This is a picture of Richard de Meij (fourth from the right) being honored with a SINA outstanding volunteer award in 2004. At the time, he was living in Frog Hollow while teaching at Sedgwick Middle School in West Hartford. At night, Richard volunteered at the Aetna Center for Families teaching English as a second language. The Hartford News article covering this ceremony described the motivation behind Richard’s service, “[He] views language as the key to community involvement and the way he seeks to break barriers that separate people.” Richard’s volunteering made a real difference. Many of his adult students were successful in the program, progressing to a level of fluency that helped them apply for higher paying jobs.

So where is he now?

Richard is still living in Hartford, but now teaches within the Hartford Public School system at Global Communications Academy, an International Baccalaureate school.  He made the switch to Hartford within a few years of winning his award. Richard wanted Hartford students to have access to the highest quality language education that their neighbors in West Hartford were already experiencing.  Richard believes deeply in the power of language. “Language Learning is a Birthright,” he said. Often times, in cities, however, it is treated as a “nice to have”. Statistically, black boys and girls are the least likely to receive this necessity. It is Richard’s mission to change that. 

Richard also believes in languages’ ability to serve as the doorway to deeper knowledge. When he first left his job teaching in West Hartford in 2006, he began teaching at Weaver High School in the Blue Hills neighborhood of Hartford. While there, Richard started a program where for extra credit, students could volunteer at the Aetna Center at his ESL class (picture from class below). His high school students, who mostly identified as African American and West Indian, would travel down to the South End and tutor adults from Puerto Rico and other Latin American countries in English. The adults in return would teach the students Spanish.  Neither group had much prior experience interacting with the other or visiting their part of the city. Everyone, however, left this shared learning process feeling connected. This is another example of the power of language as Richard sees it. Language helps you to “access the fullness of the city,” he said. Teaching someone a language is giving them a key to better know their neighbor. 

Richard is very familiar with the power of this key. He was born in Aruba, where he grew up acquiring four languages- Dutch, Papiamento (a creole language, and one of the two official and native languages of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao), Spanish, and English. Aruba is a part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, so Richard has Dutch citizenship, and by extension, also citizenship in the European Union. This allowed him to receive free college anywhere in the world, paid for by the Dutch government. Richard attended the University of Florida, majoring in Speech and Language Pathology and Applied Linguistics. 

Ricard’s path to teaching started by accident when he was learning his sixth language, German, in college. Richard excelled far beyond his peers. His professor recommended him to a German teaching apprenticeship program where he was trained to be a German teacher over the summer. Richard, once again, excelled and was hired by the program to work as a trainer. This is what started his love of teaching. “It opened my eyes to the power that language gives someone,” he said. “It enables people to express themselves, to extend an invitation, to talk about their families, and to tell their stories. To witness this is amazing. It’s a joy to see growth.”

It’s this love that helps Richard to teach with passion. “Children are our future,” he said. “We should invest in them with passion.” It is not enough to teach while just going through the motions. To make a real difference you have to care deeply about the student and about what you are doing. 

This investment, passion, and commitment has not gone unnoticed. In 2019, Richard was honored as the language teacher of the year for the state of Connecticut. He was the first teacher from Hartford and the first black teacher to ever be given this award (picture from ceremony below). Most teachers who win this award are met with a local parade and press conference in their town or city. Richard however, never received any recognition beyond a mention on the Hartford Public Schools website.  Hopefully this article can do a small part to change that.

Growing up in Aruba, Richard’s parents taught him to be a global citizen. They encouraged him to explore and see the world as his classroom. Richard has taken that advice to heart and has lived in seven different countries. He could live anywhere in the world, however has chosen Hartford as his home. Richard views Hartford as beautiful. “It is a beautiful blend of people and cultures,” he said. On the day I interviewed him for this article, it was announced that 73 languages are represented in the Hartford Public School system. Given Richard’s view on language, those are 73 doorways to deeper knowledge and understanding, doorways of potential he seeks to open in his classroom.  “Hartford is like an unpolished gem,” Richard elaborated. This gem increases in brilliance every time Richard helps a student to learn that their native language isn’t “broken”, they have something to teach others, and that they have neighbors from whom they can learn. Every time he invests in students with passion it becomes clear that In Richard, Hartford has found a crown jewel.