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February 6, 2015
Tom BurkeWhat a combo, top shelf education and experience. Abi Basch has been an educator for a dozen years, the last four at San Francisco’s Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory. The social studies teacher earned her history degree at Brown University.
“My first teaching experience was as a volunteer teaching theater workshops in a women’s prison while still an undergraduate,” Abi, who also holds a graduate degree as a playwright, told me via email. “During that time I also studied abroad in South Africa where I did similar work in prisons and townships. These experiences were incredibly forming for me.”
And so, she explains, began her path to an education career though her own experience as a student planted the seed.
“My interest started long before this - my own teachers had had such a powerful influence on my life. That invaluable give-and-take of the teacher-student relationship has infused so much of what I do, and provides endless rewards in the dialogue I have today with my own students.”
Abi said “teaching at Sacred Heart Cathedral has been fantastic” and the “service and social justice aspects of the school’s mission provide an exciting opportunity to create curricula and programs to infuse the students with not only a will to make the world a better place, but the agency to do so.”
Abi says technology has put a new fire under the feet of students. “Learning how to engage devices in the classroom as a tool for growth and means toward meaningful live learning has been exciting. It’s also a fantastic opportunity for dialogue with the students - as the technology is changing so fast, they often have innovative solutions that engage social media and other technology.”
It is not without its price though, she said. “Library research is more of a challenge for students now, as is attention span. I find myself breaking up lessons into smaller parts and shifting between activities more often to keep students engaged.”
The Catholic school “emphasis on social justice and service has been particularly meaningful to me as a government and economics teacher,” Abi said. “In a city like San Francisco, the church’s teaching on tolerance and acceptance of the marginalized has been especially powerful in creating a safe space for a diverse student body.”
Abi remembers her roots and the school’s. “Making sure to incorporate the philosophies of the specific orders that founded our school into my lesson plans has been a rewarding challenge. I grew up around Christian Brothers, as my mother worked at Manhattan College for much of my childhood, so I was familiar with and fond of the ideology. I also have enjoyed learning about and being inspired by the incredible work of the Daughters of Charity, and incorporating their ideas into my curricula.”
“Do it!” is Abi’s advice to those considering the teaching profession. “It’s one of the most rewarding jobs there is,” she said. Would she do it again? “In a heartbeat.”
VACANCY: Downton Abbey is a fave of mine and I marvel at the number of guests the lord and lady – not to mention others – invite to stay at the place. If it were I, they’d all be dispatched to the nearest Motel Sixpence.
Email items and electronic pictures – jpegs at no less than 300 dpi to burket@sfarchdiocese.org or mail to Street, One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco 94109. Include a follow-up phone number. Street is toll-free. My phone number is (415) 614-5634.