Stuyvesant Gets High
Marks from Principals For A Day
by Pola Rosen, Ed.D.
Stuyvesant High School had a homecoming for three illustrious
alumni returning as principals for a day. Each principal represented
a different discipline: Erica Morgan-Irish, V.P., Black Entertainment
Television; Gerry Golub, Sr. Managing Director, American Express;
and Herman Rosen, M.D., Clinical Professor of Medicine, Weill
Medical College of Cornell University. For these principals
it was a chance to visit the Stuyvesant building, now in Battery
Park City, they never attended. The new building is ten years
old, but Stuyvesant has been in existence since 1904. Greeting
the visitors was the dynamic Principal, Stanley Teitel. He
reminded everyone of the recent accomplishments this premier
math and science high school could boast of, such as having
more finalists in the recent Intel Science competition than
any other school in the nation. This was tempered by pointing
out a plaque dedicated to the nine Stuyvesant alums who died
in the World Trade Center attack on 9/11. The new 10-story
school has laboratories, an 800-seat auditorium and an Olympic
size swimming pool.
The schedule was planned to allow
each principal to visit classes of interest to them. Erica
Morgan-Irish visited a class on video journalism, among others.
Gerry Golub visited classes on great books and mathematics.
Dr. Herman Rosen visited a class on vertebrae dissection,
which happened to be studying the excretory system of the
lamprey. Dr. Rosen, a nephrologist, was able to discuss interesting
features of the fish’s
kidneys. Other classes visited included robotics, medical ethics,
art and architecture. The gleaming new building retains a “museum” of
the old school. One of the school’s architects, Peter
Samton (classmate of Dr. Rosen), included a working classroom
rebuilt with the original desks, inkwells and blackboards.
Throughout the building, a sentimental note was struck with
the glass-encased “time capsules” with mementos
from each graduating class.
Each Principal for a Day made inspiring concluding remarks
to the staff and student body.#
