The Great American Teachers: Daniel Frezzo!
Daniel Frezzo, in his last year as Vice Principal at Emerson High School
You wanna know who the real tough guys are? They get up at six every morning and go to work for 35 years. Not only that, for some of them work is a new challenge every single day. You see they built the foundation of this country by helping our youth. The man you see in the picture is one the tough guys. A teacher who has spent his life sharing his knowledge and his love with the young people of Union City, New Jersey. Mr. Daniel Frezzo taught a whole generation of Cuban-Americans who found at Emerson High School a new beginning. Today, as an administrator, Mr. Frezzo, works every day to keep our young in the right track, encouraging them to stay in school, going our of his way, giving his best. He’s a gentleman and an exemplary man.
That’s nothing new. As a newly arrival to this country and a student at Union City’s Emerson High School, I met Mr. Frezzo. My schedule from 1974 shows that I was assigned to his History I class. The schedule was changed because I didn’t know a potato (ni una papa) in English. The fact that we weren’t in his class didn’t stop Daniel Frezzo from talking with us, teach us how to pronounce correctly, guiding us to a better future. Twenty eight years after I graduated from Emerson and teaching in the Elizabeth School District, I’ve had the privilege to converse with Mr. Frezzo. One day I started one of my philosophical harangues about our profession, Frezzo cut me short: “You have to love this”, he said “This is what I wanted to do since I was a kid. This is what I’ll do forever.” He’s just a master teacher.
Mr. Frezzo as he appeared in the 1978 Emerson High School Yearbook. Those were the days between Simon and Garfunfel and Disco. Thirty years later, in 2008, one of our young teachers, Mr. Danny Prusko, appeared with a similar mustache in the 2008 Yearbook. When I asked Mr. Prusko why was he growing the 70’s mustache he answered: “In honor of the old timers, the great Emerson High School teachers”. That’s how much respect teachers like Mr. Frezzo inspired in a new generation of educators from Union City, New Jersey.
In 1974, as weird as this sounds to young people, there were no digital watches. I never forget, and I have pestered him with this reminder, the day that Mr. Frezzo brought the first digital watch we had ever seen to Emerson High School. It was a real sensation. Dozens of students, at that time mostly Cubans, asked him to show the golden digital watch again and again. Mr. Frezzo, with the patience of a saint, showed the watch again and again at least for two weeks, until it wasn’t a novelty anymore.
Kind and patient, he surrounded himself with great people: great teachers. Agnes Colaneri and Louis Decongelio were some of them. They represent the best of The Great American Teachers. God Bless!
Read more about Emerson High School’s Last year and The Great American teachers HERE.
