Escolas Fisk 1973 - 1979

Fisk students on the verge of taking final exams at the Main Office on Avenida Lins de Vasconcelos circa 1978. The blogger (and teacher) is on the centre having Lidia Picolo (another teacher) on the left.

1973 - 1974 - 1975

I don't actually know exactly when private English-language-teaching schools started sprouting up in Sao Paulo but if one takes the period just after World War II it is possible that Yazigi was one of the first to be established.

By the 1960s there were a few schools that taught English-as-a-foreign-language: Yazigi, União Cultural Brasil-Estados Unidos, Instituto Roosevelt and Escolas Fisk which had the best (and fastest to grab) method among them. 

There were myriads of smaller schools especially downtown Sao Paulo that catered for less affluent students. I, myself, remember having taken an English course circa 1968 at one of them in an old building on Avenida Sao João opposite the Main Post Office. After completing the 1st stage I went over to TNT (Trans World Tuition) another 'el cheapo' school on Praça Clovis Bevilacqua and did the basic stage all over again. I kept changing schools so I never managed to get on to the 2nd stage after all.

Even though I could never finish any English-course properly I ended up traveling to the USA in late 1971 and had to grapple with the language 'in loco'. That was not easy! I remember I met a Brazilian fellow called Damazio Nazareth who could speak English better than the average 'Brazuca'. He told me he had learned English at a Fisk School in Guarulhos-SP. That was the first time I ever heard Fisk's name. I was impressed with Damazio's usage of the Present Perfect Tense and other grammar tools.

In mid 1973, when I was back in Brazil, Antonio Gonçalves Filho aka Nino, a friend of mine who had also been in the US told me he was attending a training course to become a teacher of English at Escolas Fisk, on rua Francisca Miquelina, 118. Nino convinced me I should also attend the course and I went along for the ride. 

I remember I was asked to write a composition in English when I applied to the position at Fisk's main office on Rua Santo Antonio, 454. I wrote something about 'everyday people' which was the title of one of Sly & the Family Stone's greatest hits. Nino and I only attended the latter part of the course which was given magnificently by Valter Bresolin Pinto de Moraes so I wasn't sure about my ability to grasp all the grammar points correctly.

Soon after I was called by Valter himself (who was a sort of teachers' counsellor) offering me to teach at a company in Vila Leopoldina, a suburb next to Lapa. I took a bus and went to the office of a factory  to start teaching its office employees. I was surprised to find among the students a former colleague who I had worked with at AASP, a lawyers's association office before I went to the USA (1970-1971). It was a bad omen. It sort of broke the spell. I was probably too shy and not sure of myself and it didn't work out. I gave a few classes but I felt terribly unsuited for the task so I went back to Valter and told him I would give it up because I was feeling depressed. He was nice to me and after a few weeks he rang me up again proposing I start giving the Basic course at Santo Amaro which was a proper school unit. He said he trusted my abilities and there I went to the far-away suburb to try and teach English again.

Bruno Caravati was the unit's director. I don't remember much about it except that the class-rooms were on the first floor of a commercial building at a busy square and I became friends with one of the students who was a Basque young engineer who had migrated to Brazil only a short time before. We probably became friends because I had a left-wing leaning and I knew about ETA and its struggle against the Spanish dictatorship. I left the Santo Amaro unit because it was too far from Bela Vista where I lived. 

Next I was teaching at the Vila Mariana unit which was on the 1st floor of a small shopping mall on rua Domingos de Moraes, 814. It was a friendly place with Elena as secretary and de-facto-'boss'. With time I realized that school-units with no formal director were more fun and 'old' Vila Mariana was one of such places. 'Old' because that unit would soon move over to a big house next to the great Brahma beer factory and the huge Orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral just on the right-hand side of the entrance to the new Paraiso subway station. 

At Vila Mariana I also met Mrs. Thomson - yes, her name was spelt without a P - a pert old lady who had been a teachers's counsellor in the old days and now was about to retire. She still gave some classes and took part in the training courses given by Valter Bresolin. I liked her for she had a strong ironic vein which was perceived by only a few. She was downright cheeky if I may say so and that was so rare among those people who taught English-as-a-foreign-language who were either too serious (boring in other words) or stuck up. It seemed like she was always secretly making fun of everything. I remember  once she was about to go to England for holidays and I asked her to bring me something about Ireland. She looked at me with a smirk but didn't say a word. She didn't forget my request even though I had met her for so short a time. She bought me a nice traveling book about Ireland.  

At Vila Mariana I met a young teacher called Julio Galvão, originally from Maranhão and we became pals for the longest time. Read more about me and Julio at this link:

http://dear-friends-of-mine.blogspot.com.br/2013/06/me-julio-down-by-school-yard.html

In 1974-1975 I taught English on Saturday mornings at the Ipiranga unit. It was a nice house on Avenida Dom Pedro I, 1048, not too far from the Monument. Mr. Umberto Blancato was the director but he was as least interfering as possible. He kept himself busy giving as many classes as he could. I taught a Free Conversation course from 8:00 am to 12:00 noon. Three long hours for a group of faithful students. We had a quick coffee-break at 10:00, went back to work, then left at noon. I still don't know how I managed to make the classes interesting with so much time to fill in. I guess it must have been a combination of patient students and a dedicated teacher. I only stopped teaching at Ipiranga when I went back to the USA in July 1975. 

