What made you want to become a teacher?
My mother was an English teacher so there was a model for me to see. I saw how much she liked her job, books, working with children. I knew that I wanted to do something that was going to help people. I didn’t know what that would be, and I thought that being a teacher would be one way to be a public servant and help my fellow man.
How did you instill a love for English within your students?
I try to be enthusiastic about what we are doing so that hopefully they can be engaged. Hopefully they can see the beauty of language and they can see the beauty of ideas and how those can relate to their own lives, how they can improve their abilities if it’s in writing or grammar.
What do you enjoy most about Aragon?
I think I enjoy how people care for one another, whether it’s the staff for the students or the students for the staff, or the staff amongst themselves. It’s just a really pleasant environment to come to every day, which is something that people might take for granted who have worked here for a long time. I’ve worked here for 31 years and I have taught at two other schools, and there’s a lot of other places that it’s not like that. That’s really one of the best things.
What is exciting about the change in school environment from the ‘80s?
I think it’s the diversity and the acceptance of people for who they are whoever they might be. My brother, who is older than me, also graduated from Aragon. I had sent him the links for the Lip Dubs. He was totally impressed. He said ‘Look at the variation in interests that there are in this school. It’s not just like you’re into sports or you’re into reading.’ There’s all the different clubs and opportunities at this school, you just have to seek it out.
As a former Aragon student yourself, do you see any difference in students now versus students then?
One thing with the student body is that there’s more school spirit now than there was before … When I was here in the late ’60s and early ’70s, it was the time of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement and student unrest at college campuses. There was a pretty big awareness and involvement of students in politics and things going on around them. I think a lot of that then dipped for a long time and people weren’t so much into that and were into their own little personal lives. We’ve seen a resurgence in that in recent years where students want to be involved in more things outside of themselves in their community and other parts of the world. I think that’s a really neat thing. What we’ve seen this year amongst young people taking the forefront in many things such as gun control, and I think you see that in a fair amount of people in Aragon and you see them expressing their ideas as well.
