By Jessica Noll, Special Writer
Social studies teacher Sal Scurato is about to complete a long teaching career this March at South Brunswick’s Crossroads Middle School.
"It has been tremendous," Mr. Scurato said during an interview this week.
The Board of Education accepted his resignation, effective this March, in December.
"They take what you give them and reflect it back to you," Mr. Scurato said about his approach to teaching middle school students.
When it comes to teaching, Mr. Scurato said he believes the teacher "sets the bar" for how the students are going to live in the classroom.
His approach is to challenge students to start thinking and seeing the world for themselves.
Scurato hails from the Deans section of the township, where his grandfather stepped off of the Northeast Corridor line of the train and decided to begin his life as an American after traveling all the way from Naples, Italy and then through Ellis Island in New York.
His wife Sharon, is from the same town, and whose grandfather also traveled from Naples and happened to step off on the same train stop and decided to settle down in the area.
The families didn’t know one another until they lived here in New Jersey, Mr. Scurato said.
Mr. Scurato earned his teaching degree from Jersey City State College in the 1970s and then his Master’s degree in Education for both counseling and Principal Certification from the College of New Jersey in Ewing.
He said he chose to teach social studies because it mixes all of his favorite subjects: a bit of history, politics, culture, and psychology. The studies of how people live.
After teaching at Crossroads North for a couple of years, in 1976 Mr. Scurato and then-girlfriend Sharon moved to New England in order to be part of Boston’s professional world of developing computer technology.
He said he was a head hunter at Digital Arts Group for the up and coming computer engineers of the time and started his own recruiting company, Professional Sources, Inc.
Mr. Scurato and Sharon then married and, after their son Michael was born, he sold his business in 1986 and they returned to the Monmouth Junction area to be close to family.
Mr. Scurato said he decided to return to teaching after working first as a corporate recruiter and then for Educational Testing Services for a few years.
Mr. Scurato recalled that one day his mother said to him, "Sal, what are you doing, you’re a teacher!"
It appears like she got that right, as Mr. Scurato’s face lights up when he talks about his students.
Then Principal Dr. Fred Nadler re-hired Scurato and welcomed him back to the school to teach seventh and eighth grades.
When asked if much had changed during his time away, Mr. Scurato said most of the same teachers were still there, still working hard and being heroes to their students.
He said he wanted to teach in the Monmouth Junction area to be part of the tempo and quality of rural life.
At Crossroads North, Scurato is possibly best known outside of the classroom for starting the ice hockey team with fellow employee Susan Gallow, starting the Crossroads Boys Lacrosse team inspired by his son’s interest in the sport, and directing productions and acting as mentor in the revived Crossroads Theatre Group.
As a teacher, he is known for making students do projects where they act out historical situations or create their own fictional model of a culture in order to learn how humans see other people.
When asked about a fond or funny memory, Mr. Scurato replies "I have so many."
He said he loves to joke with his students and tease them, but does so in a way that will encourage them to learn in the classroom.
Mr. Scurato said it’s very important to him to teach about setting new expectations in life and learning.
He said he will joke with his students but at the end of the day it’s most important that they can take away a sense of wanting to learn more about the world and themselves.
He said he wants his students to be resilient to the things life will one day throw at them.
One unshakeable memory was that of Sept. 11, 2001. He said he had the TV on a news channel in the classroom as background for a sociology activity and the students were meant to use current events as a basis for the project.
When the first plane struck the first World Trade Center tower in New York, everyone started really watching and they were confused and shocked.
All they could see was smoke on the TV and no one was sure what was happening yet. After a time he said he shut the TV off and spoke to his class.
"I don’t know what is happening, it’s something bad," he said he told his class.
He said he then walked over to the blackboard at 9:10am and wrote: "If you have a challenge, deal with it, learn from it, get stronger and move on."
He said this sentence was the first thing that popped into his mind that he could say to his students.
The next year on the same date, an eighth grader who had been in his class the year before walked up to the board and wrote the quote word for word. Every year since then a student has taken the task of writing the sentence on the board, and even those who have moved on to high school and college still email him on the day as a reminder of that shared experience, Mr. Scurato said.
Now that he’s retiring in March, if you can call it that, Mr. Scurato said he already has some new plans in mind. He said he would like to pursue work with Teach for America in an urban setting, or to connect with a local school that specializes in teaching autistic children. He said he is also interested in pursuing professional acting work as he had done before he moved to New Hampshire.
When asked if he would ever write a memoir about his teaching days. He jokes that if he did, it would have to be called "Warrior Teacher," and so far he has about a page of it written.
He laughs.
"It’s a work in progress," Mr. Scurato said.
Mr. Scurato said he is a person who likes to take on new projects and to make changes. His greatest career priority, according to him, has been to try to "do right" by the students both in and out of classroom.
