His Story
Thomas Tracey Fallon spent his entire twenty-nine-year career in the classrooms of Gloucester Township, New Jersey, starting in 1968 and rising to become, in 1995, both the New Jersey State Teacher of the Year and Camden County Teacher of the Year, on top of the Outstanding Social Studies Teacher of the Year Award he received in 1993 and the Governor’s Outstanding Teacher Award in 1988. A history teacher who described himself as a “dedicated living history interpreter of the Revolutionary War,” Fallon built a seventh-grade social studies classroom at Glen Landing Middle School around the idea that history must be lived and experienced, not merely read about. He held degrees from Rowan College — a bachelor’s in elementary education and a master’s in community college education — and continued adding graduate credits well into the 1990s.
Fallon’s proudest story, by his own telling, came not from an award ceremony but from an encounter in the Oval Office. Invited with the nation’s fifty state teachers of the year to meet President Clinton, he was approached in the Rose Garden by a young staffer who turned out to be a former student, now serving as an Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Liaison and responsible for arranging that very meeting. When she reminded him of conversations they’d had years before about government and law, and the President turned to Fallon and said, “You did a great job,” Fallon called it the highest reward of his career. The meeting itself grew out of a proposal Fallon made directly to Education Secretary Richard Riley during a televised New Jersey town meeting, a suggestion Riley took to Washington and turned into an annual tradition of the President meeting with the nation’s state teachers of the year.
As his nomination went forward, Fallon learned he had been selected to head the New Jersey delegation to an international education conference in Beijing, China, in July 1997, and had also been chosen as a Review Panelist for the U.S. Department of Education’s Blue Ribbon Schools Program — recognition that arrived on top of a career already listed in the first and subsequent editions of Who’s Who in American Education and membership in Kappa Delta Phi, the international honor society in education.
Beyond the Classroom
Fallon extended his social studies classroom into the physical landscape of his own community. When Gloucester Township approached its 300th anniversary, he and his students undertook a sweeping project to map, record, and preserve the headstones of local churchyards and cemeteries before erosion and acid rain erased their inscriptions forever — alphabetizing and binding the information, sharing it with the Gloucester and Camden County historical societies, and fielding inquiries from descendants researching their family history around the country. The project led local churches to clean up neglected grounds, repair decaying stones, and begin offering guided historic tours. Students went on to design a tercentenary logo and motto and helped organize the township’s broader 300th-anniversary celebration, immersing themselves in local historic personalities and structures, some older than the township itself.
Fallon has also spent nearly two decades as a uniformed living-history interpreter of the American Revolution, a member of the Second Pennsylvania Regiment of the Continental Line and Forty-Third Regiment of Foot, equipping himself at his own expense to portray a soldier of the 1770s at commemorations and historic sites throughout the region. Through this work, some of his own students have encamped at Valley Forge, served as guides in Colonial Williamsburg, and stood as honor guards for dignitaries at Independence Hall. Separately, in twenty years with the National Guard, he created and delivered drug-intervention curriculum for inner-city teens statewide, and as New Jersey’s Teacher of the Year he traveled extensively representing the state, working with the U.S. Department of Education on Goals 2000, addressing 1,500 teachers at a Princeton University convocation of New Jersey Teachers of the Year, and being featured in a national Goals 2000 education video.
Philosophy Into Pracrtice
Fallon’s philosophy of teaching runs to the mythic: he casts teachers as the inheritors of fire, “delegated” the gift of the gods to illuminate the world and guide young minds down “well lit passages” toward the “dark corridors of the unknown.” He calls teaching the essence of human existence — instinctual, ancient, and as old as the transmission of consciousness itself — and lists teachers among history’s benchmark figures, comparing the profession’s company, if not its stature, to Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, Confucius, Socrates, and Einstein. Underlying the soaring language is a concrete belief: that a child comes to class “a vessel yearning to be filled,” and it is the teacher’s task to fill that vessel with imagination, adventure, and self-belief.
In the classroom, that philosophy translated into deep personal investment — collecting Roman artifacts, writing to authors, taking five research trips to Europe, and building historical impersonations to make the past physically present for his students. Having struggled himself as a “late bloomer” in elementary school, he made a point of sharing his own struggles with students, believing laughter and compassion could unlock children who rarely felt they succeeded. He did not think of his students as children but as friends who had come to spend a year, sometimes a lifetime, of dialogue with him.
“I am a teacher because there is no greater honor than to serve humanity and the future… Doctors may give life but, we, as teachers, give life meaning and reveal the mysteries of the universe.”— from his essay, “Philosophy of Teaching”
“A teacher never grows old. Outside, an older body is exhibited to the world but, inside the mind of a child is still locked in awe, thirsting for experience, knowledge, and mastery which presents itself every day.”— from his essay, “Philosophy of Teaching”
In His Own Words
“Teaching is sharing the enthusiasm of life regardless of the subject. The desire to instill in others the joy and rewards I have discovered in art, literature, history, music, invention, and writing is the motivating force behind my commitment to the classroom and my students.”— from his essay, “In the Classroom”
“I do not teach, I live and demonstrate the role of a first century Roman, an 18th century soldier, 19th century writer, or 20th century combatant… If all the world is a stage, then the classroom is the best of stages on which to perform for there lies the most appreciative audience.”— from his essay, “In the Classroom”
“History can not be locked away from reality within the arbitrary walls of the classroom. It demands to be experienced and studied in its natural context and so my students have found themselves exploring the past through ‘time capsules’ implanted by our forbearers.”— from his essay, “Outside the Classroom”
“We are warriors who wage a ceasless battle against ignorance, apathy, and prejudice. I am proud to call myself a teacher for I know the accomplishments so many of my colleagues have achieved on the battlefield in this never ending war for a better future.”— from his essay, “Educational Issues”
“I do this by all constantly reinventing myself and expanding the intrigue of life I bring to the classroom.”— from his essay, “In the Classroom”
What Others Said
“Mr. Fallon is the most dynamic and impressive teacher I know. His dedication to teaching fills every moment of life. He constantly challenges his students through innovation and imagination while creating an atmosphere of respect for knowledge, people, and the world. He is a superior leader, role model, and teacher.”— Candice H. Hopkins, 1995 Delaware Teacher of the Year (Nominator)
“You are an unbelievable teacher. Out of every single teacher I have had, you have made the most memorable impression in my life. If I could go to your class all over again for another year, I would in a heartbeat!”— Susan Gilman, Former Student
“I can see by Tracey’s masterful use of this non-traditional but powerful means of education why he was named our state’s Teacher of the Year recently. With such a commanding performance out of the classroom, his students must enjoy a superb, enriching experience indeed.”— C. Paul Loane, Director of Alumni Relations, Rutgers University-Camden
“Tracey is an individual who is truly gifted and is willing to use his talents to impact the lives of children… I am impressed by the fact that Tracey does not necessarily consider himself to be special. Rather, he truly believes that he is one of many outstanding educators who are committed to the teaching profession.”— Robert A. Suessmuth, Superintendent, Gloucester Township Public Schools
“Mr. Fallon forced his students to – as the saying goes, ‘Look outside the box’ for new and different solutions to problems. He wanted and did develop real ‘thinkers.’ Mr. Fallon is definately a teacher who makes a difference.”— Joseph F. Sweeney, Superintendent, Runnemede Public Schools
“I first met Mr. Fallon in September, 1980, when he was my sixth grade English and social studies teacher… He showed students learning was not confined to just the classroom but was limitless… It was Mr. Fallon who showed me that my future also lay in the world of education and teaching.”— Michael Fanelli, Former Student, now Teacher and Gloucester Township Board of Education Member