A Day in the Life of a Teacher – Ralph Viggiano

Courtesy of Lindy Yearbook

Mr. Viggiano is a full time teacher and coach at Lindenhurst High School. He states how stressful it has been for him and many of the students having to use the online way of learning. “It’s the Covid, it’s the mask, it’s the reaching out to people. It’s the handful of kids that need a little bit more assistance that becomes stressful.” In spite of all this, Mr. Viggiano’s passion and love for teaching exceeds all that, making him grateful to have the best job in America. “You don’t need motivation to come here. I have good friends, I have a good job..my motivation is why would you not want the best job in America? I’m grateful for this.” He finds it a pleasure to be able to be a part of student’s lives and be able to see them grow in their careers and their experiences. 

Mr. Viggiano is not only a teacher, but he also owns a food truck business and catering business where he works after school and on the weekends. During this pandemic, his business has taken a huge toll just like many other businesses. When asked about how he is dealing with having the business during the pandemic, Mr. Viggiano states, “Well it’s really hard. I have heard a ton of horror stories. People were supposed to get married and now they can’t because Covid prevents them. They don’t know what to do, they want to do something special. They’re looking for any alternative they can find and a lot of the times they call me” Despite all this he still tries his best, not only because he wants his business to thrive, but because he cares about his workers and his customers. “I have to pay people and understand there are people who need to feed their families…There are days, there’s parties, that I work all day and everybody makes a lot more money than I do.”

When asked about what his hobbies are, Mr. Viggiano states, “I don’t do much outside because I’m so busy, but my biggest pleasure ever was coaching.” Before the Covid pandemic, Mr. Viggiano coached a college team. He states how one of his greatest joys is coaching and how it’s different from high school level coaching. “I find coaching at the high school to be very political. It’s just wrong, like they think the MVP is the kid who scored the most goals but what about the kid that stood in the net all game and made 60 saves a game because our team is terrible. When I got the opportunity to coach college, it was coaching. You don’t want to be here, leave.” He explains how many sports at the high school level are all about who you know and how much money you put into it rather than just playing because you like playing. This in turn causes Mr. Viggiano to lean towards coaching at a college level.

“I’m a bad Buddhist.” Mr. Viggiano explains as he is asked about his life as a Buddhist. Buddhism to Mr. Viggiano, and many others, is more of a lifestyle than it is a religion. Mr. Viggiano had been following this path and incorporating Buddhism into his life for quite some time now. One philosophy he tends to follow is the idea of trying to do what is right. “I try to do what is right, but I don’t do it all the time. I try never to be mean, I want to see people laugh, I want people to feel good. If you had a problem I would be willing to drop and move walls to make sure you’re ok.” Mr. Viggiano believes that everyone does wrong and that instead of condemning someone, there should be encouragement on how it should be fixed. “Everyone does something wrong at some point. And I’m not about to pass judgment on those people who do wrong. Let’s fix it, because I do wrong and you do wrong.” 

Having a business and being a full time teacher is not easy especially during this pandemic. Even so, one thing is for certain, It is most certainly not impossible. Mr. Viggiano spends his free time and days off working hard to maintain both the credentials of a teacher and a businessman. His philosophies, compassion and motivation is nothing but admirable as even in difficult times Mr. Viggiano still takes the effort to care about others. A remarkable job for a very remarkable man, this is the daily life of a teacher.