The Ultimate “Ice Breaker” Educator: André Pied (1942 – 2024)
“Head, shoulders, knees, and toes!” The group of adults recites and quickly touches whatever is called out, adding new directions (nose, waist, hips, ankles) and picking up the pace each round until no one is in sync and the whole group is laughing hysterically and has become friends. The leader is satisfied. André Pied has worked his ice-breaking magic once again.
My introduction to André was through a Skowhegan Adult Education French Immersion program held in St. George de Beauce, Quebec the last week in June during the 1990s and early 2000s. As Director of Skowhegan Adult Ed, André, fluent in French through his Canadian parents and with an extensive background in educational work, was the perfect organizer and leader.
Although it would be impossible to chronicle all the places the immersion participants went and the people we met, the families we lived with, the classes and outings and friendships and studious times and fun that were integral to the program, it is easy to say that André opened a lot of doors for a lot of people. For some, especially teachers, it was improving or perfecting their French, for others it was a reconnection with their Québecois heritage, or perhaps a vacation; for me it was the best week of the year for the 12 years that I attended.
Among the doors André opened for me was being hired to teach creative writing at Skowhegan Adult Ed and to teach English at the English immersions in Skowhegan and being included in some of the committee work on the Maine/Quebec Kennebec Corridor that was being developed.
When I think of André I think of networking, of the innumerable French language enthusiasts he brought together, of the many central Mainers he helped in search of their French heritage and of the individuals I met indirectly through André and the immersions: my late husband; our Summertime in the Belgrades webmaster; Maine filmmaker Ben Levine whose works include Reveil: Waking Up French; and state Sen. Mark Lawrence, who is active in the Legislature with the Franco-American Caucus.
After the immersion program wound down, I lost track of André, but not of his accomplishments with the immersion programs. When I drive through Skowhegan, memories of huge dinner celebrations at the former Kyes Motel, of a presentation at the CMP facility on the island, a group lunch at RedingtonFairview Hospital, a tour of the Margaret Chase Smith Library, the bed races down Water Street and so many students sitting on a dock at Lake Wesserunsett while André took a picture that it’s a surprise it didn’t break.
Webmaster’s Note: André Pied died on July 14. You can read his obituary here.
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