Academics

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John Cammarata

Academic Counselor
HS Academics
Lodi, NJ

I hold an A.A. from Bergen Community College, a B.A. in History from William Patterson University, a K-12 New Jersey Lifetime Teaching Certification, a Master’s in Guidance and Counseling from the University of New Mexico, and am a certified to teach Social Studies and am a certified school counselor and licensed clinical counselor. Prior to coming to SFIS in the late 1970s, I taught History at Rutherford High School in Rutherford, New Jersey. I came out to Albuquerque Indian School as a volunteer and worked on an environmental modification project and became involved in curriculum meetings and was later offered a position at the school.
I currently teach Ethics and Philosophy at SFIS where we work on critical thinking skills and learn about different philosophers and philosophical application to our everyday lives. We teach perspective and how to look at things from a different perspective—not that you have to agree with it, but understand it. We use Black Elk Speaks for Native American philosophy units and look at Socrates’ “universals.” I put 3 quotes on the board, one is from an Eastern philosopher, one from a Western philosopher and one from a Native philosopher—when we pull them apart, students realize that the words are different but the meanings are the same and these truths transcend time, culture, religion. I’m also the academic counselor and keep track of student credits, making sure that they are meeting their graduation requirements and not just for graduation but preparing them for what they do beyond high school. I’m also the testing coordinator and am in charge of doing the standards based assessment and do crisis intervention for students.
I’ve always liked learning, which explains too why I enjoy teaching so much. As a teacher and a counselor I enjoy seeing that look when a student learns something and understands something. I think that students, everybody has gifts, and they need to realize that and not ignore the weaknesses but work hard at strengthening the weaknesses and knowing that those weaknesses are just differences.
I was one of those kids that were written off, and this angered me. The more they did that, the more determined I was to prove them wrong. I received a number of awards and proclamations over the years. I put them up on my wall not to impress people but to remind me. Those things are there to remind me not to write students off like I was written off. Never underestimate what a child can do. Awards are really nothing but bits of paper, glass and wood. My point is that those are my constant reminders: Don’t do to others what was done to us. So when a person comes in to my office, I listen.
My passion is students. Our children are human beings who have this hunger to learn, to be taught, to do well. The passion is to help them to realize that and to protect them as much as you can from the things that interfere with that. I wish for SFIS student success, but success is a strange term. I want people to see what can be done. I want for the kids to see what they can accomplish. To realize you have control over your own life and that you can accomplish things when you set your mind to. I want people to see our students the way I see them. I ask the students—how many of you have heard you can be anything you want to be, do anything you want to do? Whoever told us that left out the most important phrase—we can be anything we want to be, do anything we want to do if—if we’re ready to work hard and not give up.