Nov. 24, 2015 -- “Follow your dreams.” That’s one of the most important lessons teacher Joe Mendes has tried to impart to his students over the past fifteen years. Discover what you love, identify the skills needed to attain that dream, set out to gain those necessary skills, and – perhaps most important of all – when your dream is within reach, make sure you grab it.
As the new owner of Camp Roosevelt-Firebird in Bowerstown, Ohio, Mendes had to put that life lesson to the test this October as he made the “heartbreaking” decision to resign after teaching 4th and 5th grades at Coventry and Gearity Elementary Schools in CHUH for the past 15 years.
He had come close to owning a camp several times in the 1990s, but each time the opportunity slipped through his fingers. After five transient years of working odd jobs, his wife suggested teaching elementary school instead. “It’s kind of like camp,” she said in a fateful moment that changed the course of Mendes’ life along with the lives of so many others.
Mendes tried to make his classroom like a summer camp, not just by using real world, hands-on lessons to make it engaging and exciting but by creating a space where students felt safe enough to take risks in pursuit of their own dreams.
The parents of Mendes’ students would agree that he achieved those lofty goals. Glenna Rosenberg of University Heights, whose grandson William was in Joe’s class five years ago, said that he has “a knack, an ability to see areas for growth in each student and to make the time to help every kid achieve that growth.” She expressed amazement at how much time and attention Mendes gave to her grandson, without ever seeming to take time or attention away from any other child.
She summed up William’s experience under Mendes’ tutelage this way: “Anyone who has the chance to be in his classroom will have their lives changed forever.”
That sentiment was repeated by Estee Gulden, mother of college freshman Grant, who had Mendes for both 4th and 5th grades. “I don't know how he found the time or energy to make such personal connections with all the students. But he did.”
She described Grant’s first day of 4th grade when Mendes brought all the students and parents outside to the grounds at Gearity and had them stand in a circle and hold hands. “It was sort of awkward to hold hands with these other grown-ups I barely knew and share our hopes for the year ahead, but it set the tone. Joe was not just trying to mold these kids into good students, but into good human beings.”
“They had a great relationship,” Estee said of Grant and Mendes. “Special even. But I think that’s how Joe made everyone feel.”
The evidence would seem to support that. Student after student and parent after parent repeated the same words: “favorite teacher,” “inspired me to never give up,” “truly cared about all his students.”
His legacy in the classroom seems poised to spread far beyond the schoolhouse walls. Amber Jackson, a 19-year old at Ohio State University, who was in Mendes’ 4th grade class at Coventry said, "Mr. Mendes is one of my all-time favorite teachers because not only was he passionate about teaching, but he cared so much about all of his students and he inspired us to want to do great things in the world."
Mendes hopes to continue to provide life-changing experiences for the students of Gearity through a special camp scholarship fund.
When asked to describe his primary responsibility as a teacher, Mendes doesn't hesitate: “To love kids.” The feeling certainly seems to be mutual.