His Story
Jim Quinlan was not the kind of student anyone would have picked to become a teacher. His own high school teachers described him as “resentful of authority; capable of better work; likely to fail; doesn’t apply himself; indolent.” His trouble with school began even earlier, in seventh grade, when a teacher caught him napping over a flint arrowhead he had found in a dried-up creek bed. That arrowhead launched a self-directed education of its own, with the town librarian’s help and trips to the New York Museum of Natural History, and it taught him that learning could be “very real, very relevant, and very alive.” Decades later he says that experience is why he understands students who fail, and why he feels a special attachment to those who have “fallen between the cracks.”
He earned a B.A. in industrial arts, summa cum laude, from Kean College of New Jersey and a master’s in urban education from Jersey City State College. In 1976 he began teaching at Vernon Township High School, where he has taught ever since, and where he began as a woodshop teacher whose students won top awards at the New Jersey Craftsman’s Fair and the county fair. Then came a field trip. He took Mike Stockland, a known troublemaker, along on an end-of-year bus trip with a dozen developmentally disabled students, and Mike behaved so well that he became Quinlan’s helper. On the ride home, Mike told him, “Mr. Q, I just want you to know that this was the best day of my entire life. Thanks for taking me.” Quinlan says it was the moment he “stopped teaching woodshop and began teaching students.”
That shift produced two programs that have become his signature: Peers Learning in a Unique Setting (PLUS), an alternative program for students who were unsuccessful in a traditional classroom, and the Roaring Lion Chair Company, a student-run business where students with special needs make Adirondack chairs and sell them across the tri-state area. His honors include being named Vernon Township and Sussex County Teacher of the Year for 1999–2000 and a finalist for New Jersey Teacher of the Year. He was also a Fulbright Memorial Fund Scholar to Japan in 1999 and the recipient of the Freedoms Foundation’s Leavey Award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education.
Beyond the Classroom
Quinlan is, as his nominator put it, “a genuine 21st century Renaissance man”: artist, engineer, scuba diver, author, professional pilot, musician, kayaker, cyclist and mountaineer, and when he is asked who he is, he proudly replies, “I’m a teacher.” He is a facilitator for Project Quest, an adventure-based counseling program with roots in Outward Bound, taking students through trust-building sequences, high ropes, rappelling and rock climbing during a twelve-week cycle, with a three-day backpacking trip along the Appalachian Trail or a canoeing trip down the Delaware River each spring and fall. On Tuesday evenings he teaches Private Pilot Ground School at a community college.
His students have built things for their community. In 1985 his carpentry students built a large pavilion in the town center that is still used for concerts and civic events. His Roaring Lion students made hundreds of engraved wooden markers for the Appalachian Trail, and then installed those along the ten or so miles that pass through Vernon. They have also organized a biathlon at Wawayanda State Park that raised thousands of dollars for the Leukemia Society after a local boy died, built duck nesting boxes, cleaned up rivers and streams, and built a handicapped fishing ramp at a nearby state park. His professional development has taken him to a summer-long grizzly bear DNA study at Glacier National Park, a National Endowment for the Humanities seminar along the Lewis and Clark trail, and a boat-building course in Maine.
Philosophy Into Practice
Quinlan’s philosophy comes from The Wizard of Oz: to give his students what the Wizard gave his friends, which is “the courage and confidence to pursue one’s goals, the assurance of their innate intelligence and ability, and the development of a heart with which to temper their knowledge.” He rejects the idea that education exists only to supply job skills, and says he cares little whether students ever master a box joint or the resistor color code. On a well-worn index card clipped to his grade book he keeps a line from Henry Brooks Adams: “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”
“I stopped teaching woodshop and began teaching students.”— from his essay, “Professional Biography”
“Good teaching means arousing emotion, it means cultivating curiosity, it means encouraging students to dream.”— from his essay, “Philosophy of Teaching”
In His Own Words
“So what subject do I teach? I teach students to daydream. I teach them to be curious. I teach students to love the activity of learning.”— from his essay, “In the Classroom”
“The mind is limitless in dimension; my classroom, for that reason, must be limitless as well.”— from his essay, “In the Classroom”
“I am committed to making my hindsight their foresight.”— from his essay, “Getting to Know You”
“The goal of education should be to produce thinkers, not test-takers.”— from his essay, “Educational Issues”
“I firmly believe that the very best teachers are by nature active lifelong learners and communicate this attitude to their students at each and every lesson.”— from his essay, “Professional Development”
What Others Said
In every respect, Mr. Quinlan is a master teacher. No matter what the course or the ability of the students, the experiences and material shared with students far exceed expectations.”— Anthony J. Macerino, Superintendent, Vernon Township Public Schools
“He is the kind of individual who speaks volumes by his actions, not words… In the course of a single week I have also observed Jim tandem bicycling with a visually impaired student, belaying students as they rappelled from high mountain cliffs, counseling a student on substance abuse, and teaching his ‘regular’ classes.”— Jack McCall, Director, Project PLUS
“It is evident Mr. Quinlan sets very high standards for himself and for his students and he insists that these are attained.”— Dennis J. Mudrick, Principal, Vernon Township High School
“We discovered that learning isn’t about memorizing facts or choosing the right answer from a list. It’s about discovering for yourself that what you know isn’t as important as what you can find out, if you’re willing to make the effort.”— Cheryl Hastie, student
“He taught me skills I had never fathomed; problem solving, critical thinking, design, and even life skills, but most importantly, encouraged me to continue with my education.”— Daniel Muller, former student, now a technology teacher
“We will never forget that first meeting… However the highest accolade comes from Richie now five years out of high school. He frequently walks over to the picture in our family room of his shop class and says, ‘Hi ya Mr. Q'”— Richard and Marilyn Olsen, parents of a student
“Mr. Quinlan was able to reach through the anger and bitterness and help PJ through an extremely difficult time in his life.”— Josephine G. Curcio, parent of a student