For our last edition of the year, we interviewed one of the oldest teachers at EARJ, who has been working with us on and off for over forty years: Mr. McFarland, who is now 71. He majored in Spanish and Latin American studies and minored in Portuguese. In this interview, he shares his once-in-a-lifetime trip by foot to Brazil in the 1970s and his lifelong experience as a teacher.
PP: Did your studies in Latin America bring you to Brazil?
MCF: I first started studying Spanish - being from Arizona, I loved Spanish anyways. But then, in my junior year, my advisor suggested that I take Portuguese, and, after that, I studied it for two years. I loved Mexico, but man, I fell in love with Brazil. My last two years of university were one of the main reasons I’m in Brazil today. There's no question about that.
PP: How did you come to Brazil and what made you pick Brazil over other Latin American countries?
MCF: First of all, I studied Spanish, I loved Mexico, and I’ve been to some other Spanish-speaking countries. But it was when I started speaking Portuguese that everything began. One teacher told me while I was a junior in college, “Mark, go to Brazil; you’re going to love it.” She kind of planted the seed. Mexico is one thing, but Brazil is another. Before that, whenever I said I'm going to Brazil, there was no way I was hopping on a plane. I had a backpack, sleeping bag, and a thousand dollars; I got on a train in New Galas and said I would get to Brazil somehow. I went down through Mexico by train and Central America by bus, and then once I arrived in Panama, I finally got on an airplane and came to Brazil. It took me about a month to get here. That was the most exciting thing I’ve ever done. I did my homework, I spoke Portuguese, I had some money, I had an address book, and I knew who I was going to talk to, but going down through Mexico by train and through central America by bus was still a challenge.
PP: What’s the most memorable moment from the trip?
MCF: I was going down through Mexico on a train, and I met this guy, Glen, who was going to Colombia, and we decided to travel together. We hopped on a bus, and we went through Central America; the fantastic thing about it is that we wanted to get through it, but there were obviously five or six different countries, and there was a border. You have to get off the bus and show your passport, and they ask if you have a Visa. My friend, Glen, had an army jacket that had his name, the type of jacket that military personnel used – at this moment, we were in Panama. Anyway, military dictatorship, the bus stopped, and these military guys with machine guns and military jackets just like my friend’s. I said I think it’s better if you give up the jacket because we’re going to get in trouble here. I was 23 at the time and I was scared.
PP: Did you make money on the trip, and if so, how?
MCF: I remember I gave English lessons, and some people would invite me to do translations (not that I was an expert or anything). But I would make a little bit of money here, a little bit of money there. I was making enough to survive until I got to Rio, and once I got to Rio, I had to start settling down.
PP: Once you arrived in Rio, what was your first job?
MCF: I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and I got an offer to work at City Bank and Escola Americana at the same time in 1975. I couldn’t see myself working as a businessman, but people told me I would’ve moved up the ladder quickly. Then they said I would have to work as an auditor and be away for five months of the year, and when I told my wife-to-be, she immediately said no. So I started working at Escola Americana; the only problem was that I had no experience or teaching credentials, so I was thrown into teaching with no practice and only got the hang of it with time.
PP: Since you’ve been a teacher at EARJ for a long time, what are some of your craziest stories?
MCF: Well, all I can say is that my best memory is when I went with a group of teachers and students from Graded to Cuba in 1993. I tried to talk to the EARJ headmaster at the time about letting us take a group of students, but he said no, and then I asked if I could go; I went, and it was so cool. It was an IB history class, and there was a component of the test in which we had to analyze documents, and one of that year’s topics was Fidel Castro and his rise to power. We visited the whole island, and we had history teachers who lectured and guided us. We had a group of 18 kids and stayed there for 18 days.
PP: Do you think the school should have more field trips?
MCF: Yes, I remember a Spanish teacher I worked with at Gávea who took a group of middle school kids to Spain. We had a full learning agenda, going to Barcelona and Madrid; they had an itinerary and tour guides and people who would help. But yes, totally, field trips are an excellent way for students, especially for high schoolers, to learn more if they are done well.
PP: As one of the oldest teachers at EARJ, with many life experiences and stories, what advice do you think is vital in life and that you want to pass on to students (and teachers)?
MCF: For teachers: Understand and have compassion for your students. If you don’t, you're in the wrong career. You need to love what you're doing, and the kids need to see your passion. Don’t do it unless you love it. You got a class of fifteen, two over here, three over there, and it’s not easy. But you must remember that the kids aren’t the same; it’s essential to try and understand them.
For students: Recognize when somebody does something cool, recognize that somebody spends time to give you a moment of something, and be appreciative of it. It’s not that complicated. Go for the best version of yourself; go for it. In my opinion, mediocrity isn’t an option, and there’s no place in a school for mediocrity, especially in a private school like this that has a reputation, and you know the price isn’t low.
You need to love what you're doing, and the kids need to see your passion. TOTALLY AGREED!