Mary Schachtel Wright

Grade 5 English and History Teacher

email: mwright@rockyhill.org

Education:

• Chapin School - High School Diploma

• Briarcliff College –B.A. Developmental Psychology

• Salve Regina University- Masters in Elementary Education

Born and raised in New York City, my playground included Broadway shows, nightclubs, museums, and Central Park. My family adored musical comedy, and my siblings and I often thrilled our parents' friends with songs from shows such as Gypsy, Pajama Game, and Cabaret. Encores were few, but we loved performing. I spent some of my teenage years acting Off- Broadway. After college, I was cast in a tiny role on the CBS soap opera, The Guiding Light . A year later, my part disappeared, along with my television career!

Educated in an independent girls' school in N.Y.C., and then at an all girls' college, it took awhile to find Mr. Right. However, in 1979, while teaching in N.Y.C., I actually met and married Tot Wright, who helped me become the best teacher I ever could be! An educator himself, I learned that patience, flexibility, respect, and a quiet voice could take one far in a classroom. (To this day, the quiet voice still eludes me!) My career continued in New York City, in Worcester, Massachusetts, and in 1986, Tot and I moved to Rhode Island, where I continued to teach, both in public and independent schools.

In 1990, I helped revive The Jamestown Community Theatre, and as a volunteer and community member, I have directed (and occasionally acted in) the musical and dramatic productions. This endeavor has provided me with the opportunity to follow my other passion, the stage!

GO-FOURTH (For One United Respect Throughout Humanity)

For more information visit: www.go-fourth.org   or email:  mwright@go-fourth.org
Several years ago, my fourth grade and I initiated Go-Fourth, a respect program with the goal of helping children attain a sense of responsibility and a concerned attitude towards one another and towards diversity at large. At a time when children begin to explore values, form opinions, and become vulnerable to peer pressure, Go-Fourth enables them to explore relevant issues. Discussions include ways to help one another while developing empathy for individual needs and feelings, how to comprehend and foresee the effects of one's own actions, and also involve role-playing and experiential learning based on relationships and diversity issues. Children are given the opportunities to preserve their innate respect for similarities and differences of people, which I feel is instinctive in very young children. Through classroom and multi-age discussions, and through pen-pal relationships with children from different schools, both nationally and internationally, Go-Fourth strives to enable younger generations not just to perform appropriately, but also to feel respect towards one another, both in a classroom and towards the world at large.

Although traveling to China , never had been in our plan, twelve Rocky Hill families accepted an invitation from the headmaster of the Zhixan Elementary School in Shaoguan, China to meet with our Go-Fourth pen-pal school. Discussing our hope for worldwide peace and visiting our individual pen-pal family's homes, after planting a Peace Pole at their school, enabled us to leave China knowing that both groups of children, although culturally diverse and miles apart, felt respect for one another.

Philosophy of Education:

More than a decade ago, I started teaching Grade Four at Rocky Hill School. Now in Grade Five, I teach English and History and direct the lower school musicals. With enthusiasm and love for Rocky Hill, I continue to try and encourage children to celebrate their individual strengths and to pursue their goals. Recognition of these strengths, I feel, help to facilitate self-confidence and healthy self-esteem, as each child enters middle school years.

Teaching school and directing theater may be a bit more strenuous than enlightening dolls and stuffed animals, but every single day I get to celebrate my passions and dreams, not just as hobbies, but also as my professions.

On a Personal Note:

At age six, I became a teacher! Madame Alexander dolls and stuffed animals were propped up in desks in my first classroom. The roles of teacher and performer, always part of my dreams, filled afternoons with reading, writing, arithmetic, and music activities. Although my inanimate pupils   became older with use (and a lot of misuse), they never became wiser!	"At age six I became a teacher"
Moxie, Phoebe & Me

 

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updated March 15, 2005