“You don’t look a day over 18” is a turn of phrase we often use, and yet we think little of its true meaning. Above is a photo of Ms. Michelle Cordaro, our high school history teacher and History Club advisor. It was taken in 2006– the year she graduated from high school, or so she claims. Ever since an eagle-eyed student discovered this photo, Haldane has begun to wonder: does Ms. Cordaro age?
In the pursuit of answers, we managed to get an interview with the history teacher in question. However, it seems her secrets are not so easily divulged. When we tried to confront the issue directly, she quickly changed the subject, stating that she could neither confirm nor deny the claims, and that those interested would simply have to do their research. For our next question, we asked if the reason she enjoyed teaching history was because she lived through it. She responded “Being that I am a primary source for most of my content, yes. It is incredibly important for me to bring the history I experienced and deliver it to the youth of tomorrow.” It is here that I must pause to mention Ms. Cordaro’s irritated and exasperated tone of voice, a fact she believed was incredibly important for me to include in this article. Perhaps age is a sore subject for her?
On the contrary, it seems local history is a personal obsession of hers. When I asked Ms. Cordaro if she had ever met James H. Haldane, she went into a tirade about how she sometimes talks to the marble bust of the school’s progenitor, and how talking to the unfeeling statue reminds her of how it feels to talk to her students. She concluded her rant by stating that she had never met the man, but she did go to school in the lower building, and she claimed to have fond memories of school life at Haldane. Afterwards, she became despondent, almost like she was in a trance.
Thankfully, when we turned the topic back to history, it seemed to break Ms. Cordaro’s fugue-like state. I next asked her which era of history was her favorite to live through. When the past was mentioned, Ms. Cordaro began to reminisce, strangely, about gathering papyrus reeds along the banks of the Nile River and avoiding frenzied hippo attacks. She said that these days, paper is still an important part of her career; but every time she battles with the printer, she thinks back to simpler times, gathering papyrus on the banks of the Nile.
Ms. Cordaro even claims to have been present during the signing of the Magna Carta, the invention of Gutenberg’s printing press, and of course, the battle of Yorktown.
It appears the mystery of Ms. Cordaro goes far deeper than we originally thought. Who knows what else she’s seen? Who knows what historical mysteries she is privy to? Maybe she was there when Stonehenge was built? Or perhaps she wrote the Voynich Manuscript? But for now, all we know is that our local history teacher could know far more about what she’s teaching than she’s letting on…