It makes sense that having a conversation with a teacher can teach you something. Yet, if you ever have a conversation with Richard Leonard, an eighth grade teacher at Our Mother of Consolation Parish School (OMC), odds are you will learn more than your typical facts and figures.

Conversing with Leonard, who is retiring this month after nearly 40 years of teaching, might lead to life lessons on topics such as faith, luck, and gratitude. However, as a teacher, Leonard is also a lifelong learner himself.

There’s a scene in the 2012 film “Lincoln” when Thaddeus Stevens, played by Tommy Lee Jones, confronts a cynical colleague. “Nothing surprises you…therefore nothing about you is surprising,” he says. Leonard relates this scene to his own experiences as a teacher.

“I’m surprised all the time,” Leonard told the Local. “I’m glad that I was able to get all the way through the door as a teacher where I have not gone through a month, I haven’t gone through a week, without being shocked by someone’s ability to do something.”

If there’s one thing that’s not surprising, it’s why OMC values Leonard as an important part of the community and will miss him in his retirement.

Leonard “is quite a legend to say the least,” Desiree Disney, vice principal at OMC, said. “He doesn’t just teach academics. He teaches what it’s like to be a decent human being and how to contribute to society in a meaningful way. That type of education and learning is absolutely priceless.”

A faith-filled career

Leonard attended La Salle University (then La Salle College) as an English major with a concentration in writing. After a brief stint as a political organizer, he found his passion in teaching. Leonard finds that his interest in writing lends itself well to his career.

“I think it is important to get children to learn how to write more than anything else,” Leonard said. “I would always tell people, if you can write well, you can do well in every subject, even math.”

Leonard has taught seventh or eighth grade at six different Catholic schools around Philadelphia — St. Elizabeth’s, St. Barney’s, St. Charles’, St. Malachy’s, St. John the Baptist’s, and OMC. His longest stretch came at OMC, where he has been for the past 20 years. When asked why he has always taught seventh and eighth graders, Leonard acknowledges the importance of that age in a person’s development — and how he can help teach kids about growing up.

“It’s the age when they start the process of getting edgy,” Leonard said. “Part of what I try to do is teach them that to become an adult does not mean to become cynical. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to be street smart because you’re negative about everything.”

Leonard’s attachment to a Catholic education runs in the family; his father and brother were also Catholic school teachers.

“There was just something about Catholic schools that attracted me because I had that faith from a young age,” Leonard reflected. “Being able to talk about the things that are most important to you is liberating. I’m able to bring God into almost any conversation.”

Leonard’s faith is on display through the care in which he treats each student. At the end of the school year, eighth graders go on a spiritual retreat. Every year, Leonard records a video where he spends several minutes talking about what makes each individual student special to be viewed at the retreat.

Each student “blessed me by being here,” Leonard said. “All of them had a purpose and I actually believe that God put them in my class. I think almost all of them leave the eighth grade knowing that they were seen.”

Engaging curriculum

Leonard’s teaching style is not only grounded in faith, but also in the belief that each student has something incredible to contribute. He works to create an engaging curriculum where students can flex their creativity.

“My style of teaching is more about projects, plays, and the things that you remember after you graduate,” Leonard said. “You don’t remember the tests you took and teachers don’t go home thinking… ‘I’m really feeling a sense of pride that I gave all these great tests in my life.’”

For instance, one of Leonard’s signature projects is to have students write and illustrate a children’s book that showcases a scientific concept. Another project was constructing a clay mountain — Mount Purgatory — based on Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy.”

According to Leonard, his students’ best work comes when they are given the time and freedom to experiment. Around 2019, Leonard realized that these projects he so proudly remembers should be collected and digitized. He created a document called “Kids We Can Learn From,” highlighting some of his favorite projects throughout the years. Leonard is glad he digitized it, as his classroom and many of his archives would later catch on fire.

Sliver linings

On March 21, 2023, Leonard was at his desk when his wife Madeline — a former pre-K 3 teacher at OMC who retired last year — came running into the classroom and told him there was a fire in the building. After safely making it outside, the Leonards watched as the building burned.

The blaze tore through Leonard’s classroom, leaving it destroyed. Despite the devastation, he was able to find a silver lining. Since the fire occurred around St. Patrick’s Day, Leonard had an inflatable leprechaun in his classroom. He also had a model skeleton. Amid all the rubble and debris, the leprechaun was still standing, while the skeleton was badly damaged.

“The symbolism there is [the skeleton] is death and cynicism and everything else,” Leonard said. “Then luck and positivity and all that is standing there grinning. So every St. Patrick’s Day, I would blow up that leprechaun again and have the kids come and visit him in the classroom, so that he could provide them with a little bit of luck too.”

At the end of day, Leonard said, he realized that none of the material belongings he lost in the fire mattered.

‘It just never stops’

Leonard is looking forward to his retirement. He plans to relax, continue writing, and spend time with his wife, son, and daughter-in-law. Reflecting on his career, Leonard is full of gratitude.

“I feel like I’m the most blessed person that I have ever met,” Leonard said. “If you were to take the thousand students that I taught, you would think, ‘How much of a blessing is one person really supposed to get?’ It doesn’t stop. It just never stops.”

Maggie Dougherty can be reached at Margaret@chestnuthilllocal.com.