Carrie Meatto joined St. Luke's as an Upper School Spanish teacher in August 2017. She fielded some questions from St. Luke's...
How do you like to spend your free time?
Outside!
What is one thing about yourself that would surprise people?
I grew up racing sailboats and ski racing. I can clean a fish and milk a cow. I once drove a Buenos Aires city bus and rescued someone suffering acute psychosis from a rural village in Costa Rica.
If you could be any fictional character, who would you be? Why?
Spiraticus the elf, a figment of my childhood imagination. He is 100 pineneedles tall and lives in the woods of Maine, riding the backs of eagles and frogs, fishing for minnows, and sleeping on beds of moss. I used to feed him raisins in the basement and write him notes every summer night. Through that correspondence and Spiraticus's other-worldy eyes, I came to see nature and so much of what we take for granted differently.
What’s your favorite genre of music to work to?
Personally, I need quiet to truly concentrate. But I love to listen to bachata (mostly Prince Royce!) or classical Spanish guitar in class, if the activity allows.
Do you have a favorite blog or podcast?
Call Your Girlfriend (podcast)
Favorite book?
Just one?? Drown, by Junot Díaz. Anything by Julio Cortázar. Borges' Ficciones. And I love my Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.
Name something on your bucket list.
To visit every Spanish speaking country (I have visited 12 out of 22)
| Trekking by horseback in Argentina (2014) |
What did you say you were going to be when you grew up?
A teacher :) I still have the journal from when I was 17, working in Oaxaca, where I explain why!
What drew you to St. Luke's School?
Mr. Bruner!* We worked together at Avenues. I was hooked when I visited and felt the strong, thoughtful community and progressive approaches to teaching.
*Editor's note: Lee Bruner is a wonderful Spanish teacher who used to work at St. Luke's.
Why did you become a teacher?
Ok, ok! Here are some excerpts from the rambling journal entry from when I was abroad in high school and decided to become a teacher. Can you spot the misspelling? "I had a long conversation with Isabel (the lady who runs with Jessica) about immigration and government and corruption and money and power. ... I learned a lot today about how things work like that -- a whole new perspective. And I've thought a lot about a solution. ... This is what I think I can do with my life to help: I'm going to be a teacher. ... There has always been poverty and wealth, unjustice, etc. So why even try, right? Is this maybe just the way the world will be? ... But quality of education has increased over time, there is still hope for that. And we can't move anywhere without that. So I'm going to start there. That's my plan."
Describe a "dream" student.
YOU are my dream student! Come as you are.
If you had to pick one for the rest of your life, would you choose burritos or pizza?
PIZZA.