The Class I Never Took

By Greg Herenda

Now that the school year is officially upon us, this time of year brings back some memories that you would like to forget - and other memories that are so impactful - they stay with you forever. The first day of school always has some level of anxiety and uncertainty, but leaving your hometown and taking a bus and a subway to school adds to the experience. Add on that you need to put on a jacket and tie and there would be no girls - now you are at a totally different level.

That all being said, I knew that the transition from good ole Horace Mann Grammar School to lower Jersey City was not going to be particularly easy. When you go to a great academic school such as St. Peter's Prep, there is a ton of pressure on you, and I felt it before my classes ever started. I received my schedule in the mail a week or two before school. So when I first looked at it, all of the classes were abbreviated. For example: chemistry - Chem 101, biology - Bio 101. I did not see any courses that started with LAT, and I didn’t think much of it, but it was my schedule, and that was that. I noticed one of the courses said Dev Eng, and I didn’t really understand what that was, but eventually came to find out it was Developmental English. 

I guess when I took my entrance exam, I didn’t do so well on my English portion, so they put me into a class that would help me build my English skills. You know what that meant - that I missed out on taking Latin as a freshman, and that was sort of a rite of passage at Prep. Everyone in the hallways was talking about their schedule. “Who do you have for Latin?” “Who do you have for religion?” “Who do you have for English?” and so on. I embarrassingly had to tell my friends and classmates that I am not taking Latin but rather I was in developmental English my freshman year. Right away, I was backpedaling in a place where if you get behind, well, let’s just say that's not how you want to begin on Grand and Warren. 

Little did I know that class would change my life. I was in a class full of athletes, a class that was very diverse in race and ethnicity and was by far the most fun I’ve ever had in any class that I have ever taken. Most of the kids in this class were from inner Jersey City and were from poor grammar schools and neighborhoods. Going to Prep was an opportunity for all of us to get out of our comfort zone, get to St. Peter’s Prep, and get out of Jersey City and get to college. It wasn’t like these guys weren’t smart, but academics were not their top priority in life to this point. I realized that I had a lot in common with these guys, and they were funny as hell. I don’t think I have ever laughed harder in my entire life. I could not wait for this class every single day - I had something to look forward to.  The cherry on top of the cake was the teacher - Mr. Rogers. He had a raspy old-school, hard-nosed voice with an Irish and very hypnotic face. He was a cross between Jack Lemmon and your local bartender. I could not take my eyes off of this guy, and I listened to every word that he ever said. He asked me once to describe an apple, and I said it was red. “Red???” he said, “come on Herenda - give me something!” And I learned that day what an adjective was REALLY supposed to do. It was supposed to make you feel the object, smell the object, make the object come alive. So later that year, the red apple became a vivacious, delectable, and incredibly satiable piece of enticing fruit instead of just a red apple. Not only did I learn how to write - the guy taught me how to think!

So, I do regret that I never took Latin, but I will never forget learning how to understand English in a way that I never looked at before. It turned out that the class I never took affected my life in ways that I could never imagine. Thank you, Mr. Rogers, and all the classic individuals with whom I took developmental English. That class was a tremendous learning experience and embedded some of the greatest memories of my time on Grand and Warren.