"Re-Careering" MSU-Trained Teacher Survives a First-Day Slap in the Face

For Pete Borghesi, a corporate executive who switched careers and became a special education teacher at age 52, the first day on the new job gave him a newfound respect for teachers.

Borghesi, who spent nearly 30 years as a mid-level systems manager at Verizon Communications, Inc. before retiring, says he'll never forget that morning in September 2004 when he walked into his classroom at PS39 in Jersey City for the first time.

"It was day one for me, and I didn't know what to expect," said the math and science specialist. "And I hadn't been on the job for more than a few minutes, when one of my autistic students slapped me in the face!

"A child was having a tantrum because they had put him in an unfamiliar setting, and he swung at me. That was a rough moment, but things got worse. I'd been scheduled to teach three autistic boys that day, but by 10 a.m. there were seven in my classroom.I did have two [teaching] aides in the room, and they were doing their best to help, but keeping order was difficult. This same nightmarish scenario went on day after day. By the end of September I was frazzled. It got so bad that I began to wonder if I'd made the right decision."

Frustrated, Borghesi sought advice from other participants in the New Jersey Consortium for Urban Education (NJCUE) teacher-training program, where he was working toward a certificate as a special education teacher of math and science. Like Borghesi, the other participants were already teaching in special education classrooms in northern New Jersey while taking NJCUE-sponsored evening classes at Montclair State.

Jointly operated by the education faculty at MSU, Kean and William Paterson universities, the federally funded NJCUE provides free tuition for professionals who agree to spend at least three years teaching children with special needs at urban schools throughout the Garden State.

When the struggling Borghesi asked his fellow teacher-trainees for help, they responded quickly, and encouraged him to stick it out with his challenging autistic students in Jersey City.

He's glad he did.

"Those first few months were really tough," said the former corporate manager. "I felt discouraged at times, but I took the advice and hung in there until Thanksgiving--when I reached a turning point. I stopped waiting for the students to live up to my expectations. Instead, I began to appreciate any little signs of progress they showed me. And when they saw me responding in that realistic way, they opened up and began to trust me.

"Now that I've completed the NJCUE program and have my special ed teaching certificate, I plan to continue this type of teaching. I don't earn the kind of salary I used to make at Verizon, but so what? I didn't sign on with NJCUE for the money. My 'bottom line' is different on this job--and I've discovered that I really do love teaching these children."

Marilyn Davis, director of the three-year-old NJCUE re-careering program, is convinced that it's already making a huge difference in the lives of urban children with special needs.

"These re-careering adults are bringing a wide breadth of professional experience to the classroom," said Davis, whose NJCUE office is located in the new University Hall. There's no doubt that teachers like Pete are playing a major role in helping these students with special needs to get a much better education in urban schools across New Jersey."