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Room for Improvement
Special Education and Education Graduate, Tina Feingold’s Blessing in Disguise
There’s an expression about converting lemons into lemonade, but what it really boils down to is seeing opportunities in obstacles and transforming challenges into rewards. Graduate School of Education Class of 2013 Special Education and Teaching alum Tina Feingold can relate to that. A few years ago, after nearly 25 years of instructing preschoolers at the Central Queens YM-YWHA, new administrative management arrived with an ultimatum: earn your Master’s or seek employment elsewhere.
“I asked for a demotion and they said no,” laughs the Forest Hills native, who first earned her bachelor’s in Early Childhood Education at the University of Bridgeport in ’88. Far back as she can recall, being near and providing assistance to young people was her passion.
“As a little girl, I would set up all my stuffed animals,” she says. “I had a blackboard, and I was always teaching them. It’s just a love for children and teaching.”
Once she turned 13, Feingold began babysitting. Soon after, she worked at the Floating Hospital in Manhattan, which serves low-income families, singing songs to and playing with kids of all ages. The prospect of suddenly having her career at all sidetracked or uprooted was devastating. But instead of fretting, Feingold gathered herself, enrolled at Touro’s Graduate School of Education while maintaining her schedule at the Central Queens Y and sought to enhance her skillset working with special-needs students.
“I have had children in my classrooms with special needs,” she explains. I saw the need for it coming up, because there are so many children these days that have difficulties, so I figured, ‘You know what? I went in the right direction.’”
Through this process, Feingold also discovered what made her initially tepid about going back to school. “Even though I’m a teacher, I was not a great student,” she remembers. “I have test anxiety, and back in my day, nobody really took notice of children who had special needs, and I think I was one of those children, and if I was taught in a different way, maybe I would have been a better student.”
Now, Feingold says she’s “much smarter than I gave myself credit for.” And it’s a confidence she’s encouraging in those 4-year-olds at the Central Queens Y, one that was instilled in her by repaving an intimidating mandate as a path toward becoming an even better, more well-rounded teacher.“I asked for a demotion and they said no,” laughs the Forest Hills native, who first earned her bachelor’s in Early Childhood Education at the University of Bridgeport in ’88. Far back as she can recall, being near and providing assistance to young people was her passion.
