April 24, 2008

Jim DeLong presents Doris Dillon School inauguration speech

Bret Harte language arts teacher Jim DeLong gave an inauguration speech for the school he helped build in Cambodia honoring longtime Almaden teacher Doris Dillon.

After thanking the monks for providing the land for the school he introduced himself and the family and friends joining him while discussing the students at Bret Harte and other family members.

Including his wife, Denise DeLong, who teaches math to Bret Harte sixth graders and Laura Fujikawa, who also teaches math at Bret Harte. Others attending the inauguration included Susan Fujikawa, a high school senior who wants to study biological engineering, so she can help cure diseases such as cancer and problems with the heart. Michaelene and Rod Pyle DeLOng’s sister and brother-in-law, were also members of the group, Michaelene works helping pregnant young women and Rod is the captain of a fire station.

“This school was built from money raised by the 1,400 students of our school, Bret Harte Middle School, who are all 11- to 14-years-old, as well as their parents and our neighborhood called Almaden Valley. Our school and Almaden Valley are in a city of one million people called San Jose, Calif., which is thousands of miles east of you across the Pacific Ocean, so we share the same ocean on our coast as you.

“I would like to tell you now of the lady, Doris Dillon, whom your school is named for. She was a teacher in our neighborhood of Almaden Valley who taught young students who were 6, 7 and 8 years old. She taught them for many years. I know all of you by now have a favorite teacher who is very special to you. All of her students, even many years later—after they became adults—felt that way about her,” he told the students.

“But what made her even more special is that, after becoming sick with a disease that slowly paralyzes your body, she continued to work with young students. Even after she could no longer speak--her mouth was paralyzed--she still worked with young students by writing her words on a notepad. She became so famous in our country that education buildings at one of our universities—Columbia University in New York City—are named also, just like your school here—with her name,” he continued.

“Sadly, she died in 2001. As a special, special teacher, she was a good friend and is a personal hero of ours. So, the students and parents of our school and our neighbors and friends in the Almaden community wished to name your school in her honor.”

He went on to tell students that by building this school, the people from Bret Harte and Almaden Valley dreamed the education students will receive will help them discover ways to make their villages a better place.

He also told the students that each of the five classrooms will contain a computer. “When you are connected to the Internet, you can communicate by e-mail with others all over the world, instantly. In the next year, when we hope to connect these computers to the Internet, the 160 students I teach in California will begin e-mailing each one of you and sending pictures of themselves, our neighborhood and the city of San Jose.”

Each of you has special talents, he told the students, gifts you have especially been given. Doris Dillon used her special gifts to become that very, very special teacher to so many students.

“We hope this day marks the beginning of an education that helps you to discover how to use your unique talents and gifts to make this world you have grown up in—right here in these villages around us—and the greater world—a better place,” DeLong concluded.