In an interesting turn of events, Mr. Crouse thought he would be leaving Sparta Schools, but has decided that his work here is not done yet- and will remain as part of the Sparta Faculty.
One of the most interesting people, one of the Sparta community’s most beloved teachers, and just generally a very very cool dude, Mr Crouse, recently agreed to sit with me for an interview that hopefully will highlight his fascinating life. He currently teaches French and Spanish at Sparta Middle School.
(Sparta Independent)
Interviewer: Mr. Crouse, your life is full of adventures. You were in the Peace Corps, you worked as a journalist, you are an adjunct professor at Rutgers. How has that been?
Mr. Crouse: I currently teach methods of world language instruction. I’m teaching teachers, guiding them to understand and put into practice what we know to be the best methods of acquiring a language. In the past, my experiences of French where we’d get worksheets, read out of a textbook, but none of that felt real. I would always be wondering “Where is this going?” and “This is kind of boring.” I didn’t ever feel excited by a class. What changed was I went into the peace corps. I was in the peace corp for 2 years in Panama. I was in environmental science - I had a double major in biology. In the Peace Corps I was an environmental educator. I taught teachers in Panama to develop environmental education guides. Along the way I was acquiring the Spanish language. I realized that there was a much better way to do that than books and worksheets. It could be much more dynamic; it needed to be. It needed to be effective and deep and enduring. When I eventually decided to be a language teacher in 2003 I wanted to recreate those elements in my classroom to the best of my ability. When I started it was a mess. I didn’t know how to do it. I went everywhere I could, looked at everything I could, I talked, I listened.
Interviewer: What was the Peace Corps like, and would you recommend it to your students?
Mr. Crouse: I was supposed to go to west Africa, but it was canceled because of political violence. I chose Panama even though I didn’t know Spanish. At first I was really nervous being there by myself when I got there, I was on the verge of tears the first night. The next morning, I woke up and pulled up my sheet and there was a scorpion in my bed. The scorpion stung me in my foot. Now this kind of scorpion, you can feel the paralysis moving up your leg. I ran to the family that I was staying with, and they made me a tea made from a particular nut. As I drank it, I could feel the numbness moving back down; it was pretty amazing. What I did in the meantime, was I ran next door to my neighbor and started telling her what happened. My neighbor pointed out that I was standing in a colony of fire ants. So that was my first day in the peace corp.
Interviewer: After that, what were the rest of your expectations?
Mr. Crouse: After that, I knew that it would get better. I was working with teachers in four or five different schools. I would need to develop relationships on a personal level. I couldn’t just rush in like an American and get to business, I had to embrace the new culture, get to know the people and the culture, and not rush in.
Interviewer: When you biked from Panama to Colorado, it took you four months. What were some of the biggest challenges you faced?
Mr. Crouse: Well when I look back at it now, I can’t believe we did it. There were many times when we were riding along the Pan-American Highway with huge trucks passing by us. I’m shocked that we survived it. The road conditions were terrible with cracks and potholes. We were only robbed once by some little kids who took some cash from our bags that we had with us in Nicaragua. We went up through some mountains in Guatemala that were thousands of feet high just to come riding back down. Knowing which hotels to stay in was also challenging. There were some hotels that were just straight up brothels. Some of the hotels were only 2 or 3 dollars a night. We also got several parasites from the food we ate there among me and my friends. One of my friend’s tapeworms was so bad, he couldn’t go any longer and had to take a plane back.
Interviewer: What was the main reason for you wanting to bike such a distance where so many things can go wrong?
Mr. Crouse: We really just wanted to get to know the region. It was at a time in our lives when we didn’t have any real responsibilities in our lives. We weren’t married, we didn’t have families, jobs, and we had this huge chunk of time in our lives. We knew the culture, the language, we felt safe, we knew how to stay healthy, and we just wanted to explore and have an adventure. I am so happy I did it, but I would not do it again. Now many of the countries we passed through have become more dangerous than when I was there. Basically, gangs and cartels are now running the biggest cities in El Salvador and Honduras.
Interviewer: Do you have a favorite trip that you have been on? What is your dream trip?
Mr Crouse: As far as my favorite trip, nothing beats that bike ride from Panama to Colorado. It was so much fun going from the very bottom of Central America up to Mexico and into the United States with nothing but my 2 friends and some gear. Another thing, biking is a great way to know a place. You’re generally going at a slower pace and you are at the level of the people.The best travel is when you get to talk to people who are in the midst of their daily lives. When it comes to what my dream vacation would be, It has to be an adventure. I’ve never been too big on sitting on a beach for the entire trip. I don’t need my trip to be relaxing, I want it to be educational, I need it to be configuring and I want to learn a lot. I would love to do a trip in Northern or West Africa. Morocco is like the number one place I want to visit at the moment, but I also want to go to Western French Aftrica and to go with a bunch of students and obviously with a guide. That way I can meet different people from the country and learn from them. That’s another thing I learned from when I joined the Peace Corps. The Peace Corps aren’t meant to be like saviors who know everything. It's like we are here to teach you what we know and learn what they know. It's almost like an exchange of ideas or an exchange of technology. I think that when you’re traveling, you should go in with a sense of humility. Because when we have that attitude, you acknowledge that you don’t know everything and that will make the experience so much richer. If you go in with arrogance and make assumptions based on very superficial data, you’re bound to be wrong and come out with an impression that’s totally false. Travelling takes a lot of patience and curiosity.
Interviewer: Do you have anything else you would like to share?
Mr. Crouse: There is still an enormous need for language learning and communicating with different people who speak a different language. No matter how far AI gets, I don’t think that that will ever be enough to talk into a phone and pass it across a table. I really believe that communicating in their native language is really how people form friendships, how we communicate with people we love. I hope we don’t end up having to rely on using a machine to talk to people for you.
Thank you so much Mr. Crouse for your time! You’re an inspiration.
