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H O L D C O U R T.

Teacher, Student
Reunite After 62
Years SASHA ROGELBERG | STAFF WRITER
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10 AUGUST 11, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
etween 1959 and today, 13
different U.S. presidents have
taken office; astronauts have
gone from being the first known living
beings to return to Earth after going
into space, to putting a rover on Mars;
people have gone from using Western
Electric’s pink “Princess” telephone to
using iPhones the size of their palm.

A lot has happened in the past 62
years, which made the 2022 reunion
between a teacher and her student from
1959 all the more surreal for the two
Jewish parties.

On Aug. 2, Rose Glassberg, 92, a for-
mer English teacher at the now-closed
Germantown High School, met with
her former student Elaine Waxman,
80, for the first time in more than six
decades. The last time they saw each
other was at Waxman’s 12th grade
graduation. “It was very moving,” Glassberg said
of the reunion. “Apparently, I did a few
things right because she enjoyed my
class.” “She was an amazing teacher,”
Waxman said. “She taught me every-
thing I know about English.”
Waxman learned that Glassberg was
a resident at Lions Gate Continuing
Care Retirement Community in
Voorhees Township, New Jersey
through the community’s newsletter.

“At Lions Gate, we often write stories
about our residents in our newsletter
that we distribute throughout the com-
munity. We were fortunate that Elaine
happened to read it and recognize Rose
as her teacher from 62 years ago,” said
Lions Gate Chief Operating Officer
Meredith Becker, who helped set up
the meeting.

As the two shared tea and pastries,
Waxman told Glassberg that she was
the reason she went on to become a
teacher, teaching elementary school in
North Philadelphia and setting up the
library at Kenderton School.

“My good teachers were the ones who
influenced me to teach,” Waxman said.

Despite Waxman’s love for English
and grammar today, she was not always
a star student, despite English being
her favorite subject. She sat toward the
back of Glassberg’s classroom, where
Glassberg would visit to ensure all of
her students were paying attention.

“I’m glad she came to the back of the
class because I was invariably talking
to my neighbor,” Waxman said.

On Waxman’s report card, which she
brought to the reunion, she was given
a mark from one to three for behavior,
with three being the most disruptive.

The talkative pupil was consistently
given a three.

“Until the very end, and then she
gave me a two,” Waxman said.

Glassberg was a no-nonsense teacher;
she made up for her short stature by
standing upon or sitting on the edge
of desks. Her love of literature ran
deep, and she believed that college stu-
dents shouldn’t be the only ones read-
ing the classics. Glassberg taught the
Shakespearean standards: “As You Like
It,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,”
“Macbeth” and “Hamlet.”
But Glassberg’s rigidity came from a
place of love for education. The child of
Eastern European Jewish immigrants,
Glassberg was raised with the value of
education. “My mother used to send us off to
school every day saying, ‘You’re so
lucky to be able to go to school,’”
Glassberg said. “That, I remember.”
With little money, the family was
evicted from its North Philadelphia
home when Glassberg was a child. They
relocated to West Philadelphia, where
Glassberg graduated from Overbrook
High School.

When her older brother graduated
from Central High School in 1937, he
earned a scholarship to attend college,
but the principal took away the schol-
arship, saying that because the family
was on welfare, the young high school
graduate was not destined for college.




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Rose Glassberg and Elaine
Waxman met at Lions Gate on
Aug. 2 and reminisced about their
time at Germantown High School.

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Glassberg defi ed the odds aft er grad-
uating high school. She attended West
Chester University, which, in the 1940s,
had an annual tuition of $110. Her
mother took out a loan, and Glassberg
got an allowance of 50 cents an hour
working on campus. She commuted
from home for the fi rst year-and-a-half
before living on campus.

Though Glassberg recalls little
antisemitism growing up, with only
a few students from nearby parochial
schools shouting the occasional slur
on her commute to high school, she
remembers a university student pro-
claiming that because of her strong
Christian faith, she could not be friends
with a Jewish student.

Aft er receiving her bachelor’s degree,
Glassberg went on to get her master’s
at Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf
School of English. Aft er 11 years of
teaching at Germantown High School,
she taught English at Glassboro State
Teachers College, which later became
Rowan University. She earned her doc-
torate at Temple University in 1972,
becoming a full professor a year later.

Th ough Glassberg taught hundreds
of students over her career, her infl u-
ence is refl ected in Waxman, whose
love for English is exemplifi ed in the
dozens of books she keeps in her home,
with stacks nearly touching the ceiling.

“I look up to Rose,” Waxman said. “I
wish I could teach like she did.” JE
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