After being awarded the Distinguished Fulbright Award in Teaching this past year, Freestyle English teacher Gordon Jack will depart for Argentina next March to work on an interdisciplinary project.
As one of the 13 teachers in the country to receive the scholarship, Jack plans on establishing an interdisciplinary program at high schools in Buenos Aires, with all expenses paid by the Fulbright program. Jack wants to take aspects of Freestyle and bring them to the kids in Argentina.
“My goal is to eventually set up a project that involves an artistic communication between the students here at Freestyle and the students in Argentina,” Jack said.
Similar to Freestyle’s core curriculum, Jack’s program is focused on the translation of work between writing and design.
“Being at Freestyle, I’ve seen so much mature and thoughtful work produced by students in design, and it provides this visual concept that strengthens their writing,” Jack said.
“What I’m really focused on is having the students in Argentina have the same visual integrated writing experience where they can apply their work in design to their writing and their writing to their work in design.”
Jack also hopes to establish a pen-pal system looking to explore the translation of differing perspectives in design.
“I’m interested in what the students can learn from one another and how their different cultures influence their individual perspectives,” Jack said.
While in Argentina, Jack will also be teaching English and taking classes at the University of Buenos Aires. English teacher Kristin Tillim will be taking his place as a long-term substitute and Jack’s family will be moving with him to Argentina.
“The one thing I’m really going to miss is seeing all the Freestyle seniors graduate,” Jack said. “But I wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving unless we had a great teacher like Kristin Tillim to take my place.”
With his trip only six months away, Jack is enthusiastic about taking his program beyond Mountain View.
“I’m really looking forward to living in Buenos Aires, improving my Spanish and getting to know the culture of Argentina,” Jack said. “It’s definitely going to be an adventure.”
