When I Am 21
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About the Book
When I Am 21 is an attempt to capture the spirit of the students with whom I worked in residential placement. The student papers are filled with hope and despair, sadness and happiness, poignancy, honesty, and deep longing. My hope is that this book will contribute to efforts towards working with these students to provide them with what they need, a top-quality education that offers academic pursuits, and especially for the majority of students, vocational training and interpersonal skills as essential parts of the curriculum. “It is impossible to look at these student wishes and not be impressed by the desire to work. Work is the basis of community. It involves the giving and taking essential to human transactions, the fulfillment of wants and needs, the reciprocity of rights and responsibilities, and the culmination - hopefully - of an educational process that allows students to identify their interests and skills and to choose a job suitably commensurate with such.” (page 49). “I find most noteworthy those wishes that refer to personal virtues (‘be brave’, ‘will listen’, ‘to still pray’) and those that refer to a world outside of and bigger than ourselves (‘a world without violence’, ‘peace on earth’, ‘help younger children to read’, ‘everyone will stop killing animals’, ‘will help the needy’).” (page 146) “Peer relations are generally the greatest single indicator both of social/emotional health and happiness/sadness for individuals throughout society. Peer relations is the arena wherein questions of autonomy, maturity, morality, virtue and interpersonal satisfaction come together. Love interests encompass the spiritual, the emotional and the physical.” (page 197)
About the Author
Contributing to Mr. Mazzullo's philosophy and values are +30 years working with inner-city special education students. When I Am 21 is an account of his experience in a residential center for abused children, told in the students' own words, expressed as wishes for themselves 'if you could wish for anything for when you become 21 years old'.
One of the author's intentions with When I Am 21 is to complement his first book Philosophy of Education (Mazzullo, AuthorHouse 2012) in an effort to show where the academic disciplines of Psychology and Philosophy intersect with expressed student wishes, as these wishes reflect and inform so much of the content of Philosophy of Education.
Mr. Mazzullo is licensed in New York State to teach Elementary Education, Mathematics and Special Education, to serve as School Administrator and Supervisor, and to practice Psychotherapy.
His hobbies include gardening, cooking, reading and bicycling. He has been retired from teaching since the summer of 2010, and he spends a considerable amount of time at the family beach house in North Carolina, where he does a lot of his writing. His wife and three children are all teachers in the New York metropolitan area.
Mr. Mazzullo encourages readers to visit his web-site http://www.louismazzullo.com where comments and questions are welcome.