Reflections on a Lifelong Love of Learning
Dean of Faculty celebrates his golden jubilee at the School
English teacher, Dean of Faculty, and advisor are just some of the roles that Michael Ingrisani has assumed since accepting a position at the School. This academic year marks the golden jubilee of Mr. Ingrisani’s tenure, making himself one of the most recognizable faces in the school community for decades of students, alumni, and faculty.
“You know,” Mr. Ingrisani said, “there are mornings where I wake up and think, ‘Is this possible that I am still here for this long? That I still enjoy it? That I still seem to do it well enough to satisfy the boys and my colleagues?’” Luckily for this generation of Browning boys, the answer to all his questions appears to be yes.
After receiving his degree in English at Columbia College, Mr. Ingrisani initially did not know what he wanted to do next. In fact, he contemplated becoming a lawyer rather than a teacher.
“I guess I made up my mind to go into teaching during my time in college,” he said. “I had considered law and thought that I could go into either one. How it might have turned out if I’d made a different choice, I don’t know.”
Once he decided to go into teaching, Mr. Ingrisani obtained his master’s degree at Columbia University’s Teachers College. Upon graduating, he applied to a wide variety of schools. In fact, he almost didn’t come to Browning.
“I started interviewing at several schools, including St. David’s, where I was offered a fifth grade homeroom position, which was not what I was looking for. Fortunately the position here came up, and it was exactly what I wanted.”
When he said goodbye to the opportunity at St. David’s, Mr. Ingrisani said hello to the red doors and The Browning School, where he was hired to teach English in Forms III, IV, V, and VI. In 1970, Browning and its English department were very different than they are today. Mr. Ingrisani was the sole English teacher for the entire high school.
“I was teaching every student in Upper School, which was a very daunting prospect. You have to constantly adjust what you say depending on whether you are looking at seniors or ninth graders. Fortunately, I was able to learn from them in an environment that gave me the space to try new things.”
As time went on, the School grew, and as a result, the needs of the students changed. Mr. Ingrisani recognized that in order to best prepare a larger group of boys, the English faculty had to grow, too.
“Students need to hear more than one voice. They need to learn to deal with more than one approach. So as the department grew, we began to set it up so that the students did not have the same teacher even twice in a row. In general, I think it’s good to mix things up a bit.”
“What we want, either within an individual year or over a boy’s Browning career, is to help students become not just passive recipients of information but active partners in their own learning.”
Mr. Ingrisani has also continued to help the School keep up with the times by reevaluating and changing the English curriculum. In today’s classroom, he has introduced books that were not yet written in the 70s and 80s.
“You have to remember that if you do something for 50 years, the world that you started in is going to look very different than the one you end up in. In the old days, I was using a curriculum designed in the 1950s. Today, the most obvious change is that we are studying works of literature now that hadn’t been written then.”
The curriculum has been expanded to focus on all types of literature and to explore the knowledge of the world from a plethora of authors with differing perspectives. It continues to cover new ideas and topics so that the boys are not limited in their worldview.
“There has been more literature by women, by people from around the world, by people of color, and that is all for the good. After all, the study of literature is all about expanding your understanding of the world and coming to an understanding of yourself, based not only on introspection, but on learning about other people in other times.”
Mr. Ingrisani’s role continued to grow the longer he stayed a part of the community. In 1994, Mr. Ingrisani was appointed the Dean of Faculty. Then headmaster Stephen Clement understood that Mr. Ingrisani had been a liaison between the administration and the faculty, and he wanted to make it official.
“After I had been here for about 25 years, Mr. Clement decided that a position should be created for me to formalize some of the things that I had been doing informally anyway. I was somebody who did not have an office, somebody who was in the faculty room with everyone else and was sensitive to the needs and problems of the faculty. So I could be a resource for the head of school who wanted to know what needs to be done to make things better for the teachers.”
Even after assuming the role of Dean of Faculty, Mr. Ingrisani never wavered in his desire to help foster a well-rounded and holistic education for his students. With the support of Mr. Clement, Mr. Ingrisani started to interact with other independent schools through the International Boys’ Schools Coalition.
“I became interested in the fact that, although we had been a boys school from the very beginning, we weren’t really very clear about why that was the case. This was where Mr. Clement was very supportive because he had the same concern. With his help, I began attending the conferences of the International Boys’ Schools Coalition and eventually became a member of their board of trustees.”
Through his work with international colleagues, Mr. Ingrisani was able to bring new techniques, sometimes even new people, to the School, creating better learning opportunities for his students.
“I got the chance to interact with educators from other schools around the world. I was exposed to new ideas and was able to bring those ideas back, occasionally bringing people from those schools to visit Browning and share their insights.”
Over the years, some things have never changed in Mr. Ingrisani’s classroom. His fundamental mission to better the boys remains a cornerstone. He continues to create a classroom where the boys have control of what they learn. He wants the boys to be active participants rather than passive listeners.
“What we want, either within an individual year or over a student’s Browning career, is to help students become not just passive recipients of information but active partners in their own learning. If you simply go from being an empty vessel that gets filled in high school, and then you go to college where they pour some more in, when your formal education is over you find yourself stranded without somebody to continue to pour in knowledge. You need to learn to do that for yourself.”
Throughout his time at Browning, Mr. Ingrisani has seen students come and go. However, he loves to see how they have grown and have created lives of their own. He has been a mentor and colleague to many, and continuing to connect is special for him.
“Part of the fun is having former students come back as grown men with careers and wives and pictures of their children, and sharing their feelings that the difficult days in Form III were all worth it.”
Mr. Ingrisani has become an icon in the Browning community and a beacon in the education of generations of boys. He has created a wealth of memories of his time at Browning, a place that has become his second home.
“In 50 years, there have been a lot of memories. If I could tell you about all of them, you’d run out of memory on your device there to record them. It has been enjoyable. You wouldn’t stick around at a job for 50 years if it was drudgery and you were just doing it for a paycheck.”
Mr. Ingrisani’s Impact on Alumni
ANDY SANDBERG ’01, Writer, Director, Producer
“In our senior year expository writing class, Mr. Ingrisani commented on the fact that I was perhaps a bit ‘too harsh’ in my critique exercises. I took that as a compliment, as that class helped to shape my editorial eye for years to come. I suspect every Browning alumnus has a similar story about how he has influenced their lives.”
MICHAEL BEYS ’89,
Attorney
“Browning has been blessed with many legendary teachers, but no one has inspired more students or helped to shape the lives of more gentlemen-scholars than Mr. Ingrisani. The School has been so fortunate to have him for 50 years and counting—I am grateful to have had him as a teacher and for my sons to learn from him as well.”