"It has been tremendous," Mr. Scurato said during an interview this week.
The Board of Education accepted his resignation, effective this March, in December.
"They take what you give them and reflect it back to you," Mr. Scurato said about his approach to teaching middle school students.
When it comes to teaching, Mr. Scurato said he believes the teacher "sets the bar" for how the students are going to live in the classroom.
His approach is to challenge students to start thinking and seeing the world for themselves.
Scurato hails from the Deans section of the township, where his grandfather stepped off of the Northeast Corridor line of the train and decided to begin his life as an American after traveling all the way from Naples, Italy and then through Ellis Island in New York.
His wife Sharon, is from the same town, and whose grandfather also traveled from Naples and happened to step off on the same train stop and decided to settle down in the area.
The families didn’t know one another until they lived here in New Jersey, Mr. Scurato said.
Mr. Scurato earned his teaching degree from Jersey City State College in the 1970s and then his Master’s degree in Education for both counseling and Principal Certification from the College of New Jersey in Ewing.
He said he chose to teach social studies because it mixes all of his favorite subjects: a bit of history, politics, culture, and psychology. The studies of how people live.
After teaching at Crossroads North for a couple of years, in 1976 Mr. Scurato and then-girlfriend Sharon moved to New England in order to be part of Boston’s professional world of developing computer technology.
He said he was a head hunter at Digital Arts Group for the up and coming computer engineers of the time and started his own recruiting company, Professional Sources, Inc.
Mr. Scurato and Sharon then married and, after their son Michael was born, he sold his business in 1986 and they returned to the Monmouth Junction area to be close to family.
Mr. Scurato said he decided to return to teaching after working first as a corporate recruiter and then for Educational Testing Services for a few years.
Mr. Scurato recalled that one day his mother said to him, "Sal, what are you doing, you’re a teacher!"
It appears like she got that right, as Mr. Scurato’s face lights up when he talks about his students.
Then Principal Dr. Fred Nadler re-hired Scurato and welcomed him back to the school to teach seventh and eighth grades.
When asked if much had changed during his time away, Mr. Scurato said most of the same teachers were still there, still working hard and being heroes to their students.
He said he wanted to teach in the Monmouth Junction area to be part of the tempo and quality of rural life.
At Crossroads North, Scurato is possibly best known outside of the classroom for starting the ice hockey team with fellow employee Susan Gallow, starting the Crossroads Boys Lacrosse team inspired by his son’s interest in the sport, and directing productions and acting as mentor in the revived Crossroads Theatre Group.
As a teacher, he is known for making students do projects where they act out historical situations or create their own fictional model of a culture in order to learn how humans see other people.
When asked about a fond or funny memory, Mr. Scurato replies "I have so many."
He said he loves to joke with his students and tease them, but does so in a way that will encourage them to learn in the classroom.
Mr. Scurato said it’s very important to him to teach about setting new expectations in life and learning.
He said he will joke with his students but at the end of the day it’s most important that they can take away a sense of wanting to learn more about the world and themselves.
He said he wants his students to be resilient to the things life will one day throw at them.
One unshakeable memory was that of Sept. 11, 2001. He said he had the TV on a news channel in the classroom as background for a sociology activity and the students were meant to use current events as a basis for the project.
When the first plane struck the first World Trade Center tower in New York, everyone started really watching and they were confused and shocked.
All they could see was smoke on the TV and no one was sure what was happening yet. After a time he said he shut the TV off and spoke to his class.
"I don’t know what is happening, it’s something bad," he said he told his class.
He said he then walked over to the blackboard at 9:10am and wrote: "If you have a challenge, deal with it, learn from it, get stronger and move on."
He said this sentence was the first thing that popped into his mind that he could say to his students.
The next year on the same date, an eighth grader who had been in his class the year before walked up to the board and wrote the quote word for word. Every year since then a student has taken the task of writing the sentence on the board, and even those who have moved on to high school and college still email him on the day as a reminder of that shared experience, Mr. Scurato said.
Now that he’s retiring in March, if you can call it that, Mr. Scurato said he already has some new plans in mind. He said he would like to pursue work with Teach for America in an urban setting, or to connect with a local school that specializes in teaching autistic children. He said he is also interested in pursuing professional acting work as he had done before he moved to New Hampshire.
When asked if he would ever write a memoir about his teaching days. He jokes that if he did, it would have to be called "Warrior Teacher," and so far he has about a page of it written.
He laughs.
"It’s a work in progress," Mr. Scurato said.
Mr. Scurato said he is a person who likes to take on new projects and to make changes. His greatest career priority, according to him, has been to try to "do right" by the students both in and out of classroom.

