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As well-respected colleagues also lovingly educate the adjudicated youths at Center City’s De La Salle in Towne, mathematics instructor Joe Barbuto never assigns himself praise. For 20 years, however — half of the institution’s lifetime — the Girard Estate resident has taught his charges to compute far more than numbers, helping them to erase their apprehension and make themselves products of belief and execution.
“I had great teachers, especially as a teenager,” the 62-year-old graduate of Bishop Neumann High School, formerly 2600 Moore St., now Ss. Neumann-Goretti High School, 1736 S. 10th St., said. “Their influence influenced me to want to help students.”
Barbuto began at Spring Garden’s Julia R. Masterman School as a long-term substitute. De La Salle, a component of the St. Gabriel’s System, which operates under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and Catholic Social Services, next landed his penchant for devising numeric and behavioral solutions, with the results securing changes in outlook for his pupils.
“It has been a wonderful run so far,” the 2000 Lasallian Educator of the Year designee said. “When you see the guys receiving credits and diplomas, it makes everything feel extremely rewarding. Some have come back to see me and tell me they have designed productive lives. Again, that’s fulfilling.”
Aside from using them to solve problems, Barbuto calls upon his digits to manipulate his bass guitar. Though its primary function is to enliven social events, the instrument figures into De La Salle assemblies to add to the lure of choosing positive activities over selecting negative pastimes. The site’s trauma-informed care design seeks to subtract enrollees from the growing list of Philly youngsters leading wayward lives. Though his involvement comprises a fraction of their existence, Barbuto relishes every second of it, focusing not on its finite nature but on its infinite possibilities.
“I’m grateful for his honor and for my learners,” he said. “My peers, too, because many people do such work, and I am just standing on their shoulders.”
Contact Staff Writer Joseph Myers at jmyers@southphillyreview.com or ext. 124.
Other 2012 Difference Makers
/ Joe Barbuto / Ella Best / Paul Bryson / Nicole Canale /
/ Jasmaine, Jeannine & Jenielle Cook / Erin Dougherty /
/ Duane Davis / Frank Franzini / Adé Fuqua / Bennie & Hilda Hudson /
/ Ray Innaurato / Ed McBride / Jeannine McGuire / Carrolyn Minggia /
/ Teri Ruiz & Leah Vodila / Jeffrey Rush / Rev. John Stabeno /
/ Marina Stamos / Anne Stanfield-Hagert / Charles Stecker / Megan West /
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