Newtown Resident Earns

Recognition From France

By Eliza Hallabeck

Peggie Nocturne would drive past Joel Barlow High School on her long commute to work at Berlitz from Newtown, and she would dream of teaching French. Years later, her devotion to that same high school has been rewarded with a 200-year-old award from the French government.

During a ceremony at Yale University on May 12, Ms Nocturne was awarded the insignia of Chevalier of the Order des Palmes Académique by the ambassador of France. Ms Nocturne, who grew up in Suffield, said she has lived in Newtown for 27 years, and she has been teaching French at Joel Barlow High School in Redding for 25 years. Ambassador Pierre Vimont also gave a speech at Yale University after the ceremony.

“The thing that made my heart just absolutely sing was that my father-in-law, who is deceased, won the same award,” Ms Nocturne said.

Palmes Académique was created by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1808, and was established to honor accomplishment and devotion in the field of teaching. In 1955 the French government established it as an Order, and was opened to reward teachers, nonteachers, French citizens, and foreigners who promote the expansion of French culture.

Ms Nocturne said when she travels to France this summer her mother-in-law will be giving her the medal that her father-in-law received, because the two medals will be put on display together.

Over the years that she has been working with the education department of Connecticut, Ms Nocturne said she has been involved in the creation of every world language guide that has been printed by the state. The last guide was put together 15 years ago, she said. It involved putting together a group to assess the way students learn languages. Essentially, the certified Oral Proficiency Interview Examiners sat across from students and monitored what they could do with the languages.

There was a man, Ms Nocturne said, who had gone to France with an extreme knowledge of French medieval literature. He went to France to work, but when he encountered simple problems, such as a broken shower, he could not communicate to get them fixed.

It was from hearing experiences like this that Ms Nocturne said she wanted to make sure students of the language had a working ability with everyday vocabulary.

“That was my emphasis,” she said. “Just speaking and communicating to people is more important than medieval French literature.”

She started working with Berlitz, a company that specializes in languages and travel-related products, because, she said, she wanted to emphasize the proper education of the languages. She went across Connecticut with the other Oral Proficiency Interview Examiners and she monitored how students could use the languages they were taught. Ms Nocturne said Connecticut was a forerunner in this field, and the country, at the time, was also reexamining how languages are taught in classrooms. 

“They took the government standard,” she said, “and they refined the government standard at the lower levels.”

Ms Nocturne has always loved French culture, she said. She spent a year there while she was in college, and she always said it was “impossible” for her to marry a Frenchman. She thought this because, she said, she was too tall for the men she met there.

A week after she came back to the United States she met her future husband, and he was French, she said. Ms Nocturne then said, the French have a proverb, “the word ‘impossible’ isn’t in the French language.”

Marriage was what inspired her recently to create a new form of teaching for her students at Joel Barlow High School. When her niece was getting married in France, Ms Nocturne said she thought it would be a good idea for her students to follow the entire wedding process through her niece’s love story.

“I put together a scenario,” she said. The students developed a packet for a fake business professional who was newly living in France, and now had to attend a wedding. They included mishaps that could take place between the American and French cultures.

Ms Nocturne said this teaching method was what got her recognition from the head of languages in Connecticut.

“She said, ‘I have a surprise for you.’ That’s how I found out I was nominated,” Ms Nocturne said.

Four other Connecticut residents were given the award from the state this year, according to Sandra VanAusdal, the world languages instructional leader at Joel Barlow High School. Ms VanAusdal has been working with Ms Nocturne for 15 years.

“I just appreciate what she has done for the students,” Ms VanAusdal said.