Dr. John Muciaccia is an educator and author of three books ‘Thinking in English,’ ‘ASK THE JANITOR,’ and ‘Spirit Lives!.’ Generous and warm-heart-ed Dr. Muciaccia has been walking in the educator’s path for countless years and continues on providing quality education to the students. He be-lieves loving and focusing on students’ interest and having a good relation-ship with people around you are most important aspect in life. 

Please introduce yourself to the readers.

Hello, I am Dr. John Muciaccia, pronounced as mu-cha-cha. Currently I am a professor at the Felician University teaching a freshman English. Previ-ously, I supervised student teachers at the Saint Peter’s University. I taught English at many institutions including Hoboken Public school and Palisades Park High School and served as a vice president. For 15 years, I taught En-glish to foreign-born adults through English Language Tutors where I rent-ed the space in the New synagogue of Fort Lee. And also  l an author and have been published three books. 

You have been a dedicated educator for more than 20 years. What is your philosophy behind being a good educator?

It is a simple rule but easier said than done. My philosophy on being a good educator is love all my students and accept them as who they are. If stu-dents do something that may makes you angry, always forgive them the next day and have a clear palette without holding any feelings against. My students still hugs me. I believe that is because my priority is focused on stu-dents well-being. When I was at the Palisades Park Public School, I founded and directed the nationally known “Famous People Program.” We invited 180 guests from professional athletes, news anchors, celebrities and politi-cian who can be positive role models for the students. The New York Times wrote a feature article about it to introduce the system. This brought pos-itive impacts to the students and that was the most important outcome. 

What made you want to become an educator? 

I was in a high school and one day my  mother, who was an excellent advi-sor, said to me, “John, you will be a great teacher.” Even when I started the College, I was a pre-dental student but my interest was still in English and public speaking and writing. It came very natural to me and it was inevita-CATIONble fate to become an educator and author. 

Dr. John Muciaccia

Dr. Muciaccia is currently teaches English at the Felician University and is in the process of publishing his 4th book.  

Dr. Muciaccia at the table where he wrote his third book ‘Spirit Alive!’

As you know, there are huge population of Korean Americans in Palisades Park, Fort Lee, and Manhattan. What is most important for parents to know about their children’s education?

There are 50% Korean population in Palisades Park alone. Parents are very focused on having a good education for their children and they respect teacher but due to the lack of English skills, it is hard for them to be involved in children’s school education system in Ameri-ca. Not only school provides a good education, parents should know that the school is a great place to learn the history and culture as well. I always encourage parents to let your children get involved in after school activities and social clubs not just studying. Also I ask parents to invest their time to get to know your children’s true inter-est and listen to them. 

So you wrote your three books.  And recently  ‘Spirit Alive!’ re-leased on Amazon. Can you briefly tell me about your books?

My first book, ‘Thinking in English’ reflects my method of teaching adults an English. It is very useful method for everyday lives. My sec-ond book ‘Ask the Janitor’ is about a public school system in America wrote based on my experience in the public school. This book re-veals the problems of public school system and how it can be im-proved.  And my third book, which is totally different than previous two books, it is about an afterlife. This is most recent book of me so I will explain it little more. It is not a religious book per se. I am a catholic but with an open mind and I was convinced that there is a life after the death and I wanted to write about it. I flew around the states to interview professional psychics, mediums and clairvoy-ants for research purposes. The purpose of my book is to give knowledge about the Spirit and provide reader to expand their thinking and also gives them a hope.  

Do you have a future goal? 

Of course. We all have to have a future goal. I will continue on teaching and writing books. I was in one of my book talk and I remember one audience, a psychic who raised the hand and asked ‘You going to write more books, right?’ I got a great feed-back from my books and I am currently on the process of writing my 4th book which I will keep the details for now. I also want to travel more. I have been in Europe for 8 times and I hoping to travel there again. I especially adore Italy because of their food and culture. 

Lastly, do you have any advice for the readers?

Read, read and read. Whether it is a magazine or news, reading is very important. First page is most difficult page but once you con-tinue reading it, you are in the book. And always take an action rather than just talk about it. Talking is easy part. Taking an action and having it done is most hardest yet important part.