Voices Heard
Ramona Piretti
Ramona Piretti, Public Educator West Hartford, CT
We joined long-time friend and host Scott Graves’s school mate Ramona Piretti for Episode #31. Ramona teaches innovative literature classes at Conard High School in West Hartford, CT. Her class featuring women’s literature is ground-breaking for it’s use of women writers who require more recognition in mainstream classrooms, which can be said for the voices of many of her students as well.
Conard High School
Conard High School is a public high school, one of two in West Hartford, CT. It has a total student poulation of just under 1500 enrolled.
West Hartford, CT
West Hartford was recently rated one of the ten best places to live in the US. It is a racially and fiscally diverse community of over 63,000 residents.
Ramona Piretti teaches a literature at Conard High School in West Hartford, CT. She has been a public educator for more than 7 years. One of her classes that sets her apart focuses on women writers. This class more often than not focuses on authors who are not given the recognition they so deserve. Many time these female authors represent minority groups in the United States. All are cutting edge craftswoman.
Their presence in Ramona’s classroom speaks to her students, many of whom are female minority students reaching towards adulthood in a complicated world of class, race, gender identity mixed in with a dose of what we all experience on the edge of adulthood…..hope.
In part 1 of our interview we focused on Ramona’s classroom, on the experiences of her students, the challenges of public education before and after the reality of the pandemic and more.
In part 2 of our interview scheduled to premiere next month the focus of our conversation shifted to race and our experiences growing up in a small town in central MA together.
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Scott M. Graves is the founder of SMGraves Creative Enterprises. Most recently he was executive director of the Wachusett Business Incubator where the SMG team experimented with various programming to overcome the meaningless ‘ribbon cutting’ experiences so synonymous with much of our nation’s well-intentioned economic development. He is known for a steadfast resolve for intellectual rigor and business strategy. Nothing makes Scott feel more fulfilled than to help other develop their own unique creativity which leads to fulfillment in work and life.
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