Interview with Ben DaSilva (Oral History)
Files
Dublin Core
Title:
Description:
31 min., 21 min
Abstract:
oral history interview with Ben DaSilva
Date:
2000
Oral History Item Type Metadata
Transcription:
Transcription of the FCI section
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This is an interview
with Ben De Silva on May 22nd 2000
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If you want to program
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that too was a spin off
if you will from some of the modern
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educational philosophy out of Columbia
and our courses
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all ended fairly early
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and started really late
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so that we had a six week
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period and all of that now.
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No, we don't
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And in that six weeks
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we had to get a quote job unquote,
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It might be just an assignment to some
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institution where you observe.
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You had to set that up yourself.
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Well, no, you could
we could play a role in that.
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But it had to be cleared by the committee.
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And they also had a roster
that you could go.
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You choose what you wanted to do.
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One year
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before you're 18 years old,
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fresh out of high school,
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never had to move too far from anything
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And I chose to work at the prison
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well, for six weeks.
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And what a wonderful experience that was.
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This is something you decided or it was
it was on the list.
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But I decided
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what the theory was,
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what teachers ought to know more than just
what's in the books, what's on
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the books, on classroom experiences,
from kindergarten through college to
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getting a job, teaching what
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they wanted them to expose themselves
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to other facets of life.
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They even allowed some jobs
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that were pretty much almost manual,
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if I'm not mistaken.
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Not too much of that, but they wanted
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people a different experience, experience
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Well, let me tell you,
that was a different difference.
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What did you do?
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Well, they
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they assigned us to different departments,
which
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we've got with different departments.
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There were others with you.
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There were only two.
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Another boy and I saw
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and one week
we'd be in the Education Department.
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Another week got
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good service, another week of records
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a department and
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various other facets
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of our section.
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So we not only had the experience
of prison life,
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but the occupation is that when we were
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there, I got to meet a couple
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of the Hollywood Ten or no, they long
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ten people who were sent to prison.
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That was, of course,
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the excuse to answer the question
as to whether or not they would come
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They got to be quite friendly
with the local food.
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So a wonderful screenwriter.
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He's the author of Let's
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See the movie. Sure.
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It was a screenwriter.
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I can remember looking at his records
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and they had to state what their salaries,
what he was making.
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$2,000 a week.
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Imagine that.
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I think the beginning teacher's
salary was on the year 1944, the new year.
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It was only 2800 in 1954.
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Well,
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Robert was a starting salary.
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He was getting in 1950 2000.
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That impressed.
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Yeah. Yes.
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And I got to know him one or two of you
in the pocket of a very interesting guy
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and also quite blank
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Are you a Communist?
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He said no,
but I'll be damned if I might say that.
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No, I wouldn't answer the.
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We have a right to answer the question
about whether he was or wasn't.
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I don't know most of
those intellectual theories.
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If they
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want to solicit in that direction, things
in that direction,
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it's understandable
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Oh, they got to be
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men who have been customers
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who cross the road
and say there was no space.
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They didn't have
or they had a small section of the prison
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for hardcore criminals.
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People didn't
realize that they thought it was a public
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jail but there were a few of those
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and probably some involved in a supply
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who also
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and one of the most interesting
experiences was
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we were in the cafeteria,
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one of them lunchrooms,
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and broke up
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into inmates who had
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homemade weapons on the floor
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fashioned from hawks or whatever.
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And they were going at it
and the never taking sides
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rooting for one or the other.
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But before I knew it,
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the tunnel
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would go grabbing like I was a little
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way to go to Watertown.
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He hustled into an office
and locked the door.
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You don't want to get hurt.
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Well, so what do you mean is bothering me?
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Was lying
and he made an interesting point.
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I said, you're a college girl.
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They're friendly with you
and a joke with you and all that,
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but they don't like they result
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in many of them.
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And in the military,
you were going to get hurt.
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You spoke in order to be somewhat ticked.
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You understand with you. Over.
Time Summary:
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
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