Interview with Ben DaSilva (Oral History)

Interview with Ben DaSilva

31 min., 21 min

oral history interview with Ben DaSilva

2000

Transcription of the FCI section

00;00;00;01 - 00;00;04;15
This is an interview
with Ben De Silva on May 22nd 2000

00;00;06;17 - 00;00;08;15
If you want to program

00;00;08;15 - 00;00;12;19
that too was a spin off
if you will from some of the modern

00;00;12;27 - 00;00;17;18
educational philosophy out of Columbia
and our courses

00;00;18;08 - 00;00;20;12
all ended fairly early

00;00;21;24 - 00;00;24;05
and started really late

00;00;24;05 - 00;00;26;07
so that we had a six week

00;00;26;07 - 00;00;28;17
period and all of that now.

00;00;28;26 - 00;00;30;08
No, we don't

00;00;31;28 - 00;00;33;23
And in that six weeks

00;00;33;23 - 00;00;36;16
we had to get a quote job unquote,

00;00;38;13 - 00;00;41;01
It might be just an assignment to some

00;00;42;07 - 00;00;45;22
institution where you observe.

00;00;45;22 - 00;00;47;26
You had to set that up yourself.

00;00;47;26 - 00;00;51;17
Well, no, you could
we could play a role in that.

00;00;51;21 - 00;00;53;27
But it had to be cleared by the committee.

00;00;55;08 - 00;00;58;10
And they also had a roster
that you could go.

00;00;59;17 - 00;01;01;26
You choose what you wanted to do.

00;01;03;12 - 00;01;04;20
One year

00;01;05;16 - 00;01;07;26
before you're 18 years old,

00;01;08;12 - 00;01;10;23
fresh out of high school,

00;01;11;09 - 00;01;14;21
never had to move too far from anything

00;01;16;19 - 00;01;18;24
And I chose to work at the prison

00;01;18;24 - 00;01;21;14
well, for six weeks.

00;01;21;14 - 00;01;24;22
And what a wonderful experience that was.

00;01;24;22 - 00;01;27;21
This is something you decided or it was
it was on the list.

00;01;28;02 - 00;01;29;17
But I decided

00;01;30;14 - 00;01;32;28
what the theory was,

00;01;32;28 - 00;01;37;10
what teachers ought to know more than just
what's in the books, what's on

00;01;37;10 - 00;01;41;00
the books, on classroom experiences,
from kindergarten through college to

00;01;42;06 - 00;01;44;20
getting a job, teaching what

00;01;46;08 - 00;01;48;09
they wanted them to expose themselves

00;01;48;09 - 00;01;51;22
to other facets of life.

00;01;51;22 - 00;01;53;17
They even allowed some jobs

00;01;53;17 - 00;01;55;29
that were pretty much almost manual,

00;01;56;27 - 00;01;58;27
if I'm not mistaken.

00;01;59;17 - 00;02;01;25
Not too much of that, but they wanted

00;02;01;25 - 00;02;04;24
people a different experience, experience

00;02;04;24 - 00;02;06;08
Well, let me tell you,
that was a different difference.

00;02;07;08 - 00;02;08;07
What did you do?

00;02;08;07 - 00;02;10;20
Well, they

00;02;10;20 - 00;02;12;27
they assigned us to different departments,
which

00;02;15;04 - 00;02;17;21
we've got with different departments.

00;02;17;21 - 00;02;19;03
There were others with you.

00;02;19;03 - 00;02;20;25
There were only two.

00;02;20;27 - 00;02;23;25
Another boy and I saw

00;02;23;26 - 00;02;26;20
and one week
we'd be in the Education Department.

00;02;26;20 - 00;02;28;00
Another week got

00;02;28;23 - 00;02;31;16
good service, another week of records

00;02;32;22 - 00;02;35;15
a department and

00;02;35;15 - 00;02;38;02
various other facets

00;02;38;02 - 00;02;40;01
of our section.

00;02;40;23 - 00;02;43;12
So we not only had the experience
of prison life,

00;02;43;12 - 00;02;47;11
but the occupation is that when we were

00;02;48;24 - 00;02;50;14
there, I got to meet a couple

00;02;50;14 - 00;02;53;11
of the Hollywood Ten or no, they long

00;02;54;15 - 00;02;56;06
ten people who were sent to prison.

00;02;56;06 - 00;02;57;10
That was, of course,

00;02;57;10 - 00;03;01;21
the excuse to answer the question
as to whether or not they would come

00;03;02;28 - 00;03;05;26
They got to be quite friendly
with the local food.

00;03;07;11 - 00;03;09;04
So a wonderful screenwriter.

00;03;10;21 - 00;03;13;09
He's the author of Let's

00;03;13;09 - 00;03;14;18
See the movie. Sure.

00;03;14;18 - 00;03;16;16
It was a screenwriter.

