India RPCV Manfred Cripe concludes distinguished teaching career
Manfred Cripe concludes distinguised teaching career
By Kathy Scott
Manfred Cripe began his 34-year career in India teaching rural residents how to raise chickens.
From these humble beginnings, Cripe started his endeavors in education, which will conclude with his retirement from Nogales High School on May 23.
He began working at NHS in 1977 following stints in Nigeria where he was assigned by the Peace Corps to instruct Nigerians who wanted to become teachers themselves and on an Indian reservation in Arizona where he taught social studies.
Following the "year in hell" when he substituted in numerous districts in Tucson, Cripe began at NHS in the Social Studies Department working with all ability levels and teaching many of the different social science offerings.
Then in 1990 he was one of the original NHS teachers to start teaching offerings in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, something he devoted himself to both educationally and philosophically for the rest of his tenure.
In addition, Cripe developed the soccer program at NHS. When he first arrived he started a soccer club, and then four years later when soccer became a sanctioned Arizona Interscholastic Association sport, he coached the first official school team. He credited the years the students had worked together when the sport was only a club to their winning regionals and going on to state competition that first year. In later years he specialized in coaching the goalkeepers before deciding not to coach anymore.
Cripe said his experiences as a teacher in Nogales were colored by his years working in Nigeria prior to becoming an American educator.
"My perception was formed by teaching students who saw the value of an education and who made great sacrifices to be educated. They were dedicated to their studies," Cripe said.
"It was a very difficult adjustment for me to teach in the American system with its cheerleaders and football players and with students who felt that school was just a place to socialize and meet their friends."
The extracurricular activities of high school were not part of the European system, he added, and education in and of itself was highly valued, something that he did not experience when teaching in the United States. However, he said he was "saved" when the IB program took off, offering students the opportunity for a rigorous education.
During his years in education Cripe has had numerous opportunities to travel and experience cultures far from home. In 1984-85 he was an exchange teacher to Scotland (a teacher from Scotland took his spot at NHS that year), and he has traveled to China, Israel, Australia, and Finland, either through a Fullbright Fellowship or through activities associated with IB.
He has been to New York City seven times, the last six with IB students who participated in a program held at the United Nations school.
Despite his many accomplishments, Cripe said he would like to be remembered more for his commitment to harmony than for his actual teaching assignments.
"Some will remember me for my role in soccer and some for IB.
"But I want to be remembered for promoting peace and for solving problems through dialog rather than violence. I want to be known as someone who engaged students, who encouraged them to travel and to be interested in other cultures, and who wanted students to approach their studies with rigor and vigor," he said.
It is obvious that whether he is teaching students about the proper nutrition needed by chickens or to question established philosophies, that message has come through loud and clear to literally thousands of students across the globe.
(Editor's Note: Scott is a freelance writer.)
