Mr. Timothy Gamwell is one of the biggest presences at ILS. Everyone knows Mr. Gamwell, regardless if they have had him as a teacher or not. Known for his passionate and bubbly personality, Mr. Gamwell, an alumni of ILS, is head of the English Department and one of the moderators of the SALTT service club.
I am someone who has never had Mr. Gamwell as a teacher, so I actually don’t know that much about him. Since my freshman year, Mr. Gamwell despite never teaching me, has always remembered my name and greets me whenever he sees me. I know about his bicycle usage and how he uses it as his primary form of transportation, his love of Star Wars (He always carries around a cup which reads “Best Dad In The Galaxy”), his passion for SALTT and leading it to help as many people the club possibly can, and the strong connections he forms with his students. But I know that there is much much more details I’m missing, so I wanted to learn more.
To begin with, I asked students who have had Mr. Gamwell teach them multiple classes how he has impacted them.
“I’ve had AP Language, AP Seminar, AP Research with Mr. Gamwell. I think Mr. Gamwell is a really great teacher and a really great person, and the way he teaches is in a way that makes everyone feel included, makes sure everyone understands, and he really takes time to make sure you get it and that you get something from what he teaches. Once he brought his lightsabers to class,” shared senior Lia Vieiro.
From Lia, I learned another aspect of Mr. Gamwell I did not know and that is he teaches several I AP classes.
“While doing a project on the Crucible junior year, I noticed Mr. Gamwell biked to school, and when I asked about his route, he mentioned he lived pretty far away. Mr. Gamwell has been one of my favorite teachers since I first had him for seminar sophomore year. He’s always been kind to me, so I thought it would be a cute idea to bring kids together to do something nice for him in return. So I began reaching out and asking kids in my class and Mr. Gamwell’s other classes for donations, ideally $20, to hopefully be able to buy this nice red Trek bike my local bike shop had on sale. The total of the bike was just over $600 I think, but knowing how loved Mr. Gamwell is I was sure I would be able to reach this. And I was!! By late December I had enough to buy the bike and give it to Gamwell as a Christmas gift. It came with a card with everyone’s name on it, and I’m really glad I was able to make this happen.”
This story from Senior Sabrina Diaz Balart is very interesting to me. I think it speaks to the kind of teacher that Mr. Gamwell is for his students to get together to buy a bike for him.
Next, I spoke with Mr. Alejandro Aguirre, an English teacher who is new to La Salle this year, about his thoughts on his new boss.
“Mr. Gamwell is the reincarnation of Don Bosco. The amount of time that he dedicates to students both in and out of the classroom shows his care for students overall wellbeing. It’s inspiring, really. How he manages to juggle that with his family and organizing the department is beyond me. The man has superpowers.”
So, Mr. Gamwell has a lot going for him. He is one of the busiest people on campus as Mr. Aguirre pointed out, being a moderator for the biggest club on campus, being a family man, managing the English department, and teaching English classes as well, including multiple AP classes as Lia Vieiro pointed out. Not every teacher has their students buy them a bike, but Mr. Gamwell is clearly that teacher.
After speaking with students and Mr. Aguirre, I spoke with Mr. Gamwell himself. I asked him about his childhood, teaching, his bike, and got new insight about some of the things I already sort of knew. I believe the information I received is interesting to all students, as they might get a new perspective on the man, regardless if he has taught them or not.
Where were you born? How was your childhood? What things did you do, and what were you interested in?
“I was born in Miami and grew up on Key Biscayne. I am not, as we often say, a Key Rat for a couple of reasons. 1. The Key Rats were actually a sort of gang in the ‘70s. I would never be in a gang and, even were I so inclined, I am too young. And 2. the way we use Key Rat now implies a certain carless disregard for rules and sense of entitlement. Well, then maybe I would have been a Key Rat as a kid. But seriously, I loved growing up near the water. I spent a lot of time swimming and sailing. I also used to ride my bike a lot as a kid. I was a big fan of being outside and spent a lot of time hanging out by the bay when I was a student.”
Why did you come back to ILS for work?