00;03;16;19 - 00;03;19;28
I can remember looking at his records

00;03;20;04 - 00;03;25;14
and they had to state what their salaries,
what he was making.

00;03;25;16 - 00;03;28;19
$2,000 a week.

00;03;28;19 - 00;03;29;19
Imagine that.

00;03;29;19 - 00;03;35;08
I think the beginning teacher's
salary was on the year 1944, the new year.

00;03;36;01 - 00;03;39;09
It was only 2800 in 1954.

00;03;40;03 - 00;03;40;23
Well,

00;03;41;21 - 00;03;43;24
Robert was a starting salary.

00;03;43;26 - 00;03;47;03
He was getting in 1950 2000.

00;03;48;09 - 00;03;49;05
That impressed.

00;03;49;05 - 00;03;50;27
Yeah. Yes.

00;03;51;03 - 00;03;55;23
And I got to know him one or two of you
in the pocket of a very interesting guy

00;03;56;17 - 00;04;00;07
and also quite blank

00;04;00;07 - 00;04;01;29
Are you a Communist?

00;04;02;11 - 00;04;04;24
He said no,
but I'll be damned if I might say that.

00;04;05;10 - 00;04;08;00
No, I wouldn't answer the.

00;04;08;16 - 00;04;12;26
We have a right to answer the question
about whether he was or wasn't.

00;04;12;26 - 00;04;15;09
I don't know most of
those intellectual theories.

00;04;16;14 - 00;04;16;24
If they

00;04;16;24 - 00;04;19;26
want to solicit in that direction, things
in that direction,

00;04;20;20 - 00;04;22;07
it's understandable

00;04;24;01 - 00;04;25;18
Oh, they got to be

00;04;25;26 - 00;04;28;08
men who have been customers

00;04;28;08 - 00;04;31;12
who cross the road
and say there was no space.

00;04;31;20 - 00;04;35;28
They didn't have
or they had a small section of the prison

00;04;36;11 - 00;04;38;13
for hardcore criminals.

00;04;38;13 - 00;04;40;20
People didn't
realize that they thought it was a public

00;04;42;02 - 00;04;44;20
jail but there were a few of those

00;04;46;14 - 00;04;50;03
and probably some involved in a supply

00;04;53;04 - 00;04;55;03
who also

00;04;55;03 - 00;04;57;17
and one of the most interesting
experiences was

00;04;59;15 - 00;05;01;09
we were in the cafeteria,

00;05;01;09 - 00;05;03;25
one of them lunchrooms,

00;05;04;12 - 00;05;06;20
and broke up

00;05;07;26 - 00;05;10;22
into inmates who had

00;05;12;09 - 00;05;14;20
homemade weapons on the floor

00;05;14;21 - 00;05;16;28
fashioned from hawks or whatever.

00;05;18;06 - 00;05;21;13
And they were going at it
and the never taking sides

00;05;22;19 - 00;05;25;01
rooting for one or the other.

00;05;25;01 - 00;05;26;03
But before I knew it,

00;05;28;08 - 00;05;29;08
the tunnel

00;05;30;05 - 00;05;33;06
would go grabbing like I was a little

00;05;34;25 - 00;05;36;29
way to go to Watertown.

00;05;36;29 - 00;05;40;10
He hustled into an office
and locked the door.

00;05;40;23 - 00;05;41;28
You don't want to get hurt.

00;05;41;28 - 00;05;44;15
Well, so what do you mean is bothering me?

00;05;44;18 - 00;05;48;05
Was lying
and he made an interesting point.

00;05;49;04 - 00;05;51;09
I said, you're a college girl.

00;05;51;09 - 00;05;53;17
They're friendly with you
and a joke with you and all that,

00;05;53;17 - 00;05;56;28
but they don't like they result

00;05;56;28 - 00;05;58;01
in many of them.

00;05;58;01 - 00;06;01;11
And in the military,
you were going to get hurt.

00;06;01;14 - 00;06;04;00
You spoke in order to be somewhat ticked.

00;06;04;00 - 00;06;07;16
You understand with you. Over.

Side A
0-10 min: DaSilva’s enrollment at Danbury State College, kinds of people he ran into at the school, classes at Danbury High School, relationship with teachers at DSC, Teacher’s College of Columbia
10-20 min: Modern education philosophy from Columbia, 6-week work contracts, working at the prison, The Hollywood Ten, prison fights, working at the children’s library
20-30 min: relationship with education professors, teacher’s dues, social events with teachers, due-day, college sports, practice teaching at local schools, learning music through Westconn, art at Westconn
Side B
0-10 min: Art appreciation, music integration in the curriculum, Ruth Haas, adjusting to the new age, learning everyone’s name, job screening at the university
10-20 min: Relationship with students, problems with commuting, Curly Hall, course demand, student teaching, stressing of experimental nature of the college in the 1950’s