Date: Fri 18-Dec-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: MICHEL

Quick Words:

Hawley-Ron-Vitarelli

Full Text:

Hawley Gives Mr Vitarelli A Fond Farewell

(with photo)

BY MICHELE HOGAN

Smiling, as children in Kelly Shea's class gather around him to read lines

from the Dr Suess book Oh, the places you'll go!, Ronald Vitarelli, interim

principal at Hawley School, thinks of the many places he has been in his long

career in education.

Although he applauds many changes in education, he worries about the level of

stress some young children experience.

Mr Vitarelli had already retired once, in June of 1995, after 19 years as

principal of Sandy Hook School. After "retirement," he settled into a

half-time position working for the education program at the University of New

Haven, only to get a call from Superintendent of Schools John Reed asking him

to come back as principal of Hawley for a little while.

Coming back was an easy decision for Mr Vitarelli. He liked Hawley and knew it

well, having been principal there from 1975-1977. So it was Mr Vitarelli who

took the job of interim principal after Linda Siciliano left to become

principal of Stadley Rough School in Danbury in June of this year, and before

Jo-Ann Peters, the incoming principal was hired.

Comparing education today with how it was in the past, Mr Vitarelli praised

the warmth, creativity, and respect for the individual child that he sees

continually growing within the teaching profession.

Over the past few months he has found some striking examples of rich learning

opportunities that have come from the creativity of Hawley teachers. He

described how one fifth grade teacher took photos of ornate dormers and

partitioned windows around Newtown, which the students will use to explore

fractions and other mathematical relationships.

The art teacher is stretching the children's thinking further, by exploring

architecture from an artistic viewpoint. Mr Vitarelli said that children will

also have an opportunity to develop their writing skills in this project,

perhaps through writing about the history of Newtown, or the history of window

making.

He appreciates teachers nurturing the curiosity of children, rather than

forcing their conformity as they did long ago.

And he said also that today's child is different. He said that today's

children are much freer to express their ideas and feelings.

He mentioned how, the other day, one fifth grade girl did something he thought

was very touching -- something that would never have happened in the schools

he attended. Jo-Ann Peters, the new principal who started at Hawley School

December 14, was visiting the classes ahead of time. As she walked into the

class, a girl looked up at her and spontaneously started to clap. Soon all the

students and the teacher were applauding.

Mr Vitarelli contrasted this experience with the atmosphere in his own

childhood school. Each child would stand at attention in the hall. The

principal would walk down the center of the hall, and "either speak kindly or

sternly to you." If the principal spoke sternly on the last day of school, she

might even tell a child, publicly, that they failed sixth grade and would have

to repeat it.

Mr Vitarelli said that back in the 1940s the idea was, "You will do your job,

or else! And nobody wanted to know what that meant."

He welcomes the new image of a school principal as a loving parent. He said

that nobody wants to disappoint a loving parent. Nobody wants the disapproval

of a loving parent. And a loving parent lets a child find their gifts and

talents, whatever they may be.

Yet, even if children are nurtured and supported more than in the past, they

still are susceptible to stress.

Sometimes Mr Vitarelli hears of kids who are restless at night, unable to

sleep. He said that often they can't articulate that they are feeling stress

from pressures from school or from extracurricular programs, yet it is

affecting them.

He said that parents of children as young as kindergarten age sometimes worry

that their children are not reading. He said "the race has begun. It is no

longer a journey."

Although he believes in standardized testing, like the Connecticut Mastery

Test's, to ensure that students are learning academic skills, he feels that

academic pressure must be balanced with meeting the needs of the whole child.

He believes in the Newtown success-oriented model of education which

recognizes, among other things, the importance of children having a sense of

belonging to their school.

Although Mr Vitarelli is officially retiring again, he never said it would be

permanent. He'll "see what happens."

Although he didn't say when or where, he said that if the opportunity arose he

might consider mentoring a new principal.

Mr Vitarelli was delighted to see that the Hawley PTA is framing a 1928 photo

of Hawley School which they will hang in the front entrance hall of the

school. The photo, which can serve as a reminder of one's journey through

education, shows the old unpaved road in front of the old Hawley School.