In the learning cottages located near the gym-side entrance of Lambert lies Mr. Candela’s classroom, an inspirational place of learning and growth. English teacher Mr. Candela takes great pride in his teaching environment and methods designed to engage and challenge his students to become the best versions of themselves. Many students, in turn, greatly enjoy and respect his class for its well-structured rigor and real-world utility.
In April 2014, Mr. Candela graduated from Western Michigan University with a Bachelor’s degree in English (With an emphasis on teaching). Holding an affinity for human interaction, Mr. Candela has always wanted to work where he converses with people daily and makes a meaningful, positive impact on them through his service. The profession of teaching is one of the largest available outlets for this passion.
“People will often say that teaching is a calling because we are certainly not doing it for the money or the fame,” Mr. Candela said. “Teaching is my dream job, I genuinely could not see myself doing anything else and being satisfied with it.”
One week after graduating, Mr. Candela came to Forsyth County to accept a job offer as an Assistant Swim Coach position at Lambert High School; the start of a long and prosperous teaching career.
“They didn’t have too many men in the department, so they saw that as a very natural fit,” Mr. Candela said. “I was by far the youngest working in Lambert at the time; I wasn’t married, I didn’t have kids or anything.”
Working up the ladder, Mr. Candela became an upper-level English teacher at Lambert. He enjoys teaching students literature because he believes that literature is ultimately a form of communication. Communication is an essential ability to practice in order to form meaningful connections with people, understand others and obtain success in one’s life. Literature also enables students to learn about the eternal themes found in the timeless art of books and writing.
“Communication is everything; your ability to advance in any meaningful way is solely predicated on your ability to communicate,” Mr. Candela said. “Literature is also just that insight to these universal themes that exist within the human condition, common threads of humanity that have always existed and will always exist. You can read something in Shakespeare and talk about how it’s still relevant today.”
Communication is a crucial foundation for individuals to apply themselves and function within their community. Mr. Candela highly values community, emphasizing collaboration to combat social isolation, foster friendships and selflessly serve others in the community. Mr. Candela’s aptitude for promoting service in one’s community is a major reason as to why he is the lead sponsor for BETA Club.
“I think about how so much of American life is isolated, especially when you live in the suburbs, so any opportunity to engage with people, form relationships, form friendships and serve people is something that I’ve always been interested in doing,” Mr. Candela said. “BETA Club is a great opportunity at Lambert to help give back to the community, especially to those that aren’t as fortunate as many of us are here at Lambert.”
The impact that someone has on the people around them is what Mr. Candela believes to be the true measure of a person’s life. It is a measure that does not guarantee money, fame or power, but is frequently seen as highly honorable and honest.
“At the end of the day, how much of an influence you had over people’s lives in ways that you don’t necessarily see immediately is what matters,” Mr. Candela said. “Hopefully, down the road, people look back and kind of reflect like, ‘Wow, this person had a big impact on the person that I am today.’”
As a passionate and caring teacher, Mr. Candela has noticed his (often continually developing) impact on the students he’s taught years past. Having been at Lambert long enough to teach entire families, Mr. Candela has witnessed and heard of his former students’ progress through life and move on to new stages.
“It’s cool to me to see students that I taught eight years ago, who are now starting to get their first job, get engaged, settle down,” Mr. Candela said. “It may not be at the forefront of everyone’s mind every day, but that impact is still always underneath the surface.”
Proper connectivity between individuals in a community plays into how Mr. Candela views how school should exist: not as an isolated block of time during the weekdays, sharing no connection or greater purpose outside of the campus, but as a community-driven effort powered by real people and their genuine aspirations.
“It feels, in a way, we’re all part of a larger family,” Mr. Candela said. “It’s kinda like the relationships I have with my teachers, and y’know this is obviously 15 years ago in multiple states away, but the impact they’ve had on my life is still working itself out today.”
At Lambert, Mr. Candela sees himself as an important counterbalance to many of the extreme or intense academic influences negatively affecting students. Given that Lambert is a very competitive school, various stressors can face students in their adventures of taking multiple challenging classes, working constantly to achieve extra credit and obtaining awards for dedication and record-setting.
“In a lot of ways, I am needed here to help provide that balance of ‘hey, everybody in your life is telling you that you have to have that extreme drive and extreme stress put on your performance at school,’ and I try to exist as a sort of counterbalance to that,” Mr. Candela said. “I think that people should do what they want, but I think a lot of times people do what will make them the most amount of money, but if that results in you being miserable every single day, then I don’t know how much enjoyment you’re gonna get from that.”
All in all, Mr. Candela hopes for the students inhabiting Lambert to know to always showcase authentic kindness and to treat people like real human beings, human beings who deserve your time, attention and connection, not just a Quizlet study set with next period’s test answers.
