Revered Teacher Alice Montera Will Retire After 30 Years of an Illustrious Career at Fieldston

Ever since September 1990, with the dawn of Alice Montera’s Fieldston career, our community has been irrevocably altered by her ebullient, dedicated approach to teaching both inside and outside of the classroom. In turn, the Fieldston community would have an indelible effect on her future, as she would soon meet her life partner, the esteemed Robert Montera, in this hallowed place. 

At the time of her arrival, the separate Fieldston Middle School division had not yet emerged on the Upper School Campus, and Montera taught varying levels of Spanish to a broad range of students from grades six to twelve. She has always relished the freedom that Fieldston has granted her to teach various different levels of Spanish, and to use her own creative license to design engaging curricula and co-teaching units; such courses have ranged from sixth grade Vejigante mask-making, student-run publicity campaigns for local Puerto Rican organizations seeking relief from Hurricane María, and canvassing for the New York Immigration Coalition with seniors in Washington Heights. In addition to Spanish courses, Montera has co-taught the interdisciplinary course “Routes of Rhythm” with percussion instructor Scott Latzky, which explores the musical diaspora that included Africa, Spain, and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, and honed in on Afro-Antillean poets.        

Halle Friedman: What’s your fondest memory of Fieldston and what are you going to miss most about the school?

Alice Montera: It is hard to cull out one particular memory or one thing that I will miss about Fieldston. In no particular order, I will miss the music; singing outrageously and loudly with my students…songs like “Grita,” “Ojalá que Llueva Café” and “La Tierra del Olvido,” cooking; making quesadillas, gazpacho and endless tortillas españolas, the relaxed spring sunshine on the quad during Band Day, watching the curtain rise on a show in a darkened auditorium, the dawning understanding on a student’s face, the green of tall trees, guardians of our campus, laughter next to the coffee machine, the power, impact, colors and memories of our annual Día de los Muertos exhibit… the reflective silence of a hallway at the end of a school day.

HF: How have you grown and what are some of the most valuable lessons you have learned at Fieldston?

AM: I have learned not to fear space and not to hide in the classroom. That for a teacher, “Learning by Doing” means opening up and viewing failure as an opportunity; that my journey as a teacher is the same journey that I began as a student, so many years ago, that if I listen, my students will teach me. Before I started at Fieldston, I worked as a teacher in other schools, I had other jobs outside of education…I moved and changed annually. Here I have begun to comprehend the joy that comes from knowing families, students and my colleagues over time…I am enriched by the long, deep familiarity that stems from staying in one place and working there. 

HF: In what ways has the Fieldston community changed from when you first started teaching?

AM: As a school, each year, each moment has consisted of its own friction, its unique challenges, its accomplishments and its failures…I try not to romanticize the past, and try to see the present.  However, as I reflect, I see that the homogenization that comes from internet access and the world of social media, websites and email, has inadvertently placed an invisible pressure on our school.  “Learning by Doing” is the progressive precept by which Fieldston lives…but we must not forget that a principal part of the learning process is that understanding one’s mistakes is an essential stepping stone of growth.  We must not allow our desire for a competitive and professional public face to dominate or attempt to hide our idiosyncratic institutional ‘self.’  Debate, successes, activism and individuality are not sound bites or jpegs…they come from a process of growth and action. I understand that Fieldston, like all other organizations and entities, should and must change with the times to remain viable.  I do not believe in an ECFS encased in the amber glow of memory. Some people are afraid that, if we allow the world to witness our school’s struggle to learn, that our dream will die. I happen to believe that friction and resolution is the dream, and it is our strongest selling point, the thing that truly makes our school stand out in a world of uniformity.  It lies in the laughter, pain and joyful mess of learning.

HF: What are some of the most important lessons you hoped to impart to your students?  

AM: I hope that, over the years, I have helped my students feel comfortable developing their language skills inside of my classroom, and that I have encouraged them to feel confident about using their abilities outside of school, in the streets, in the mountains, towns, and cities of our world. I do not believe in deferred gratification when it comes to language learning and hope that my students can see that one does not need to wait to speak like a native, in order to connect and communicate…you can do it right now, no matter the year or the level. Histories, cultures and people are all around us. Flexibility, a sense of humor and an adventurous spirit are the best tools for language learning.

HF: Have you thought about what your life will look like and what you’ll be pursuing in the next few years?AM: While I will always remain connected to Fieldston, to my students, and friends and colleagues, I am excited to make a change at this point in my life. I do not want to retire and simply deteriorate.  I want to make myself stronger by exploring new situations. I love to sketch and paint, and would like to study art more actively. I am developing a series of self-guided walking tours on a website that will be called “Backyard Odyssey.”  I would like to use my Spanish as a translator in order to help immigrants maneuver the increasingly hostile world around us. I am scared, I am excited, I will make mistakes, but I love being my 63 year-old self and taking small new steps. I will miss you all, but will never be far away.