Schools

VIDEO: Award-Winning Students Appreciate Award-Winning Teacher

Students say their understanding of history will help them in whatever they study in college.

The three students claimed numerous awards at their senior class awards banquet Wednesday.

But Marco Bauder, Alex Billias and Maggie Osbahr can also lay claim to a fuller understanding of history and politics and the art of compromise from their work with award-winning Swampscott High School social studies teacher Mark Schwartz.

Alex Billias, who will attend Boston University in the fall, nominated Schwartz as the Claes Nobel Educator of Distinction by the National Society of High School Scholars.

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And earlier this spring the scholars society announced Schwartz’s selection.

In interviews earlier this spring and on Wednesday, the students said they have a more rounded understanding of history and politics from taking Schwartz’s classes and taking part in the after-school activities he overseas.

Find out what's happening in Swampscottwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Billias said in a brief interview on Wednesday that he learned from Schwartz that history offers larger lessons.

"It was to try to take history, something that is very fact based, and pull something deeper out of it," he said.

The teacher’s classes include US history and advanced placement world history.

He’s an advisor for the International Relations Club, the Political Action Club and the Student Council.

The video discussion was recorded on March 29, not long after the teacher was named as an educator of distinction.


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