How long have you been teaching Italian language at Esek Hopkins?
Mr. Neri: This is my 37th year at Hopkins Middle School. When they closed the school we went to Windmill and then we came back here. But, it’s been 37 -years all together in the neighborhood. Mr. Rainone: I did 30 years. I retired in 2001. I taught general music in the classroom first. Then I jumped into instrumental music and stayed with that. When and how did the tradition of singing Christmas carols in Italian begin for your classes? Mr. Neri: Thirty-six years ago we decided to do something. We had meetings with other teachers who were each doing different things on the holidays. Well, of course, we thought our kids were better! And we wanted to do something different so we thought of doing Christmas carols in Italian. That’s how we started, by taking students throughout the city and teaching them the music. After the first year, everyone was definitely surprised! We used to go the Administration Building. We’ve always gone to City Hall, the State House, and Federal Hill. We’ve been
