pt at large:

February 25, 2013

"Everything he needs to know, he learned in 4T" story in Those Who Teach

February 25, 2013, as published at Those Who Teach
Everything he needs to know, he learned in 4T.

It’s been more than two months since my last post! To help make up for that gap, here’s a story so good, I think it’s movie material…

Almost 40 years later, Jeff Kelly Lowenstein still remembers the feeling of community in “4T,” Paul Tamburello’s fourth grade class at Pierce School in Brookline, Massachusetts. “He knew all of us, and had high expectations for us,” Jeff says. “He was really good about letting us know that he saw what we were doing, whether it was doing well or misbehaving.”

Jeff (right) learns to use chopsticks in 4T.
photo credit: Paul Tamburello

Though he graduated from 4T in 1974, Jeff kept coming back to visit his old teacher, even throughout high school and college. During these visits, Jeff recalls, “He would always say, ‘What do you remember from 4T?’ Then he would use that information to think about how to approach the class.” This commitment to continual improvement inspired Jeff, who began working at Pierce – first as a recess aide, and then, after graduation from Stanford, as an apprentice teacher to Tamburello for two years, beginning in 1987.

Jeff as Mr. Tamburello's apprentice teacher Photo courtesy of Jeff Kelly Lowenstein
Photo courtesy of Jeff Kelly Lowenstein

On the experience of having Jeff back in his classroom as an aspiring teacher, Paul Tamburello writes:

I was used to training student teachers but none with whom I had this kind of history. I hesitated. Was my work good enough, rigorous enough, to keep him engaged? I knew Jeff held me in high regard, maybe even considered me a role model. It’s a long fall from a pedestal to the solid, hard earth. Finally, I took the advice I gave my students. Don’t be afraid to try, maybe even fail.

(…)

There were days I shook my head and grinned in wonder. Jeff’s initiative was taking our relationship into rich uncharted territory. This was giving the term “student teacher” a whole new dimension. It would give us things to talk about for years to come.

By our second year of co-teaching, it was, “Jeff and I expect you to…” or “Mr. Tamburello and I expect you to…” as we ran the classroom. Jeff may be the only kid in America who got a post-graduate degree in fourth grade. It was the richest experience of my 34-year career.

In 1992, Jeff finally had his own classroom: he began teaching Social Studies and English at Brown Elementary School in Newton, Massachusetts — only five miles away from Pierce School. Mr. Tamburello continued to guide his student of now 18 years:

“I would emulate a lot of the things I learned from his classroom, including his sense of discipline, and the positive environment he established.” Jeff adds, “Now, when I would go back to visit, he would still be trying new things, and this would give me more homework to do as a teacher.”

Jeff’s memoir about these experiences, On My Teacher’s Shoulders, was published in 2012. On his decision to write a book about Mr. Tamburello, Jeff says, “A big motivation was to honor the different, but related types of impact he played on me over the course of 30 years. It was not a static relationship: each time [I came back] there was something different that I had to learn and he had to teach me. I feel very fortunate that he had the strength and humility to let me know what he was gaining each of those different times. That helped me understand the reciprocity of shared important experiences.”

Paul (left) and Jeff (right) at a NYC fund raiser for the Dart Society, an organization of journalists that works to tell stories about trauma and violence with sensitivity and compassion, and that also works to help journalists deal with the impact of doing that work. It is now named the Ochberg Society.
photo courtesy of Jeff Kelly Lowenstein

Many of us are fortunate to have had teachers who’ve shaped us for the better, including what kind of teachers we are and aspire to be. I also love how this story highlights the lifelong learning and cameraderie that can grow between teacher and student — and how the distinctions between these roles can blur in exciting, unexpected ways.

Have you kept in touch with a teacher long after leaving his or her class? Have you returned to teach at a school you attended?

Posted in Goodnews, teachingelementary, teachingenglish, teachingsocialstudies
Tagged brookline, inspiration, jeff kelly lowenstein, paul tamburello, pierce school, teaching
1 Comment

Hub City Diner: From Jukebox to Jambalaya, 1950's Rise Again

Hub City Diner
1412 S College Road
Lafayette, LA 70503
February 8, 2013

People in Lafayette love to eat. They have their pick between upscale, boutique, roadhouse, quirky, and a (blessedly) few chain restaurants. Then there are establishments where you’re greeted with a statue of a pelican doing its best Elvis impersonation and a huge Rockola Jukebox chock full of the hit parade from the 1950s. Welcome to the Hub City Diner.

You're barraged by a riot of colors that were oh so fresh in the 1950s and now have a decidedly and proudly retro appeal. Vinyl and Formica rule.

Booths with shiny sparkly red and beige vinyl banquettes and gray Formica tabletops line the wall, are matched with smaller aqua and black banquettes against a center partition. In snappy contrast, aqua steel tube chairs and Formica tabletops fill the center, all atop the shiny black and white tile floor. Cart the whole room into the Smithsonian and you’d have a defining period piece.

The food is All-American with enough Cajun twists to remind you that you’re in southwest Louisiana. It’s tasty, inexpensive, and served with a smile. Families and couples wander in as one of the Mardi Gras parades ends a few streets away. (Pink flamingos, which flourished on suburban lawns in the 50s, are a familiar sight during Mardi Gras but are probably regular fixtures at the Hub City Diner.)

Since we’re headed to The Blue Moon Saloon for a night of dancing to Horace Trahan and the Ossun Express, I load up on fried catfish served on shrimp étoufée and a bed of rice –that’ll keep me going for a few hours.

Next time I’m in Lafayette, I’m headed here for breakfast. I’m a sucker for home made biscuits, which get raves from the clientele.

Oh, then there’s the dancing part. As we’re finishing dinner, in walks the former owner, a broad Panama hat on his head and his silver haired wife, in a sparkly black and white top and black skirt, on his arm. He begins reeling off stories to anyone who’ll listen, including a boastful comment about how the hotel they’d just come from opened the dance floor for them to have a twirl.

My dining companion gives me a look. A Patsy Cline ballad drops into the Rockola play slot. By the time Patsy’s finished, our dancing style is getting applause from the former owner’s wife and occupants of the table next to it. Not to be outdone, Mr. Former Owner takes his wife for a turn, more applause. If there were a vote, we’d have won on style and connection. Just sayin’.