Dave Olson

Special Education '85

I carry Bank Street with me. It’s how I address my world.

Retired special education teacher Dave Olson tried out many fields before he found his calling in teaching. He poured concrete, cleaned movie theaters, worked at a car dealership, and drove a school bus. Then one summer, he worked at a summer camp for children with learning disabilities, and the head of the camp urged him toward a career in teaching. He remembers her saying, “There’s only one school for you to go to—and that’s Bank Street.”

When he was a graduate student, Dave remembers how significant it was that Bank Street took a chance on him, both financially and academically. At one point, he almost withdrew his enrollment when a loan fell through, but when he notified the college, he received assistance securing another one and was offered an on-campus job where he worked in an office and served food at events. 

“At the end of serving nights, they’d slide me some food to take home,” he said. “The kindness still chokes me up.”

After graduating from Bank Street, Dave also worked in the Family Center for a year before serving for 29 years as a special education teacher in the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District in New Jersey.

Throughout his career, Dave practiced all he learned at Bank Street. Now retired, he still carries “that philosophy of experiential learning and respect” wherever he goes.

He said, “Bank Street taught me how to get students to be in a position where they can learn what you’re trying to say. And that starts with me asking: What’s the best way to say it to them? Or what should I not say to them?”

Now that he has retired, Dave found a new way to use his skills. Through Grand Pals, he and a group of senior citizens read to kindergarteners in Princeton, New Jersey. He’s regularly sent into special education classrooms or paired with students who are struggling. Drawing from his training at Bank Street, he adapts each experience to the child.

Dave describes Bank Street as an attitude: “It’s the obligation of the educator to be there for the student, and that’s what I’ve always done—see each child as an individual. Bank Street taught me to show children the strengths they have and how to work from those strengths.”

Thinking about today’s graduate students, Dave said, “In a time like this, Bank Street gives me hope. You all are out there, and I want you to remember that you really are going to be able to make a difference in other people’s lives—and this will make a difference in your own life, too.”