CAMARILLO : District Honors Rio Mesa Teacher

A Rio Mesa High School teacher who stresses to her students the value of cultural diversity has been named Teacher of the Year in the Oxnard Union High School District.

Karen Pecht, a 42-year-old English teacher, received the honor at an employee awards assembly last week.

“I’m extremely flattered,” Pecht said Friday. “I’ve been on cloud nine.”

Before coming to Rio Mesa in Camarillo about 12 years ago, Pecht taught at Camarillo High and at private Santa Clara High School in Oxnard.

Although she will teach only English classes this fall, Pecht said she has spent most of her career teaching both English and art. In all her classes, Pecht said she strives to help her students recognize their individual gifts.

“I try to see students as each having a talent of their own, their own personal gift and try to bring that out,” she said. “I just look for something they do that’s special.”

Although Pecht said she has always tried to nurture students’ special gifts, she fully realized the importance of such individual attention after her own son, Ben, became a student at Rio Mesa several years ago.

“It made me realize that every kid is somebody’s child,” she said.

Another way that Pecht seeks to instill pride in her students is to help them value their differences.

Rio Mesa draws students from low-income La Colonia in Oxnard and plush Las Posas Estates outside Camarillo. Pecht has had some students in her classes who do not know a word of English.

Some Rio Mesa students graduate to Ivy League schools, she said.

She deliberately teaches literature from various cultures and encourages discussion about cultural differences, Pecht said.

“I try to celebrate diversity.”