A flood of emotions and memories washed over Jonathan Tinoco as the bulletin board in his former third-grade classroom was lifted from its hooks.
There on a wall in Reading’s 10th and Penn Elementary School, Tinoco found his name scrawled along with those of his former classmates.
“I felt as if I was back in that third-grade version of myself,” he said. “You know, the 9-year-old tender, tender boy who barely spoke English.”
A member of the Reading School Board, Tinoco recently returned to his third-grade classroom at 10th and Penn for a visit organized by Dr. Rowbee’C Kasisky, school principal.
The event included a reunion with Tinoco’s beloved third-grade teacher, Lisa Schmehl.
“The reunion was phenomenal,” he said. “It was a really very sentimental moment.”
Schmehl was a first-year teacher when Tinoco was assigned to her third-grade classroom in 1997, 10th and Penn’s opening year.
To commemorate the school’s and her first year, Schmehl had the children create a time capsule of sorts by writing their names on the wall behind the bulletin board.
It was a defining moment for the young Tinoco, who was born and raised in Reading.
As the child of a Cuban refugee mother and Mexican immigrant father, he spoke Spanish at home and struggled with English when he started school.
His bilingualism and mixed ancestry created an identity crisis of sorts.
“Who am I?” the child Tinoco would ask himself. “Where do I fit in?”
The simple act of writing his name on the wall along with his fellow classmates answered that.
“Having the experience of being able to write my name behind the board was transformative,” he said. “I knew then exactly: I am a student of this classroom, of this year.”
That moment and Schmehl’s gentle encouragement throughout the year inspired in Tinoco a lifelong pursuit of knowledge and dedication to community service.
She also helped him understand that his bilingualism and multicultural background were assets and encouraged his budding interest in art.
“I’ve always been different,” he said, “with my mother being Cuban and my father being Mexican, I couldn’t really find myself in groups or crowds.”
Schmehl taught Tinoco to just be himself.
An artist and manager of the city’s legal office, Tinoco said he reflected on his former teacher’s influence during the Dec. 7 school board swearing-in ceremony.
He, along with Patricia Law, had chosen not to seek reelection, but both recently accepted appointment to the board.
They replace elected members Mark Detterline and Julio Martinez, who declined for personal reasons to accept their seats.
Much of the impetus for his decision to continue in public service, Tinoco said, results from Schmehl’s influence and the community spirit she inspired.
As an elementary student, Tinoco said, he could not have imagined having a position on the school board.
“I didn’t even know what a school board director was,” he said. “I never met one. Now as a school board director, I am going into schools and introducing myself to the students: Hey, you can be me one day because I was you one day.”
Many of his former classmates have their own stories of the impact made by the simple act of collectively writing their names, the 2007 Reading High School graduate said.
“It was a moment of unity,” he said. “She (Schmehl) inspired and empowered us. I can confidently say that it created a life connection among all of us.”
Today, Tinoco’s former classroom hosts another first-year teacher and a group of second-grade students.
He, Schmehl and Kasisky watched as one by one the students added their signatures to the wall behind the bulletin board.
“This ceremony was a special moment for our school community,” Kasisky. “Witnessing the rekindling of connections between past and present, seeing the names unveiled and fostering a sense of continuity among our students has been truly inspiring.”
The hope, she said, is that the signatures will continue to echo the timeless link among past and future generations at the school.
Source: Berkshire mont