Mr. Raslavsky's Lasting Legacy at Andrew Warde High School

This is the latest installment in a feature series on former teachers, administrators, coaches, and students at Andrew Warde High School. If you have a suggestion for a feature story or would like to contribute an article, please send me an email at pppiorek@news12.com.

Mr. Tom Raslavsky spent over a quarter of a century at Andrew Warde and Fairfield high schools teaching English composition and grading student essays. However, his fondest memory of his time at the Melville Avenue campus had little to do with Language Arts.

The greatest lessons he ever taught had nothing to do with expository or creative writing and everything to do with teaching high school students about the importance of volunteering, giving back, and being charitable. Those lessons last a lifetime.

"I started a volunteer group to help the American Cancer Society," Mr. Raslavsky told me this morning on the telephone from his home in Shelton where he lives with his wife. "(It was called) Youth for the American Cancer Society.

"It was a volunteer group, and I was the advisor to the group. We accomplished a lot of things as far as fundraising goes. We had a walk every year for 'Camp for Kids in the Sun,'" he added.

The camp, according to Mr. Raslavsky, was located in Hebron, Connecticut. He told me that knowing someone who was suffering from cancer was the inspiration for his involvement with the American Cancer Society.

Mr. Raslavsky, one of the many outstanding faculty members of Wolcott House, initially became involved with the American Cancer Society as a volunteer, and he decided to get the high school students involved in a good cause. He said the youth group was active for a good "six to ten years."

Mr. Raslavsky began his teaching career at Andrew Warde High School in 1970, a year after a one-year teaching position at Rippowam High School in Stamford. He attended college at the University of Bridgeport and Southern Connecticut State College in New Haven before student teaching at nearby Trumbull High School.

Obviously, the classroom has changed a lot over the last 10 to 15 years. Does he often wonder what teaching English and Language Arts would have been like if he and the students had any of the modern technology we take for granted today?

"For teaching English, we'd be using the computers," he laughed. "I'd be instructing on a monitor instead of a blackboard."

Mr. Raslavsky eventually retired from the classroom at Fairfield High School in 1996 after spending 27 years at Warde and Fairfield high schools. This typist had Mr. Raslavsky for English class over 30 years ago. I'm sure Mr. Raslavsky's dedication to his career and students and his passion for writing, to some degree, influenced me to become a ten-year teacher of English at the middle school level and author of this blog.

Mr. Raslavsky also taught his high school students the importance of volunteering and helping with a charitable cause. That, my friends, is a true educator.

Paul

Please sign the AWHS Class of 1976 Guest Book.

Visit the AWHS Class of 1976 Gift Shop.

Watch the AWHS 1976 vintage "film."