Rosalie Fruchter is the teacher you wish you’d had in second grade: a teacher who turned square dancing into a math lesson; created an archeology “dig” with broken pottery; and showed enough confidence in her students to let them grade their own papers. In a 40-year career with Chicago Public Schools, most of it at Ray School in Hyde Park, Rosalie won numerous awards. But the recognition she cherishes most comes from former students, like the bus driver who told her, “You were my favorite teacher because you really cared about us.”
What defines a great teacher? “You have to respect the children, and show them that you like being with them,” Rosalie says. “Too many people underestimate what children can do. My job was to teach them to think, how to ask the right questions. You have to be excited about life, be willing to share what you know, and be willing to learn.”
The seeds of Rosalie’s teaching career were likely sown in a childhood she describes as comforting and secure. This Brooklyn-born rabbi’s daughter grew up in Long Beach, New York, a seaside community on Long Island. After graduating from Brooklyn College, Rosalie came to Chicago with her first husband, who was a graduate student at the University of Chicago. Her seven-year marriage officially ended on a Friday (“I was divorced both secularly and Jewishly,” she points out.) Two days later, at a fundraiser for the Jewish United Fund, Rosalie heard someone say, “You sound like Brooklyn.” She and Marvin Fruchter formed an instant bond. “He invited me to a Pete Seeger concert. I told my friends, ‘I’m going to marry this man.’” Her prediction was borne out in a marriage that has endured for 51 years. Rosalie and Marvin have two sons and three grandchildren.
Rosalie credits her growth as a teacher to a coach who helped her build her confidence. “I wasn’t good at stuff like taking a whole class to ‘toilet recess.’ They make noise and waste time. I solved the problem by letting individual students use the washroom when they needed, and if they abused the privilege, they couldn’t use it again. I also never had a quiet classroom. There was always a low murmur. One day it dawned on me that I’m really good at what I do.”
Along with teaching and parenting, Rosalie made room for activism. She is, in her words, an “ardent feminist,” a founding member of NOW. In the years before the Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade, she was a volunteer with Jane, a network for women seeking access to safe abortions. After retiring from teaching, Rosalie “had to decide who I was going to be.” She became a volunteer reader for The Chicago Lighthouse, a supportive service for the blind and visually impaired, and a tour guide at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House. She enrolled in the Graham School, the University of Chicago’s center for lifelong learning. And, this non-reader of music, who had been told in elementary school that “I didn’t have a good enough voice to be in the choir,” joined the Sounds Good Hyde Park Choir.
When Sounds Good co-founders Sandy and Jonathan Miller launched the Good Memories Choir for people with early-stage memory loss and their care partners, Rosalie quickly signed on as a volunteer. Having witnessed her mother’s journey through Alzheimer’s Disease, she says, “I wish there had been a Good Memories Choir for my mother. I just love being with the people, and I can see the joy it brings them.”
While she is happy to be singing in person again, Rosalie appreciates the doors opened by singing online during the pandemic: “It allowed us to go out into the world without going out into the world. This was a lifeline for me, and I made new friendships with people from the other Sounds Good choirs.”
This veteran teacher reminds us that it’s never too late to learn: “The pandemic showed us what’s important and what’s not important.” Generations of second graders who learned enduring life lessons in Mrs. Fruchter’s classroom would surely agree.
Rosalie is one of the Caretakers of our world! She has made the world a better and more beautiful place. We are so fortunate to have her as our friend and fellow singer.