Second career puts her back in a classroom

The students in Carm Izzo's religious education class at Assumption/St. Paul parish in Mechanicville know how to stump their teacher.

"You said God is everywhere. Is He in hell, too?" a fourth-grader once demanded.

Another, under pressure at home, blurted out in class, "My stepfather's in jail, and I hate him."

Somehow, Mrs. Izzo always finds an answer to tough questions and concerns. She consulted her pastor about the first query and comforted the troubled student, who stayed in class and eventually became an altar server as well.

The active senior citizen teaches religious ed for the simple love of teaching, and loves each year's fourth-grade class. "As old as I am, as long as I can think, I am going to continue to teach," she told The Evangelist. "Everyone knows I love to teach."

Mrs. Izzo, a grandmother of three, was retired from a 25-year teaching career in Mechanicville's public schools when her parish put out a call for volunteers to teach religious ed. She realized she could fill that ministry and signed up right away.

"I'd love to teach, and I'd love to learn more about the religion," she told the parish's director of religious education. That was more than 15 years ago, and the teacher's "second career" shows no signs of dwindling. Last spring, The Evangelist watched as ten fourth-graders charged into her classroom, swinging bookbags and calling out greetings.

"Okay, let's all get busy," Mrs. Izzo said firmly, and the group found seats and recited prayers together, then opened books for a lesson on loving God and their neighbor.

"Who remembers what `ten equals two' means?" the teacher queried. Hands shot up all over the room, since everyone knew her famous rule: Two Commandments (love God and your neighbor) cover all of the Ten Commandments.

Next, the class learned about how people in different careers act as servants in the world. Mrs. Izzo was careful to call on students who were comfortable reading aloud and had students make their own lists of ways to be servants.

"Telling jokes," said one student. "Donating food to the neighborhood food drive," said another, proudly. A third mentioned "cleaning an old person's house."

"It's a better world when you are a servant," Mrs. Izzo assured them.

The teacher enjoys allowing students to use their own ideas in class. "They're very responsive. I do a lot of listening, and I've learned a lot, too," she remarked. "I'm more alert in church now, and I pay more attention."

BY the end of the class, Mrs. Izzo had had students fill an entire bulletin board with ideas and petitions on peacemaking in the world. She explained to The Evangelist that it takes about two weeks for her to create each bulletin board's background, but it's a labor of love that "keeps me going."

She knows that many misconceptions exist about teaching. Other religious ed teachers often come to her with questions, she said, and some people are afraid to volunteer for the ministry because of time considerations or discomfort working with children.

Mrs. Izzo has no such worries. "If they're misbehaving, it means something is wrong at home," she said of her students. She admitted concern when she first taught children with learning disabilities and medical problems, but called it her own learning experience.

The teacher considers time making lesson plans as time well spent: "I spend a whole day getting an idea, then I run and write down that idea. I think of different ways to present it so the children will understand it."

Her work shows joyful results. "I see the children, and I see how much they're learning," she said. "These kids have made me feel that there is still hope for the world."

Looking back on the day she volunteered for her ministry, Mrs. Izzo shook her head at fellow retirees who refused the opportunity to teach. "Some felt they wanted a rest," she commented. "I tell them how much I like it."

She plays golf and bocce, bowls and walks to keep physically fit, but calls religious ed "something to occupy my mind.

"I remember a boy in one class who didn't really want to come," she said thoughtfully. "He said, `I'm here because my parents are forcing me.' I asked, `What have you learned from this class?' He said, `Nothing, man!' As time went on, he became interested and began to participate. At the end of the year, I said to him, `Do you remember what you said?'"

The successful student, she finished with a grin, was "red as a beet." The pair still keep in touch. [[In-content Ad]]