Wheeling teacher trading places with Swiss colleague
by Erin Holmes Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted on Thursday, July 08, 2004

The illusive "someday" has finally come for Rick Benedetto.

With his two sons grown and his coaching career more relaxed than it once was, the Wheeling High educator is doing what he and his wife had talked about for years: taking a year's hiatus from the Wildcats to teach in a foreign country.

The stint, coordinated by the Fulbright Program, will send Benedetto and his wife, Gail, to Switzerland, where the 28-year veteran teacher and longtime coach will take over a smattering of English and physical education classes at a vocational school. His football coaching career, of little benefit in Switzerland, likely will take a year's break.

In his place, Wheeling High will get Bernard Gygax, a multi- lingual Swiss gym teacher who will head up Benedetto's five physical education courses and likely make the rounds to some of the foreign language classes.

"It's just incredible," said Wheeling Principal Dorothy C. "Dottie" Sievert, who has considered doing a Fulbright exchange herself in the past. "I think (Gygax) will be a wonderful fit for Wheeling High."

The Fulbright Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State's bureau of educational and cultural affairs, got its start in 1946. Since then, it's helped more than 250,000 students, teachers and professionals from the United States and abroad change places with an aim of boosting understanding across cultures.

For years, Benedetto has wanted to take part, mulling it over annually when he'd get the memo encouraging it from Northwest Suburban High School District 214 officials.

But raising two sons and coaching varsity football made it difficult to take time off.

"My wife and I always talked about doing (the Fulbright), but we said, 'Well, maybe someday later,'" Benedetto said. "Last summer, we were going for a walk, and I said, 'You know, that time has come. If we want to apply, this is the time.'"

He went for it.

Switzerland was a top choice; the Benedettos like its central location in Europe.

Benedetto applied and was accepted - he's District 214's fifth so-called Fulbrighter - but had to wait for a teacher match from Switzerland for the adventure to be an official go.

Gygax, a 47-year-old who used this year's spring break to fly to America and scope out the scene, was the answer.

The two teachers will be paid by their own school systems.

Gygax will share the Benedettos' Wheeling house with the couple's 21-year-old son for the year; the Benedettos will get Gygax's two-bedroom home in a tiny town in south Switzerland, near the Italian border.

It's perfect for Gail Benedetto, a foreign languages major in college who already has the Italian tongue down pat.

But "I'm cramming," Benedetto said, laughing. "I'm trying to learn as much as I can."

Their Swiss home sits about 10 minutes outside Lugano - the 30,000-resident town where Benedetto will teach - and differs from Chicago's suburbs in just the right ways for an 11-month stay abroad: Tiny and quaint, it's nestled in a mountain range, near a clear lake.

"To us, that sounds great," Benedetto said. "We don't even have small hills in Illinois, and we have to drive an hour to get to Lake Michigan."

Gygax has a similar affection for Wheeling, Benedetto said.

"We're thinking, 'Wow, we're going to Switzerland, to the mountains and the beauty, and he's going to Wheeling. This isn't fair,'" Benedetto said.

"But to him, he's lived there his whole life - and he said, 'I love America. I just love the wide-open spaces and the fresh air.' He said he feels almost claustrophobic because he's in such a mountainous area."

The two teachers will trade places in early August, stopping first in Washington, D.C., with other Fulbrighters to get the scoop on the coming year.

In Switzerland, Benedetto will spend about half his time teaching English - he's not certified in that subject but obviously knows the language - and the other half teaching physical education, a class the school is encouraging him to also teach in English.

He'll see his gym students, who range in age from their early teens to 20, every other day. And if he can, he'd love to infuse a little Americana into their cardiovascular routine, teaching football or baseball if the students are receptive to it.

"If they're interested, they'll get it," Benedetto promised.

He also plans to encourage the students to be Internet pen pals with teens back at Wheeling High and, either way, said he'll use his experience abroad to enrich the school day for Wheeling High teens for the four years or so remaining in his career when he returns.

Maybe, he said, there will be games taught in European gym class he could bring back here.

For his part, Gygax, who speaks five languages, likely will visit Wheeling High's Italian and French classes, Sievert said, and could find ways to squeeze a few sports native to Europe, like cricket, into the physical education curriculum.

"He should be a great role model," Sievert said. Students "will see that in other parts of the world, it's normal to speak two, three, or even four languages. That keeps our students interested in pursuing a second or third language."