'Blessing' disguised as cancer
MetroWest Daily News
March 19, 2006by Julia Spitz
The teacher has learned many lessons since November 12.
He's learned the pain like "30 bee stings at once," and how much he misses the taste of chocolate cake. He's learned the value of books on tape, even if they aren't as good as "eating words" off the printed page the way he used to, before his eyes started tearing up.
Chemotherapy's lessons are hard.
Charlie Sposato calls them blessings.
"The effect it has on family and the kids at school" is hard, he said. "The blessing is it makes you see yourself as you really are."
A teacher.
"The best compliment you could ever give to Charlie is to call him a teacher," said Omari Walker, who worked with Sposato to create the Resiliency For Life program at Framingham High School.
Sposato's list of teaching accomplishments include more than 30 years in the Framingham public schools, 10 at Framingham State College and five as principal of the Media and Technology Charter High School in Boston. He was Massachusetts Teacher of the Year 1990-91, a finalist for the Teacher in Space Program and a Metro West Daily News Man of the Year.
Some hear the accolades and "say,'Oh, please,' but he really is a good, kind man," said Regina Henneberry, a longtime colleague at Framingham High who remembers how he'd stop by a student's house if the student wasn't in school.
"Every single kid I've seen him interact with knows he cares about them," said Walker. "At college break time, his door is like a revolving door."
"He has always, always had the time to be a sounding board, and you can rest assured it will always, always be confidential," said Rich Rebecchi, communications instructor at Framingham High.
"If there's anyone who can squeeze 26 hours out of a 24-hour day, it's Spo," said Rebecchi.
November's gastric cancer diagnosis has slowed Sposato's pace a bit, but he's still at the Boston school four days a week, still taking calls on the road and at his Framingham home.
"I feel bad for his family," said Walker. "He's always on the phone. He's the one who taught me to call kids."
"I never did anything without talking to (my wife) Mary," said Sposato. "You can't do anything without your family."
He relies on their help to fight this mixed "blessing."
"I think it's challenged me to grow professionally and as a person," he said. It's also helped the 59-year-old see, "for the past 36 years in this world, I've done a little good."
Those are the years he's been a teacher.
"You have to be good to play ball with him," said Walker. "He puts a lot of pressure on you to be great. He doesn't believe kids should get a second-rate education."
You have to expect excellence, said Sposato. "You expect anything less, you'll get it."
"He inspired me to care about other people," said former student Marco Curnen, a Spanish teacher at Brookline High.
"He could have been an administrator a long time ago, but if you ever see him in a classroom, you'd know why he wasn't," said Walker.
Talking about the MATCH School's success brings out rare flashes of pride in Sposato. Still, there's a story that brings a smile Friday morning, a story about leading a discussion of "The Women of Brewster Place" at MATCH a few weeks ago.
"The kids said, 'You should have been a teacher.'"
The smile spreads, then takes a turn to puzzled awe when he's asked about the Sposato Award, given annually since 2000 to a Resiliency for Life senior.
When Walker told him about the award, "I almost cried. I thought he was kidding at first," said Sposato.
The mother of last year's winner had a similar reaction, said Walker. When Walker asked why she was crying, she said, "I had him as a teacher and he kept me in high school and changed my life."
Some say you have to live day-to-day with cancer, said Sposato, but he thinks "it's good to plan ahead."
"I won't be principal next year. It wouldn't be fair to the kids." But "I'll be there in some capacity, mentoring," after a trip to Italy with his wife.
"If I could wish it away, I would," but calling the cancer "a blessing, I mean that from the bottom of my heart."
"The cure is worse than the cancer itself," Josephine Ewing, who works at Panera Bread, Sposato's "Framingham office," said Friday. "But, Charlie, we'll get through it."
It's just a well-disguised blessing and another chance to learn.
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'Blessing' disguised as cancer
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