Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to publicly recognize my former summer school math teacher. In the mid '70's I was not the best math student in high school. Back then, our requirements were geometry and trigonometry for 10th & 11th grades. I failed both regents in June. Luckily, for me, my school referred me to the summer school where Mr. Reich worked. Reflecting back 30 years some of the details are a bit fuzzy but several things do stand out in my mind. Mr. Reich was always there for our class during the two summers I was in summer school. Even when we were lost & were unable to explain what we didn't understand he would always know what our difficulties were. When he would do the model examples on the blackboard we were to duplicate the same procedures on similar examples but they just never seemed to come out right! Somehow this kind man having the patience of 100 saints would find ways to simplify the information. Mr. Reich was real, consistent,& himself, Always a good listener even it if it seemed to take all day; even if it was always the same student not understanding; even if it was only just 1 kid who didn't get it & the rest of us understood- It was like magic... He knew his audience and could make any kid understand the material if they were willing to put in the effort of coming to class on time, prepared with homework, notebooks, and pencils on a daily basis. I now have a teenage daughter who is also struggling in math & have many flashbacks as to when I was a student in the classroom knowing that summer school would be my only hope of passing. The class size was smaller & only those students wanting to learn would pass.
Recently I changed professions & am now a NYC teacher. I hope that I too can someday be remembered by a student in much the same way as I remember Mr. Reich. Everyday I always try my best to be a good listener to the point where I will repeat what a student said to make sure I understood. Although I was excessed from William E. Grady H.S. in Brooklyn after 5 years in special education I had the good fortune of being placed in FDR High School also located in Brooklyn as an ATR where on my very first day I saw a man resembling Mr. Reich in front of a blackboard with familiar, yet foreign symbols (math). He looked a little older, a little greyer but after looking for his name on the central mailboxes I knew I had to tell him myself even if it's 30 years later how much he made a difference in my life- not only as my salvation for passing MATH but as the teacher I want to be. My name is Robin Siegel Piraino and am proud to have had Mr. Reich as my teacher.
-Robin Siegel Piraino
Fomer Student