When I was in elementary school, I had two male teachers; one in fifth grade and one in sixth grade. I’ve never written about Mr. Watts, my fifth grade teacher and I suppose I will one day. He was actually the first teacher I had that attempted to teach the writing process to us and that was the year that I fell in love with the writing process.
But today I want to write about my sixth grade teacher. His name was Rick Cassinelli. We all liked him. He was different from Mr. Watts and Mr. Harvey(who was the other sixth grade teacher). Mr. Cassinelli was friendly with all of us, and fair. While most of the girls had had a crush on Mr. Watts, I don’t think many of us had one on Mr. Cassinelli. He was kind, funny, fairly good looking, and although he was older, in all fairness, he wasn’t old. I think, looking back on that time, he was probably in his early to mid thirties. I think he was just an ordinary person who didn’t shine as the very young and handsome male fifth grade teacher did. He wasn’t tall and thin. He wasn’t short and fat. He was just normal height and normal weight. I guess, as is true of so many plain, ordinary people, he didn’t stand out; he didn’t shine.
Except to me. I didn’t have a crush on him but I really liked him. I liked that while he expected some of us to do a lot better than the others, he didn’t talk down or teach down to the kids that didn’t keep up. He didn’t pick on any of the kids and that says a lot because most teachers that I’ve had tend to find one or two students each year that they sort of pick on. Mr. Cassinelli didn’t do that. He commanded respect by respecting us. He wasn’t a strict disciplinarian but we didn’t have a lot of behavior problems in our class. That’s probably because of the way he treated us, causing us to rise to his expectations. And he was a great spelling teacher! That year in his class, most of us became top spellers and it was not unusual to have ten to fifteen perfect spelling scores each week. That was the year I won the class spelling bee and then the sixth grade spelling bee.
We didn’t know a lot about Mr. Cassinelli. He didn’t live in the area or someone would have seen him shopping locally. We didn’t even know if he was married until almost the end of the school year when I overheard him mentioning his wife when he was talking to Mr. Watts after school one day. That was the mid 1960’s. No internet. It was a lot more difficult to research people then. One day I took the great big, fat phone book and looked him up. I couldn’t find a Rick Cassinelli at all but then I found an Enrico Cassinelli. I noted the address. I knew where it was because, although it was way on the other side of town, way far from our little school, my parents used to have their tax returns prepared on the same street as the phone directory said Enrico lived on. In fact, it was on the same block as my parents’ tax guy. I quietly wrote down his name, address, and phone number in my little pocket sized address book.
One day, I was helping him in the classroom after school and I asked him if his “real name” was Rick. He said it wasn’t. It was Enrico. I smiled and nodded and told him I had known that. Then, very boldly, I recited his address and phone number. He laughed. A great big, deep laugh. He didn’t get mad. He didn’t scold me. He asked how I had found that out and I told him I had looked it up in the phone book. He nodded and smiled and said he should have known someone like me would be smart enough to do that. He didn’t sit down and give me a long lecture on how I should not know that information or spread it around. He did not say I had invaded his privacy. He just said something like, “I know you’re not the kind of person that would use that information to call my house in the middle of the night or send rude mail. I know you wouldn’t give that information to anyone who would misuse it.” I nodded. I understood. He understood. He trusted me. And it made me want to be trustworthy.
I don’t know whatever happened to Mr. Cassinelli. That was many, many years ago. I do think of him from time to time. I think about him when I think about spelling. I think about him when I think about trusting students and treating students fairly.
And today, I think of him because his birthday was January 16th. So Enrico Cassinelli who used to live on Meridian Road in San Jose and taught at Fred Martin Elementary, happy birthday. May it be a gift to know that you made a lasting impression on a little sixth grade girl way back in 1966.
What a sweet story. I hope one day he Googles himself and your post pops up. I know it will make his day. He sounds like a very wise teacher and human being.
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“…causing us to rise to his expectations.”
Now that is a great teacher. 🙂
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Corina, I was thinking about Mr. Cassinelli this evening and Googled is name. I came across this story you have written about him. How sweet and lovely. I have fond memories of Mr. Cassinelli as well. He had squeaky shoes the year I had him, and he used a little chalk holder when he wrote on the chalkboard. Yes, fond memories. I do wonder where he is today and how he is doing. I thought he was very handsome. Thanks for the beautifully written article.
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