Global Influences: Meet Manny Brito
Shore’s new Lower School Spanish teacher, Manny Brito, brings a wealth of global experiences to the World Language Classroom on the second floor of the Center for Creativity.
A native of Cape Verde, a Portuguese-speaking island nation off the northwestern coast of Africa, Brito grew up as a neighbor of the late singer Cesária Évora, who was internationally renowned for her soulful songs—famously, always performed barefoot—in the Cape Verdean style known as morna.
“It wasn’t until I left Cape Verde that she became so famous,” recalls Brito. “Even so, every time I went back to visit, she was the same person, very humble. The door of her home was always open, and she always refused to put shoes on.”
Traveling the globe at a young age with diplomat parents, Brito lived in several countries, spending six or seven years in Italy, but like Evora, it was his prodigious talent—in his case as a soccer player—that first really opened up a world of international experiences to him. “It was the summer after my last year of high school,” he explains. “I was playing soccer on the beach, and I was approached by a university recruiter. He brought me to the Northeast the following spring for an intensive language course to learn English, so that in August I could begin playing college soccer during preseason.”
But by August, however, Brito didn’t think his English was where it should be, and he ended up at Choate Rosemary Hall for another high school year. After Choate, Brito opted to attend St. Lawrence University, in Canton, in upstate New York, where he was an international relations major, with additional majors in Spanish and French. And, of course, he was a standout on the university’s soccer team. It’s a sport he remains passionate about today.
“I spend a lot of time on the soccer field outside of school,” he admits. “I’m a coach with a club team, so my afternoons and weekends are very busy.” Brito began coaching at New Hampton School in New Hampshire, where his career teaching Spanish took off, as well.
“What intrigues me the most about languages is the cultures, the human interactions. I love learning about people; I love connecting with individuals from different backgrounds. I find it very rewarding in the sense that we’re all different. And in knowing people from different backgrounds and cultures I feel I become a better person—more understanding, more open-minded.”
At New Hampton, Brito finally had the chance to share that passion for languages, teaching high school students for several years. “But over time, I felt more and more the need to reach a younger group of students, for the simple reason that they’re less concerned about the grades, and more interested in the learning, more excited about the language itself.”
“When I found Shore,” he says, “I knew it was a place where I could make a difference, and instill a love for Spanish in kids at the very beginning of their education.”
The transition from teaching high schoolers to instructing students in pre-k through fifth grade was surprisingly seamless. It helped that Brito had already lived on the North Shore for six years, with a multilingual 12-year-old daughter and a fondness for the coastline. “I am a beach lover,” he admits. “Plum Island is one of my favorite places to go, as is downtown Newburyport. I enjoy spending time in Portsmouth and Gloucester, as well—anywhere with an ocean.” Recently, his travels have also taken him to Germany and Mexico.
Here in Beverly, Brito says he’ll focus most on speaking and listening, “a lot of hands-on activities, interactive projects, dialogues, and interaction in the classroom. I’ll try to stay away from the memorization and recitation. I learned English by interacting with people, by listening and speaking, and at this age clearly that’s the best way to learn.”
Brito has very quickly made an impact with his young students: on the first day of class, he introduced them to a half-dozen tropical fish they’d care for throughout the year. Each table in the World Language Classroom now boasts a glass bowl housing a single colorful beta fish or other species. Brito gave his students responsibility for naming and feeding the sea creatures, as well as keeping their bowl clean. In an inspired bit of deception, Brito told the youngest children that the fish only understand Spanish; if they want to talk to the fish, the students have to do so in their native language.
“The kids have a limited amount of classroom time during the week,” Brito explains, “so I want to make the most of that time, give them a reason to love being here. And we have such a range of abilities in the World Language Classroom—from those who have difficulty to those who are confident—and I want to make sure that even the children who lack confidence are excited to participate and willing to speak up in class.”
Brito achieves this goal seemingly effortlessly. Through matter-of-fact conversations about taking care of the fish to songs and stories about Spain, Mexico, and Cape Verde, he is able to draw his students into the action immediately. “By the time they reach the sixth grade,” Brito says, “they’ll love the language; they’ll relate to it and enjoy the way it sounds; they’ll know the most important expressions.” And, one presumes, they’ll feel the confidence about learning, listening, and speaking that only a Spanish-speaking tropical fish can provide.
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Brito in his classroom
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In conversation with fifth graders
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On the Upper Fields with soccer players
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A blue beta fish
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Wrangling one of the classroom residents
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Shore Country Day School’s mission is to provide an education that inspires a love of learning and encourages children to embrace academic challenge. We seek to build character, cultivate creativity, and value diversity as we help our children become healthy, compassionate citizens of the world.
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