High School English Teacher and Sophomore Class Co-Advisor Mr. Alexios Kritas ’85 has been named a “Distinguished Teacher of 2016” by the Harvard Club of Long Island, as a result of a nomination from current Harvard undergraduate and Waldorf alumnus Jonathan Gill ’15. Mr. Kritas will be one of twelve teachers from across Long Island formally honored at the Harvard Club of Long Island’s University Relations Luncheon on Sunday, April 10.

Mr. Kritas was described by Jonathan as “one of the hardest-working educators I have encountered, taking the time to create great lessons and to ensure students understand and appreciate what they are studying.” Jonathan also noted that his former teacher “… expects students to produce good work and to improve… He not only taught me how to read and write, but also led me to appreciate poetry and literature, and the value of subjects other than math and science.”

“These awards honor people who create our future,” explained Dr. Judith Esterquest, Harvard Club of Long Island Chair of the Distinguished Teacher Selection Committee. “Extraordinary teachers like Mr. Kritas shape who we are as a community and who we will be as a country. They offer their time, their skill, their talent — their lives — to inspire our Long Island children first to envision excellence — and then to find a passion for its lifetime pursuit.”

When High School Chair Mr. Roland Rothenbucher learned of the award, he commented, “Mr. Kritas is absolutely dedicated to teaching writing and literature, and his students in turn are devoted to him. He is equally comfortable in intellectual, artistic and manual spheres, and thus appeals to all sorts of young people: he expounds the philosophy of the American Transcendentalists, he plays guitar, drums, and stand-up bass with the High School Jazz Band, and he participates in camping trips and hikes at Camp Glen Brook, Waldorf’s outdoor extension campus in southwest New Hampshire,” further noting that the award from the Harvard Club of Long Island, “acknowledges Mr. Kritas’s exemplary commitment to the Waldorf School of Garden City mission: awakening students to the experience of knowledge, strengthening their sense of moral responsibility, and empowering them to act with courage and conviction.”