Leonard Covello

Leonard Covello (November 26, 1887 - August 19, 1982) was an Italian-born American educator, most known as the founder and first principal of the Benjamin Franklin High School and for his work on behalf of the children of Italian and Puerto Rican immigrants.

Leonard Covello was born Leonardo Coviello in 1887 at Avigliano, in the Basilicata region of southern Italy. In 1890 his father, Pietro Coviello, emigrated to the United States, leaving his wife and three children. Six years later, in 1896, the family was able to reunite in East Harlem, New York.

In school in America, he was called Leonard and won a Pulitzer scholarship in high school that enabled him to attend Columbia University from 1907 to 1911 and graduate.

In 1913 he was hired as a teacher of French and Spanish at DeWitt Clinton High School.

With the entrance of the United States into World War I in 1917, Covello went to France where, because of his knowledge of the French language, he was assigned to duties as an interpreter and became a member of the Corps of Intelligence Police, conducting covert intelligence operations in Spain.

In 1920 Covello returned to his former position at DeWitt Clinton High School. Here he deepened his pedagogical ideas on the integration of young Italian-Americans. Covello challenged the practices that tended to separate the children from their culture and language, including their families and their communities of origin, as a prerequisite for their success in studies. As he recollected in his autobiography: "throughout my whole elementary school career, I do not recall one mention of Italy or the Italian language or what famous Italians there were in the world, with the possible exception of Columbus…. We soon got the idea that ‘Italian’ meant something inferior, and a barrier was erected between children of Italian origin and their parents…. We were becoming Americans by learning how to be ashamed of our parents.” In bilingualism and biculturalism Covello saw the means to facilitate the transition of children from immigrants to integrated citizens, without separating them from their communities or native culture, but on the contrary, instilling in them the pride of their roots. For this purpose he founded "Il Circolo italiano" (The Italian Circle) at DeWitt Clinton in 1914.

In 1922, he created the Department of Italian at DeWitt Clinton, which he directed until 1926, when he was promoted to First Assistant in Modern Languages, a position he held until 1934.

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