Teacher believes it's smart to bring God into classroom

Mary Schwartz unlocks the door to her classroom at St. Anthony's School in Schenectady as she talks animatedly about her day: the pictures she took for a slide presentation on spring and rebirth...the afternoon Easter party the school held for the students, complete with a basketball game, Bingo, food and a child safety program,...and the flowers her class plans to plant as a community service project.

"It was a busy day, but that's the kind of day I like," she said. "It's not unusual for me to be here until 6 or 7:30 at night. People joke with me about moving in, but teaching is what I'm all about. I can't imagine life not teaching."

Mrs. Schwartz has proudly displayed her students' handiwork to the point where there's almost no wall to be seen in her upstairs classroom. Science projects -- like meticulously arranged kidney-bean combos meant to resemble atoms -- snuggle end-to-end with St. Patrick's Day writing projects and new PC technology. With a bit of papier-mache and a coat of gray paint, 20 former cereal boxes have become stone slates on which her fifth-graders have written the Ten Commandments.

Sticking to it

Thirty years ago, Mrs. Schwartz came to St. Anthony's to begin her teaching career -- and never left. Since the early 1970s, she has been a fixture, teaching reading, math, language arts and spelling to two generations of students. "I've done it all," she said.

Her favorite subject, however, is fourth-grade religion. "I love to do that," she enthused. "You get to be personal with the children, to help them develop a better understanding of what their faith is all about.

"I'm so impressed by some of them," she said, fishing out a student's notebook from the pile. "This child said that 'Jesus told me to pray differently -- not just for me and my family, but for the whole world.'

"God is so important," Mrs. Schwartz continued. "How can any child go through the traumas and hard times in life, and not have someone to hold on to? If He doesn't hold your hand and you don't hold His, I don't understand how you make it."

Teaching religion is "a way to share your life with the children. If you're teaching math, for example, you don't get that kind of interaction."

Changes

Today's children face challenges their peers 30 years ago did not, said Mrs. Schwartz. Gone are the days where some children felt left out because their mothers worked instead of meeting them at the door when they came home from school. Today's latchkey kids are a situation that many Schenectady children consider normal.

She sees "more emotional upset" in today's children than those she taught 30 years ago. "When they're hurting," she said, "some of them don't know how to express that hurt and can act out. Some stay quiet."

She makes a special effort to be a person students can come to for individual attention to talk about a problem at school or at home.

"They'll ask me to talk to them in the hall, at lunch or after school," she said. For the most part, "you see the same problems and joys in the children, the same enthusiasms. Children are resilient."

Living with loss

Mrs. Schwartz found herself facing a difficult time when her longtime friend and former principal, Sister Elisa Brasili, MPV, passed away suddenly in February, after her retirement. It hit the students hard.

"She was so much a part of their lives -- and a part of my life," she said. "The announcement of her death was made during the school day. I burst into tears; I fell apart. It was very hard to continue teaching that day."

Mrs. Schwartz and her students, who had been making get-well cards for Sister Elisa, instead created a project detailing what they loved about St. Anthony's and presented it to the current principal.

'Family'

Things like that, the teacher explained, make her love St. Anthony's even more.

"We're family here," she said. "I love it here. I'm close to the other teachers. We have a lot of fun."

And for her, including faith in education is paramount.

"If students don't grow up with faith, they don't develop a closeness with their Creator," she said. "I can't imagine children going through today's world without something to grab onto -- and that something is faith."

(5/1/03) [[In-content Ad]]