Bensalem’s George Daka to receive award from National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia
By Samantha Bambino
The Times
Within moments of meeting George Daka, it’s pretty evident why the Bensalem High School instructor boasts a 4.62-out-of-5-star score on RateMyTeachers.com.
Always smiling and bursting with unbridled excitement, Daka’s persona isn’t what one expects from an educator of 10th-grade AP U.S. History and 11th-grade AP Government, often dreaded subjects of endless names and dates. Still, don’t let that happy-go-lucky personality fool you. Daka knows his stuff, and shares that knowledge in creative ways that go far beyond a dry textbook.
It was for this reason — Daka’s tireless efforts to make education meaningful for local teens — that Kathryn Hinshaw, the district’s English Language Arts Supervisor, nominated Daka for the National Liberty Museum’s 2019 Teacher as Hero Award. Sponsored by State Farm, the award honors educators throughout the region who go above and beyond in their classrooms, schools and communities.
Recently, Daka received the news that he was selected as one of this year’s honorees, and will have the opportunity to attend, along with his family, a ceremony on May 11 at the museum, located at 321 Chestnut St., Philadelphia. His story, along with the 12 other honorees, will be told in a museum exhibit, which will be on display for approximately one year.
On the heels of the announcement, The Times sat down with Daka, who shared his thoughts on the honor and details on his tireless, proactive approach to teaching.
“She [Hinshaw] called me up and was like, ‘Are you sitting down?’ And you never know if that’s a good thing or bad thing,” he said, describing the accomplishment as “unbelieveable.” “Everyone kind of looks forward to May, but in this particular instance, I’m looking forward to May that much more.”
Daka, who currently serves as history curriculum coordinator at the high school and middle school levels, has been a staple in the district for exactly 20 years. Since the beginning of Daka’s career, which has taken place entirely in Bensalem, he has woken up each morning with one mission — to inspire his students, even the ones who may not be avid historical buffs.
“I’m constantly telling the students, the competition is not the four walls of this classroom. It’s not the four walls of this building. It’s a lot more,” he said.
Each marking period, Daka takes the classes on a Sunday walking tour of Center City to explore Independence Hall, the Constitution Center, the Art Museum, and the Delaware River, all in an effort to explain how government and history relate to each other.
“The first one’s always the funniest because they say, ‘Well, how are we supposed to get there?’” he said. “Well there’s this thing called a train, and you’re about 20 to 30 minutes away from one of the biggest cities in the country.”
Sometimes, according to Daka, anywhere from 70 to 90 students willingly surrender half of their precious weekend to participate in the tour.
“To a certain point, it must be me rubbing off on them in some way,” he said. “I’m constantly going that extra mile. I think the key word is ‘opportunity.’ A lot of teachers are looking at trying to give kids as many opportunities as possible to be successful, so that hopefully, they can get that edge up, whether it’s an Ivy League, a local college, whatever the case may be, to really help out the kids.”
In addition to the quarterly field trips, Daka regularly brings the real world into the classroom in the form of guest speakers such as lobbyist Shawn Shafer, Pennsylvania Department of Labor secretary Jerry Oleksiak, and councilman Ed Tokmajian.
“It’s that idea of, government is real. We may talk about it in class, but we forget that there are real people, even in this community,” Daka said. “When I was in school and I took government, it was horrible. How can you make government meaningful? How do you make government interesting? What I’ve always tried to do is make it as real as possible. It really drives it home when you have people who are actually involved.”
Despite a not-so-great classroom experience during his government course at Philadelphia’s George Washington High School, Daka’s passion for history ironically sparked during this time.
“When I was a junior in high school, I did a foreign exchange program in Germany and lived with a host family. Through that experience, going through the ancient ruins of Trier, the Romantic Road through southern Germany, it dawned on me, even as a junior, which is who I teach now, the idea of, ‘Look at all this history that I’ve never even learned about,’” he said. “This is a whole area that I could definitely see myself making a whole career out of. So it led me here.”
Years later, Daka holds fast to that early interest in visiting new places. Each summer, he applies (and usually gets accepted) into a summer educational institute, with past experiences including days spent in Colonial Williamsburg, Valley Forge and the White House. This year, he’ll be heading to George Washington’s Mount Vernon in Virginia.
Though these trips are made possible because of Daka’s own time and money, he doesn’t mind in the slightest. It’s the perfect way to not only “reinvigorate the passion,” but take home fresh knowledge to his students and department.
“For a lot of people, it’s about their family. For a lot, it’s about their children. For me, my passion, my life, is really the profession,” he said. “It is interesting and fun to, everyday, go to a place where you absolutely enjoy going and teaching students. It’s phenomenal to me. I love it. Can’t get enough of it.” ••
For information and a full list of the honorees, visit libertymuseum.org/awards/teacher-as-hero-awards/2019-teacher-hero-honorees
Samantha Bambino can be reached at [email protected]
