy, always enthusiastic about everything," English remembers. "He taught me to keep the enthusiasm of life and not to get down about situations. He taught me to live life to the fullest."
BOSTON SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT THOMAS PAYZANT REMEMBERS...
...his sixth-grade teacher, Sue Bishop, at Wollaston Elementary School in Quincy. Bishop was influential in the 11-year-old's life not because of the subjects she taught but because of the way she taught them.
Whether she was teaching to the entire class, fostering independent study, or encouraging teamwork among students, Bishop "always tried to connect every part of the curriculum to things that were going on in the world outside of school," Payzant recalls.
"She really helped us learn about how to work independently, how to respond to others by being a good listener, how to work in teams," he remembers. "She gave us many life skills, intellectual skills, leadership skills, speaking and writing skills. And she taught me that people are going to pay more attention to what you do than what you say." Still, Payzant says, he was apprehensive when it came time to move on to seventh grade and junior high school. But at Central Junior High School in Quincy, another mentor was waiting.
In the eyes of a young boy, seventh-grade teacher Mary Katherine Ianonni had a lot going for her right from the start. Not only did she drive a black, two-seater Plymouth, she was also the cousin of Brockton boxing legend Rocky Marciano. It wasn't Ianonni's hot car or her famous relative that made an impression on the future school superintendent, though.
"She encouraged me to get into student government, did a lot to encourage my writing, and pushed leadership," he recalls. As an educator himself, Payzant knows that all teachers have a chance to make a difference in a child's life.
"The strain that flows through all good teachers starts with relationship, knowing how to focus on the best in every child and working to help them improve areas where they may be strong," he says of the qualities that turn an ordinary teacher into a never-forgotten favorite. "More importantly, [teachers need to] believe a child can do it and provide encouragement and support, and sometimes discipline, to get them to a higher level."
