Welcome to Bill Scurato's Theatre Teacher Homepage

I spent 34 years as an educator in the public schools. In June of 2007 I retired from the Warren Hills Regional school system, in Washington, New Jersey. I began my career as a speech correctionist for Warren County elementary school kids in 1970. As a New Jersey pilot program, our Child Study Team provided services to Washington Borough, Franklin Township, Mansfield Township, and Oxford Township. Later, (1976) I added Lopatcong Township. In the early eighties I shifted direction a bit. The whole speech correction role was fine, and I felt I was helping kids, but I had always believed my primary mission was to be a classroom teacher. Initially, I split my day between speech correction and junior high school English/social studies. This work was done at Warren Hills Regional Junior High School. When, the regional district proposed a new "theatre arts" course, I was approached as the potential instructor. I accepted, and transferred to the Warren Hills Regional High School the following year. As a theatre teacher, I also directed the high school drama club. I believe my role as a high school director was responsible for the most significant educational contributions of my career. In the grand scheme of facilitating knowledge and skills, I have always believed in process over product. This, in my opinion, is particularly true in the arts. Every student willing to make a commitment to a project was given the opportunity to participate. Success was assessed in terms of the the growth and progress of each kid. I believe that current trends discourage such a philosophy, with emphasis focusing on prizes and awards. As positive as those awards may be in promoting the value of high school theatre, I think many schools have refocused their emphasis to obtaining a competitive edge. In effect, the product has become more important than the process, in many cases. From an educator's point of view, this is not particularly healthy, in my opinion. I know that many disagree with me on this and that's OK. I just know in my experience, the journey was essence. I eventually became the supervisor for the district's fine arts department and,later, the district administrator for curriculum and instruction. In these roles I experienced both success and failure. It was as a supervisor that I found that some teachers were not particularly good team players. Although I worked with some great people, I got caught up in the minutiae of budgets and individual agendas. Although I was able to attain part of my vision (recognition by the NJDOT for a Best Practice for multidisciplinary engagement) the goal of bringing true credibility to the arts fell significantly short. I also experienced mixed results as the district's curriculum coordinator. In this role I enjoyed some success in creating effective team interaction. I worked with outstanding content supervisors. Together we developed a rotational schedule that resulted in improved student-teacher interaction. Our team also created a successful new teacher orientation program. During my tenure in this position, the federal No Child Left Behind Act came into being. As well intentioned as this program may have been, in my opinion, it had and continues to have a ruinous impact on the well being of the average student. New Jersey's implementation of NCLB also has contributed to its disastrous failures. Among the academic casualties of NJ/NCLB are professional development initiatives and student assessment. At the center, federal and state officials seem narrow minded in the essence of school success and failure. Standardized test scores, in themselves, do not provide a complete profile of ANYTHING! In the midst of all this, I regret that I was unable to influence a broader acceptance of non-traditional student learning. As practical American educators, we tend to teach in the style in which MOST kids effectively learn, but the kids that learn outside the box are literally up the creek. Finally, my district has fallen prey to an acceleration in its personal and political agendas in recent years. This unfortunate development, paired with the incessant buffoonery of New Jersey's interpretation of NCLB, facilitated my somewhat early retirement. But, I have no regrets. Over those years, I met some wonderful people: students, parents and teachers. I will always cherish those memories.

My late wife, Carolyn Scurato, was also a teacher of theatre arts at the Warren County School of the Arts at the Warren County Technical School. She was a wonderful, dedicated teacher, who was sincerely interested in the success of her students. She believed that education in the arts was a powerful tool in the nurturing of the human spirit. She is terribly missed.

Together we founded the Country Gate Playhouse in Belvidere, New Jersey, a non-profit, community theatre serving the area since 1972, and providing a wide range of offerings, from a mainstage season of plays and musicals to youth oriented acting workshops, to murder mystery dinner theatre productions. With the exception of our children, Country Gate was our proudest accomplishment. It is made up of a wonderful group of committed people, who work hard to bring a positive element to life in our community. Incidentally, one of our alums has made it to the big time. Jimmi Simpson, whose mom, Mary, was one of our early members, played Rolf in the Sound of Music, Hinkley in Assassins, and Dickon in The Secret Garden, among others. Congrats to Jimmi and his family.

" You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going....'cause you might not get there"------Yogi Berra (1925- )

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Please feel free to E-mail me with any comments or suggestions. Just click here: ascurato@gmail.com
site last updated: 4 Mar. 2010

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