Teaching from the Heart and Soul: The Robert F. Panara Story

In Front of the Classroom

57 In Front of the Classroom Bob’s Gallaudet classmates remember him in their senior yearbook as a “scholar and troubadour . . . with a penchant for Romanticism.” The “heart and soul” had begun to show in his own compositions. Gone was his dream of a life like Shelley’s. Indeed, the world that Shelley had known had been destroyed. The United States was emerging from World War II. His family had not yet recovered from the Great Depression . Bob was deaf, without any savings, and about to begin his new position at the White Plains school. He would have to pursue his literary dreams in other ways. Although he had found his passion in teaching, he had only just begun to find his purpose. It is not surprising that his “penchant for romanticism ” led him to Emily Dickinson, however. Her verse consoled him and reminded him that there were impressive libraries nearby in New York City: “There is no Frigate like a Book / To take us Lands away, / Nor any Coursers like a Page / Of prancing Poetry.” Bob’s own poem “In the Library,” which he wrote while a college student, is a rhythmic tribute to his lifelong love for books: 58 Teaching from the Heart and Soul This is the palace whose pleasures impart The wonders of nature, the beauties of art; Here are more riches dearer than gold, Here lies more wealth than the kings knew of old. Here is the wisdom, the craft and the lore, Here are the whims of the wise men of yore; Here are the visions for those who would dream To rocket through space on a laserlike beam. Here is the fervor, here is the love, Here is the hope sought of heaven above; Here is the laughter, the sweat and the tears, Here are the songs that the world endears. Here are the blooms and the blossoms of spring, The cry of the loon and the lark on the wing; Here is the vista of mountain and sea Here is my sunny little Isle of Capri. Here I’ll meet sorrow, here I’ll touch pain, Here I can sigh for my lost loves again; Here I’ll greet pleasure, here I’ll kiss joy, Here I can dream like a seven-years boy. Over this volume, over that tome Wend all the roads that will lead me to Rome; Under this alcove, deep in that nook There I’ll seek kismet . . . for there lies a book! The New York School for the Deaf at White Plains, where Bob began teaching in the fall of 1945, was close to home in more ways than one. It was less than an hour from Yankee Stadium and the neighborhood where he had grown up. The In Front of the Classroom 59 school was also in the heart of the Hudson River Valley, near the birthplace of author Washington Irving, of Rip Van Winkle fame. Perhaps this was apropos, for there Bob experienced awakenings of his own—a further maturation in his poetry, a discovery of his ability as a teacher to inspire deaf students in theater and writing, and, especially, romantic adventure with a lovely young woman from St. Louis—Shirley Fischer. The school was only a train ride away from Broadway theaters and city universities. Known for many years as the “Fanwood School,” the appellation was a shortened version of “Fanny’s Woods,” a name given to property in Manhattan where the school once stood. “Fanny,” the daughter of a former superintendent, used to love to romp in the woods towering near the old school building, and the area became known as “Fanny’s Woods,” then eventually the “Fanwood School.” Although the superintendent’s daughter and the old campus were long gone, this nickname had carried over to the new location at White Plains. This was a residential military school, and at the time Bob began teaching, enrollment was restricted to boys. Bob lived in a mansion rented out by the wife of a man who had committed suicide after the stock market crash in 1929. The Fanwood principal, Justin Dozier, also had a room there. There were other boarders, including three who worked on Wall Street, a civil engineer, and a high school teacher. The housekeeper, Mrs. Cleary, made breakfast for them each morning before Dozier drove Bob to the campus. At the Fanwood School, the boys in the primary...