weeks for the results, sweating out our future, as the tests helped determine which junior high schools we would attend, and our eligibility for any special programs. When the results came, I finally saw why Mr. Kuck had been so hard on me and the other ones in that separate group. My reading comprehension and writing scores were on the ninth-grade level and my math scores on the eighth-grade level. This meant that I would be placed in honors classes in junior high. I could not believe it. Up until this time, I had always assumed I was an average student, but Mr. Kuck’s yearlong challenge had brought out potential in me that I hadn’t known was there. As I sat there stunned, staring at these test score reports, I noticed that Mr. Kuck was smiling at me. “You see, Steven”, he began, “THIS is why I was being so hard on you all year. I knew you had it in you, but I also knew that you hadn’t had to try very hard up to this point, because things tend to come easy for you.”
As I sat there nodding my head slowly in agreement, he continued, “Steven, you’re smart, but you can also be lazy, which is why I was pushing you, because things won’t always come easily for you. But what you lack in natural ability, you can always make up for in effort... that was the whole point of all that extra work.”
After I had been flying as a captain for a few years, I had the good fortune to get back in touch with Mr. Kuck and thanked him for helping me to see my potential. As we talked, he explained that having been both a teacher and a parent for many years, he had developed a keen sense for when a child with potential simply wasn’t applying themselves, which he sensed in that group of five. That was why he had singled us out for extra work. I talked to him about how those test results had led to me being placed in honors classes in junior high, which set me on the road to honors classes in high school, which in turn, led to me being accepted into a college that offered aviation courses... ultimately leading to realizing my dream of flying. The ability that Mr. Kuck had seen in me had apparently always been there, waiting to be discovered. By challenging me to do more than I had previously thought I could do, he had helped me to see my inner potential. Previous elementary school teachers had been content with letting me skirt by, never challenging me to do more than the minimum required. As an adult, I see the importance of giving challenges and positive encouragement to kids to help them see that with hard work and perseverance, they can accomplish any goal.
Now, I tell my nephew Jeremiah and my niece Emmarie that if they believe in God, in themselves, in their dreams, and work hard, nothing can stop them from realizing their dreams. Looking back, Mr. Kuck was one of the first adults in my life (aside from my parents, who had ALWAYS told me that I could achieve anything at which I worked hard) to help me discover the hidden ability lying dormant within me. Along with Mom and Dad, he is a big reason I am where I am today, living my dream.
Mil novecientos ochenta y quatro
The summer of 1984 brought with it a new addition to our family, the Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, and legendary battles of Pac-Man between Betty and I. Watching Mary Lou Retton, Carl Lewis, and the US men’s gymnastics team’s gold-metal exploits enthralled Betty and me. We caught Olympic fever and got all caught up in the excitement of watching athletes who were the best at what they did, living out their dreams. In August, just before the start of the new school year, our little brother Jonathan was born. Our parents now had two boys and two girls.
I was excited to be entering junior high, as it meant no more walking in military columns through the school hallways with my classmates. For the first time in my school career, I would have a different teacher for each subject and be able to walk on my own from class to class between periods. I was given a choice of foreign languages to learn, and I chose Spanish, going against the objections of my parents, who wanted me to take French since they spoke it fluently, having been products of the Haitian school system. They considered it part of my heritage, but I wanted to learn Spanish, as Spain seemed a more exotic place to me. As I also had it in mind that I would travel there one day to watch bullfights, (an exciting idea for an eleven-year-old boy) I exercised my independence and decided on Spanish.
During the first few weeks of class, we learned things such as basic Spanish greetings, the days of the week, months of the year, and how to say the year we were in, “mil novecientos, ochenta y quatro”. We learned about Spanish culture, Don Quixote, bullfighting, flamenco, and the Conquistadores who had sailed from Spain to all corners of the globe, killing all who resisted their spread of Spanish language and culture. The whole idea of those sailors heading off into the unknown to explore new worlds (new to them anyway, not to the natives who already lived there) was so exciting (minus all the killing). I thought that if I had been born in that time, before airplanes existed, I would have wanted to be a sailor, venturing to uncharted lands.
As the year went on, I also very much enjoyed my science and history classes. Mr. Dixon, my sixth-grade science teacher, was the first person to explain the physics of how an airplane’s wing creates lift. I had read about it before, but having someone explain it for the first time in language I could understand, helped to bring it to life. In my history class, I learned about the Roman Empire, Greek Civilization, and Greco-Roman mythology. We also studied World War II and the Holocaust, and about slavery, Jim Crowe laws, segregation, and the Civil Rights struggle in the US. The more I learned about the world, the more I wanted to know
My junior high school (Intermediate School 27) was a twenty-minute walk from our building, and for that first year, I made the walk every morning alone, as Betty was still in P.S. 18. Thanks to my New York State standardized test scores from Mr. Kuck’s class, I was placed in the honors program for all my classes, along with all the other so-called “nerds”. I joined the school band as a trumpet player, not realizing that doing so made me the ultimate form of nerd: a “band nerd”. I loved the school’s library because it had an extensive research section, and I discovered a treasure trove of career-related reference books containing detailed information about hundreds of professions. I discovered that many airline pilots learned to fly for free in the military. After completing their training, they were required to serve in the military as pilots for eight years or more, to give the government a return on its investment. After completing their commitment, they could leave the service if they so desired, to join an airline. However, many chose to stay because they enjoyed military flying and could retire with full benefits after twenty years. While I admired military pilots, I never had any desire to be one of them, so I quickly discarded that idea. My goal was to fly for an airline, so I could explore the world and its people.
From my countless hours in the library, I also learned that many airline pilots had taken the civilian route to the cockpit. They would either learn to fly at local flight schools, or in college, where they could major in aviation, getting a Bachelor’s degree alongside their FAA flying licenses. As I read more about it, I decided that was the route I wanted to take to the airlines. I had always wanted to go to college, and majoring in aviation was the obvious choice. If I went to college and got a Bachelor’s degree, I would be the first member of my immediate family to do so. My dad had taken some college courses by correspondence, but driving a taxi more than twelve hours every day to provide for his growing family left little time for much else. Mom had earned her Associate’s Degree from The College of Staten Island but soon after my little brother was born, had taken a job as an assistant manager in a local supermarket to help Dad with supporting their growing family. For a while, she continued to attend college part-time, working towards her Bachelor’s degree. After the birth of their fifth child, my little sister Myriam, in late 1985, and in what would become a recurring theme in the years to come, she sacrificed her personal goals for the sake of her family. She stopped going to college just a few credits shy of her Bachelor’s degree in order to work more hours to provide for her family (and later to help pay for my college costs, so I could achieve my dream).
I continued to read everything I could about the life of an airline pilot, and the more I read, the more I wanted that kind of lifestyle. I learned that pilots for the major airlines have to sit in the right seat as copilots (also known as First Officers or FOs for short) for a few years before upgrading to the left seat as
