Farewell picnic planned for teacher





Mark Cantor

Mark Cantor

When Mark Cantor launched his teaching career in the Las Virgenes Unified School District 38 years ago, herds of sheep grazed the hills of a young Agoura that was still nine years away from cityhood.

Willow Elementary School did not exist in 1972—neither did the Morrison homes off Laro Drive and Kanan Road. Children in Old Agoura, Hillrise and surrounding neighborhoods were bused to Lupin Hill Elementary School in Calabasas, where Cantor developed his joyful and creative teaching methods in a small, portable classroom.

Cantor, 62, will retire this year from Willow Elementary and close a chapter in the school’s history that many parents, students, teachers and administrators wish would never end.

The long and heartfelt goodbye to Cantor will culminate with a farewell picnic on Sun., June 5 at Willow Elementary from 5:30 to 8 p.m.

“Alumni and friends are welcome to bring their picnic dinners and to come by and thank Mr. Cantor for his enormous contribution to the families of Agoura Hills,” said parent volunteer Peggy Veregge.

Cantor reminisced about his teaching career at Willow.

“Kindergarten chose me,” Cantor said, explaining that he had accepted the kindergarten post when he first started to teach in Las Virgenes with the intention of moving into a first-grade classroom.

“I said I would do it for a year then change,” Cantor said. After a few years of trying to move up a grade level, Cantor realized he loved teaching the youngest students at the school.

“They come to school preliterate and at the end of the year they are reading books and thinking like mathematicians,” Cantor said. “They are so open and free and don’t have a lot of filters yet. They say what’s on their mind. It’s wonderful being in that type of environment.”

Principal Jessica Kiernan praised Cantor’s methods.

“I always say that a day in Mr. Cantor’s class is like a day at the ‘Mr. Cantor Show,’” Kiernan said. “From beginning to end Mr. Cantor delivers a performance that engages, interests and challenges the audience.”

Kiernan said Cantor is a premier teacher because he is authentic and his lessons are “intentionally developed and completely student-centered. In every way he has a developmental approach to teaching and learning, an art not easily understood or mastered.”

Developmental teaching takes into account each child’s social, emotional and cognitive development, rather than merely the child’s age or grade. Kiernan, Cantor and other educators believe this approach to teaching is important for children, but the usually cheery Cantor is disheartened over the latest debate from politicians, lawyers and the media, especially “loud, opinionated radio hosts,” he said.

“It’s getting a little uncomfortable,” Cantor said about the one-size-fits-all trend of teaching children. “The generalizations are too many. Not all schools are failing. It’s not true in Las Virgenes.

“What we used to teach in first grade we now teach in kindergarten,” he said. “For some kids that’s wonderful. For others it can be a disaster. Now they’re saying all kids should be in the same place by June. Many can, but with the difference of 14 to 16 months from the oldest to the youngest student, it’s unrealistic. It’s just not chronological.”

Teaching a child developmentally means engaging their imagination. Veregge said Cantor developed a Halloween program where he portrays a fictitious 92-year-old grandfather, changing his appearance so radically that students cannot recognize him.

“The (kindergarten) students accept that Grandfather Cantor has come by to substitute for his son that day,” Veregge said.

Grandfather Cantor allegedly travels the world and sends his son news from around the world, information that Cantor uses to teach basic geography to his students.

Cantor encourages his students to build leprechaun traps in the spring, and at the end of each school year he hosts a “Kinder Camp Out” on the school lawn, where he leads children and their parents on a “snipe hunt.”

Cantor’s plans for retirement are just as creative. He will complete a book on the Mills Panoram, a machine that showed music videos which was in use between 1941 and 1947.

“It’s been lost to history,” he said. “I want to travel, read a lot . . . watch movies,” he said. He and his wife Barbara want to spend time with their first grandchild, Jalen, now 5 months old.

Though Cantor plans to keep busy in retirement, the thought of giving up teaching for good is a tough concept for him to accept. He has pledged to volunteer one day a week at the school next year.

“The school can’t get rid of me,” he said. “You can’t teach for 38 years and go cold turkey. It just doesn’t work. I want to volunteer.”

Kindergarten alumni and families are encouraged to attend Cantor’s retirement picnic on Sunday. Guests have been asked to bring picnic dinners to Willow Elementary School, 29026 Laro Drive, as well as stories about Cantor’s teaching style. A presentation will be shown in the multipurpose room during dessert at 7 p.m.

RSVP to mrcantorparty@gmail.com.


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