By Vito Lampariello, March 18, 2019 — When I graduated high school in 1952, I couldn’t make up my mind. I wasn’t sure what field I wanted to go into, or if it was worth it to pursue higher education. To make money in the meantime while I figured out my future, I got a job at a radar factory for the U.S. Navy in Newark, New Jersey. My cousin was able to get me the job because he was an inspector at the factory, and had enough connections to secure me a spot in the parts department.
The factory manufactured every part necessary for radar except for the rotator; the government has laws against factories being able to put together radar all in one place for security reasons. I stayed in the parts department at the factory for three years, making $48.81 a week. It was easy enough work and I didn’t think I had anywhere better to be, so I did my job without thinking twice until I was asked to start working at night. The night shift was extremely unappealing to me. It was then that I realized that this job wasn’t making me happy, and it was time to start pursuing what in the back of my mind I knew I always wanted to do: teach.
I signed up to take the Montclair State Teacher’s College’s (now Montclair State University) entrance exam, confident yet slightly apprehensive about the high-quality teaching school’s 50 percent acceptance rate. Fortunately, though, I was one of the 400 applicants they admitted out of the 800 people who applied. I spent four years commuting to Montclair from Newark taking teaching classes, then after I graduated I got a job at Lafayette Street School in Newark. I taught middle school-aged children and eventually became a vice principal there. I was a teacher and VP for 34 years before I retired — I have held other jobs since, but nothing compares to the fulfillment I got from being an educator.