PLP 08 Profile: Kenneth Bernstein
Apr 21 2008 - 11:14am
Political Leaders Profile: Class of 2008
Name: Kenneth J. Bernstein
Age: 61 (turning 62 in May)
Born: Born New York City. Grew up in Larchmont, NY (Mamaroneck High School)
Current Digs: I live in Arlington and teach in Greenbelt, MD.
Occupation: High School Social Studies Teacher
Favorite part about the job: Interacting with the future of this country and learning from my wonderful and challenging students
Your first job ever? Teaching cello to a 5th grader when I was a 10th grader. Fulltime, working in a McDonald's the summer after high school in 1963.
Favorite book? T. S. Eliot's The Four Quartets,
Favorite movie? A toss-up among three: Casablanca, African Queen, and Bad Day at Black Rock
Comfort food? The four basic food groups: lager, ale, porter and stout.
What's in your car CD player right now? Granados' "Goyescas," transcribed for 3 guitars, and played by Trio Campanella.
Next journey? Local, to the dry cleaners as soon as I send this off. Metaphorically, my participation in PLP. Otherwise, a visit to SW Virginia to meet a person I know only electronically but whom I greatly admire.
Favorite Virginia vacation spot? Staying at Shenandoah Crossing in Louisa County and exploring the region around Charlottesville.
First political memory? Army-McCarthy Hearings.
Whom do you admire and why? Russ Feingold, he takes positions on principle without being concerned with political cost or correctness.
Best advice you ever got? From a monk in Greece whom I admired: to listen to my wife, and if in disagreement to defer to her.
If you could have dinner with any one currently living, whom would it be and why? Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, to learn how he transcended the wrongs done to him and became a beacon of healing in a shattered world
Describe a perfect day. All my students show up with their homework done? Hasn't happened in 13 years of teaching.
One thing most people might be surprised to learn about you? I am basically very shy, and I cry easily, at movies, when I don't reach my students.
Ambition, political or otherwise? Leave the world a better place than I found it, whatever that might mean.
