Students from New Milford High School Thank Adam Leitman Bailey for the Tour of Wall Street
Dear Mr. Bailey,
Or, should I say Adam. What a fun, instructive, and memorable day we had on October 22. What a pleasure and a great learning experience for our students to have had the opportunity of learning about U. S. History and economics from one of our most successful graduates. The kind invitation you extended our students to visit the Wall Street historical district. and to be our guide to its important historical sites for the entire day, was a pedagogical tour de force that our students will never forget.
Students learn best, the latest pedagogical research shows, when they engage in practices where they learn from each other. What better way for our students to have learned about the heroes of our early republic than from you, a former student I would be surprised if at some point during your guided tour, as they were attentively listening to your informative narratives and explanations. they did not imagine you being one of them, in class with them, as you were back in 1988, the year of your graduation. This experience, Adam, I, their teacher, could never provide for them. John Peter Zenger, Alexander Hamilton. George Washington, Robert Fulton, mere characters in our students’ textbook the previous day, became historically real as our students walked their footsteps under your expert guidance — to be inside the Hall were the trial of John Peter Zenger took place, to see the grave of Alexander Hamilton, and stand in the very spot where George Washington was inaugurated President made them all palpable in ways that no textbook descriptions ever can.
Students were greatly impressed no less by your in depth and detailed knowledge of U. S. history and economics than by your positive outlook on life, your enthusiasm, your incredible energy, your 9/11 experience, and your pragmatic attitude that they should let their dreams and imagination always carry them forward. They remember well the positive and energizing advice that you gave the graduating class last year they saw in you, as they were walking with you, its best possible realization. As did Benjamin Franklin for the youth of his generation, you showed our students the best venue for practical success and the importance of having a positive outlook on life. In this regard, this, above all, I believe they learned from you — to be the very best they could be at any given moment in their life, and, having achieved it, to further ask themselves, “how can I be better.” For this, all members of the high School family and parents alike thank you!
Let me also take this opportunity to thank you for the generous S 10.000 scholarship you gave our graduating class last year. and for making available to our students two internships to your law firm this coming summer. What a pedagogical coup and great learning experience this will be for our students. Least of all, however, we also want to thank you for the wonderful lunch you provided and shared with us at Fraunces Tavern — George Washington might as well have been upstairs, dining at his table. Till the end of your guided tour, history was real, indeed!
For these things, all of us, students, parents, teachers and administrators alike, thank you.
Sincerely,
Joseph Tusa
P.S. Please extend our many thanks and best wishes to your assistant who enlightened us about the British perspective regarding the American Revolution.
Students-from-New-Milford-High-School-Thank-Adam-Leitman-Bailey-for-the-Tour-of-Wall-Street.pdf