In late 1974 and early 1975 I found time to attend 'refresher courses' given by Valter Bresolin at the brand-new Main Office on Avenida Lins de Vasconcelos, 2594. That's when I met a few good teachers and made a few friends. I had met Lidia Picolo at Francisca Miquelina's Saturday's refresher courses and now we renewed our friendship. 

I also met Adilson, a young man who taught at Santo André who had just returned from the USA where he had lived for one year on an exchange-student-program. Adilson went to the USA in August 1973 and back back to Santo André in May 1974. I remember Adilson used to sing along to Charlie Rich's 'The most beautiful girl in the world' (#1 at Billboard on 15 December 1973) which he must have listened a lot when he lived there. 

Adilson also sang along to Jim Croce's 'I'll have to say I love you in a song' (# 9 on 27 April 1974) which he knew with a different set of words he must have learned from his school mates at the high-school-yard. The parody was pretty indecent and had a lot of 7 dirty words that are banned by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission). In case you wonder what they are here's the list: shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker and tits. Adilson was a fun guy. I've never heard of him again. 

When I went back to the USA in July 1975, I left my two Basic-course groups at Vila Mariana to Marcio, a young hopeful who had started as a Fisk student and worked his way up to become a teacher himself. Lidia Picolo had flown to the USA on the 4th of July 1975, I flew on the 5th and Paulo Wenzel, arguably my best students at Ipiranga's FC course flew to the USA around the same time. The only difference was that I would stay there for 1 and a half year. 

Avenida Rebouças, 2942 before leaving for Av. Lins de Vasconcelos for the final examination; Dona Maria Turchinski, wearing a black  blouse, was the Unit's mainstay.  

1978 Christmas Party at Avenida Lins de Vasconcelos; Regina Vilaça is on the left; one can see Monica's back in the background between the two guys dancing. 

Saturday afternoon fever with teacher Marcio, secretary Ivany and Mr. Fisk in person showing he knew how to boogie. 

Nezel, secretary from the Vila Mariana-unit doing her best to liven up the party. Michael Mingucci and his wife Monica watch on the background.  

a 1970 leaflet showing Escolas Fisk's main sites around the city and state of S.Paulo.

1970-1971 leaflet

Fisk News, 20 November 1970.

Festa de criação da Grande Fisk Centro - Depois de longos anos, as Escolas Fisk conseguem concretizar um velho sonho! Ampliar a Francisca Miquelina. A escola da Chica Mica, 118, é a primeira Fisk, o berço de toda a organização. Comoda por sua construção e localização, em pleno centro, a falta de espaço impedia a sua ampliação, obrigando as EF a manter, para poder atender todos os seu alunos, outros locais no miolo da cidade. Agora, conseguimos pegar (meio na marra), um conjunto idêntico no mesmo prédio, ocupando-o todo. Podemos agora, concentrar todo o nosso esforço num só lugar, dando aos nossos alunos todo o conforto que eles merecem. 

Criamos a Grande Fisk Centro, que será formada pela fusão da antiga 'Chica Mica' e da XV de Novembro. Isso proporcionará maior movimento escolar, além de contínua atividade social ('Saturday Club', biblioteca, discoteca etc.) Assim, no dia 5 Dezembro 1970, haverá um dia inteiro de festividades, recepcionando os alunos que vem da XV. As 15:00 horas haverá conferência proferida por Mr. Leonard Fisk, irmão de Mr. Fisk, que virá dos USA para prestigiar as solenidades. Todos os alunos e amigos são convidados (não haverá convites individuais). 

a newsletter with a lot of information. 

from left to right: Nezel (Vila Mariana's secretary), Julio Galvao, Maria Turchinski, (Rebouças's secretary) & Luiz Amorim in 1977.

Michael Mingucci, Julio Simões & Luiz Amorim.

Julio, Maria Turchinski & Luiz Amorim at Fisk's Xmas party 1977.

Fisk-Rebouças circa 1978 was glamour itself...

some Fisk-Rebouças students were super-models in disguise... 

students' snapshots at Fisk-Rebouças parking-lot.

Rebouças-Unit students take their finals at Lins de Vasconcelos.

students waiting to be interviewed by a Native-speaker as part of Final Examinations...

Rua XV de Novembro circa 1956.

Rua Apeninos in 1958 in Vila Mariana. Fisk had a school next to the Orthodox Church on the top. 

26 paralles and diagonals... these are the steps to Ipiranga's Independence Monument which is two blocks away from Fisk's Ipiranga's Unit on Avenida D.Pedro I, 1.048.

Fisk School in Guarulhos' Praça Getúlio Vargas circa 1968. This was actually the very first Escola Fisk I was sent to teach in late 1973, but due to it being too far from where I lived I ended up refusing. But I remember so well when I sat down at a chair and watched a Brazilian teacher give an English class. Inside myself I doubted I would be able to get up there in front of everyone and teach English... but I ended up doing it eventually.