“I actually have come back two times to work at La Salle. The first time was after teaching for two years in a public school in Baltimore City. It was very demanding and when the position opened up here I couldn’t turn it down. Mr. K actually, my former English teacher, hired me and was then my department head! The second time I came back was after working with Father Frank O’Loughlin at the Guatemalan-Maya Center in Lake Worth (this is the nonprofit that runs the two Escuelitas we visit with SALTT). I left La Salle to work with him because I didn’t feel satisfied with where my life was going. When I met the woman that would become my wife working with the migrants in Lake Worth I knew I had to slow down. So I came back to La Salle with a renewed sense of purpose to help share my experience of SALTT that I had as a student with my students.”
What is your relationship with writing and literature? Why do you love it, and why did you decide to teach English?
“I’ve always loved literature but becoming a teacher definitely happened by accident. My senior year of college I had taken all kinds of classes: sociology, archaeology, astronomy. One of my favorites was a coastal marine ecology class where I went out in a small rubber dinghy to take water samples. And my study abroad was aboard the SSV Corwith Cramer, a 135-foot brigantine in the Caribbean. When it was time to graduate, I had enough credits to get a degree in English and applied for a different job each day until I got an interview at a public school in Baltimore City. The rest is history.”
What role do you play in SALTT? What do you think is great about it? What are you most proud of in your work with SALTT?
“I am one of the co-moderators of SALTT. There is a lot that we do behind the scenes that really helps make a 400-person club possible. Some of my greatest memories have been working side-by-side with my former teachers, my current students, and my best friend to advocate for the most needy in our community. Recently, the mother of one of the families I have known for nearly 20 years was detained and is being prepared for deportation. Watching her five kids, all of which have earned different awards and scholarships to magnet programs and college, struggle with the loss of first their father and now their mother to an inhumane immigration system has been heartbreaking. If it wasn’t for the support of the other people sharing in this work, I know that I could not do it alone.”
Why do you ride a bike to school? Do you have any difficulties with the bike? What do you think you have gained from riding a bike to school instead of a car?
“I love the bike! I think part of it is stubbornness, but I like every part of it. Does it take longer? Yes. My total commute is two hours (one way). I bike to the Tri-rail and then transfer to the Metro where I can grade papers or read and I get some exercise along the way. I also like the idea that I’m trying to cut back on my carbon emissions as an added bonus. The really lovely part, though, is the opportunity that public transit and not being in a car allows for serendipitous encounters with strangers. I know we’re raised to keep our distance from people we don’t know but it’s possible, too, that we can have an encounter with Christ in the world with everyone we meet. So, for me, I ride my bike to be closer to the world. You never know who you are going to meet!”
You have a lot of Star Wars stuff. When did you first watch Star Wars, and what was your experience with it? Why do you think you still care about it to this day? What has it taught you?
“I was actually just talking to my mom about this, trying to remember when I first watched Star Wars. I have been worrying about how I will introduce my own kids to Star Wars (research says 7 is the best age and I am a fan of showing them Star Wars in release order. Sorry, Gen X). What I love most about Star Wars is how you can so easily step into the world. There is just so much depth and nuance to the lore! I think I ascribe to the sort of Filoni-esque vision of Star Wars that centers around found family. Think about how quickly Obi-Wan becomes a father figure to Luke and how Han takes over the role of big brother. Leia is, at least in Episode IV, the kid sister and Chewie fills in as a kind of bodyguard/butler/bouncer. R2 is everyone’s favorite toddler and C3PO is the typical nervous suburban housewife. And you see this pattern, or something like it, repeated over and over again! What a beautiful testament to not just the story and world series director George Lucas has built, but to the power of myth and story to bind us together. And that’s really it! All of our relationships, when you really look at them, are more than just the 17,000 credits Obi-Wan promises Han for their ill fated trip to Alderaan; it’s finding out that the Force is in all living things and it really does bind us all together.”
It’s safe to say that ILS would be a very different place without Mr. Gamwell. By building relationships with students, caring about his work, helping the unfortunate through SALTT, and every other feature iImight have missed about him, he embodies the Salesian oratory model of Home, School, Church and Playground. I hope this article helps students learn something new about this teacher; at least I did.
