(Editor’s note: This letter was originally read to the Levittown School Board at a recent board meeting)
Hello my name is Joe Giglio. I attend the class Sports Health and Fitness Services in Gerald Claps Career and Technical Center as an 11th-grader from MacArthur High School. People say that your junior year of high school is the hardest year of your high school years. Well those who say this don’t have the opportunity to have what I am honored to have. What I have is a teacher, Anthony Vidal, the teacher of my Sports Health and Fitness Services class. Not only is he a teacher with incredible knowledge of the subjects he is teaching me and my fellow classmates but he also has hands-on experience in the field.
Mr. Vidal is not just a teacher to me, he also is a person to look up to and a person that I can go to with any problem. Unfortunately I cannot say this for the majority of my teachers. Mr. Vidal gives me confidence not only with my physical fitness and well-being but he also gives me the confidence to stand up for who I am and be proud of my decisions. In the classroom he brings a feeling of business and proper educational teaching but along with this he also brings an atmosphere of fun and comfort. With his help and teachings I was able to place third in a school competition; without him none of that could be possible.
As my years of a high school student draw to a close in the next year, having a teacher and a mentor like Mr. Vidal is the most important thing for my success in the adult world. In closing, as any good house has its walls and its roof, the most important part of that house is its foundation on which it was created. Without this foundation the house would be merely just an empty space. Mr. Vidal is our foundation and we are the roof and walls. Without him we will collapse. He is the foundation that can hold us up and support us only like he can.
Joe Giglio
