Inspired 'Papa' sees magic in language

WHO: Carl A. Bingle, who is teaching his last classes at Belleville Henderson Central School after retiring from full-time teaching in 2006.

The French and German teacher has led 11 German American Partnership Program exchanges in his 28 years at the school. Four of his former students (Kirk Gleason, Brad Zehr, Karen Poggi and Brianna L. Draper) have gone on to become Fulbright Scholars, while dozens of others have studied abroad or majored in languages at college.

The Adams resident is also well known as an accomplished musician, serving as the organist for the Northern Choral Society and First Presbyterian Church, Watertown.

WHEN DID YOU FIRST BEGIN STUDYING GERMAN AND FRENCH? "I learned German as a little boy. I was learning to read German right around the time I was learning to read English. The speaking and grammar was self-taught. I'm fourth-generation German on both sides. In fact, my parents' families are from the same little town in Germany. I started learning French in high school at Carthage. I took Latin and doubled up."

HOW DID YOU DECIDE TO BECOME A TEACHER? "From second grade on, I always knew I wanted to be a teacher. There were so many things I wanted to teach — history, math, music — but I always loved languages. When I went to college, it was the golden years for language at Potsdam State University. I had to make a decision, and most people thought I would become a music teacher — some people still think I'm an organ teacher because that's how I'm most well known — but I loved languages. I just loved traveling and showing people other cultures."

HOW DID YOU END UP AT BELLEVILLE? "I was a new French teacher at Carthage, and their budget failed twice. I heard on the radio on my way to graduate classes at St. Lawrence University that my job had been cut. I went straight to the placement office at Potsdam State and there was an opening for a German teacher at the Union Academy of Belleville. I called that same day, came in for an interview and was hired the very next day. It was absolute fate."

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO STAY? "In my second year of teaching, I was allowed to take a big tour group to Germany and Austria. That really led most of the interest on my part. The excitement become a self-teaching thing. It perpetuates because students become so excited and they bring things back to teach the other kids. Then I led another trip the next year — and met my wife (Janna Greene). She came as a friend of another teacher. Not even two years later, we were married and Janna was pregnant with Kate. And now Kate is our new guidance counselor at Belleville. I guess I was meant to be here."

WHAT'S YOUR TEACHING PHILOSOPHY? "I think most of the public thinks about conjugation when they think about learning languages. But I always made kids talk a lot — and not about the textbook. Everything has a story here. Everything is a useful experience for students. When we talk back and forth, they learn more language and culture than they could from any textbook. I love using film because it has in many ways become the new novel of our society, and of course books. But I have a big love of bringing in art and music. It's how we remember things."

HOW DID THE NEW REQUIREMENT THAT STUDENTS TAKE AT LEAST ONE YEAR OF LANGUAGE AFFECT YOUR CLASSES? "I believe everybody has a right to learn a foreign language. I had kids that would have been labeled special learners, and they flourished. They all felt they got a new start. I was quite fascinated with those learners. It was a very rewarding experience, and I think it changed my philosophy on education."

YOU'RE KNOWN AS 'VATI' OR 'PAPA' (MEANING 'DAD' IN GERMAN AND FRENCH) TO LITERALLY HUNDREDS OF STUDENTS. WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THAT NICKNAME? "I started seeing that my kids were the same age as my students, and I also saw a need for a father figure in the school. I also needed a gimmick so that students would speak to me in the informal voice which they would use more often. I try to act like a parent teaching his kids a language. I had to make sure they thought this was the most important class of their day, and of course, I also had to make it their most important class. I had to teach history, literature and grammar in this short window somehow. As it turns out, it was really vital stuff."

YOUR CLASSES AND EXCHANGE TRIPS HAVE INSPIRED BHCS STUDENTS TO TRAVEL THE GLOBE. ANY MEMORABLE STORIES ABOUT THAT? "I remember one day Karen Poggi, who graduated in 1996, said very mildly, 'I'm going to visit all the places in your posters one day.' A couple years later, she sent me a postcard from Heidelberg, Germany and said that she had done it."

HOW HAS GAPP TRANSFORMED THE BELLEVILLE HENDERSON COMMUNITY? "Nothing I did will have a dead end or a finite ending. It's ongoing. There are students who continue to travel back and forth. There are lifelong friendships. The connections will go on long past my teaching career here."

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