Kenneth Bernstein was born in New York City in May of 1946. He (that means me) grew up in suburban New York (specifically,the unincorporated part of the Town of Mamaroneck known as Larchmont, not to be confused with the Village of the same name), where he graduated from Mamaroneck High School in 1963. The years from then until 1994 represent an inchoate (there's a vocabulary word for you) search for meaning. He took ten years to finish his bachelor's degree (in Music from Haverford College in 1973), during which time he did a stint in the U.S. Marines (playing piano and glockenspiel (another vocabulary word) in the band at Quantico and also learning about Data Processing), sold incense and played folk music in Greenwich Village (officially NOT a hippie), worked as a bouncer in a bar on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, had several jobs as a computer programmer, took courses at NYU, met a little of people, and delayed growing up. He also visited Sweden in 1968, but only for 5 days. While in the Marines he played in a rock band (The Lancers) and several dinner music groups.
Since graduating from Haverford, I (now I'm getting personal) have tried several different careers. I did graduate studies in musicology at Penn, taught at a private secondary school in New Jersey, got a masters from a Roman Catholic Seminary (even though Catholic is one religion I have not ever been), did a lot of reading, learned to enjoy hiking, moved from Philadelphia to Washington in 1982, worked in an unsuccessful presidential campaign (Fritz Hollings, 1983-84), a successful local government campaign (Frank O'Leary for Arlington County Treasurer, 1983), got married (JURRETTA HECKSCHER, click here for more about her) in 1985, worked in data processing and selling cars, and finally started to get my act together by becoming a teacher. I have visited around 30 of the states, as well as Tahiti, Mexico, Canada, France, United Kingdom, Greece, Switzerland and Austria (I already told you about Sweden). I a;so studied for my doctorate in Educational Administration and Policy Studies at The Catholic University of America,but dropped out before completing my dissertation.. I also served as Assistant Boys' soccer coach at Eleanor Roosevelt, having previously served as Girls' JV Soccer Coach. I served as the union building representative at Eleanor Roosevelt.
As of August, 2002, I am back teaching at Eleanor Roosevelt High School. This is my second stint at Roosevelt, having previously taught Government, Comparative Religion, Social Issues and Study Skills during the three school years from 1998-2001. I have also taught Middle School (Kettering Middle, 1995-1998, Williamsburg Middle School in Arlington, VA, 2001-2002). I taught World History during the Fall semester, then due to the retirment of a colleague, switched over and took voer his Government classes for the second semester. I am hoping again to teach Comparative Religion and Social Issues in 2003-04.
I love to learn. My fields of passion include music, politics, government, U.S. History (especially Civil War and 20th Century), World History (primarily 20th Century), Comparative Religion (which I have taught both to teenagers and adults, and taught 2nd semester, 2000-01 at ERHS), movies, puns (CLICK HERE), pets, cooking, soccer (played at Haverford and for a club team, coached at ERHS, spent 3 years as a referee), educational philosophy, learning styles, and the zymurgic (vocab word) arts. Of course, anything that crosses my path can also become a passion.
While my wife and I have no children, we have been blessed by the presence of various wonderful four-footed friends over the years. Currently we share our house in Arlington, Virginia, with four such creatures.
LionEl is a rescued kitten. A friend of our veterinarian was walking her dog when someone through a sack out of a car at her feet. Inside was a tiny kitten, perhaps 4 weeks old. After treating him, our veterinarian asked if we would take him. We did, and he has become a major part of our life. His name seems complicated - most of our pets have had "el" as part of there name - we had a pair of brother cats, Wellington and Nelson, there were also Elspeth (our deceased Shetland sheepdog who graced us with her presence for 14 years) and Pele (our black rescued kitten who unfortunately died from an incurable disease after less than a year). Our current little guy is fearless, like a "lion". He thinks he rules the universe, hence the "El" which is one of the Semitic words for God (Comparative religion background again - it is the singular from which Elohim, one of the Biblical names of God, comes). Put together as Lionel, it is reminiscent of the small trains that go on non-stop. He is tiger striped, which is a partial reason for his last name. But also, he studies everything, and one of the great social anthropologists was a man called Lionel Tiger, I kid you not. Hence LionEl Tiger.
We have three other 'friends' who are also rescued kittens (anyone see a pattern?).We went one fine day to a cat adoption fair thinking we might pick up a companion for LionEl and found a female, now named Elsa, who was a perfect match. She looks a bit lie him and has a very similar temperament. She is even more fearless than he is, as we discovered one day when we could not find her anywhere. As we listened carefully, we could hear hear running around. We finally figured out that she had gotten into the ductwork and was happily running around in the dark. Since then we have closed off ALL entrances to be sure she does not try it again. Elsa was found near a woodpile in the Shenandoah Valley, was about 17-18 months at the time we got her, and according to veterinary checkups had previously given birth to kittens.
Our final two friends were acquired from the same adoption fair as Elsa. Keeping with the "el" convention of naming our creatures, they are Angelica and Felicity. These two little ladies were part of a somewhat feral community. It has been a slow process getting them trust us. Actually, each one trust one of us. Angelica will climb all over Kenneth when he is working at his computer, and Felicity is very fond of Jurretta. But neither completely trusts the other human in the house, which makes life interesting. Also complicating things a bit is that they have to have a special diet, which makes handling the feeding of four felines a bit complicated. Still, we are delighted for their presence.