School Staff Spotlight: Langone spurs artistic creativity in Stockbridge students

by Amy Haggerty

Now beginning his 24th year of teaching, Jay Langone’s classes remain as popular as ever. Langone teaches all the art classes at Stockbridge Junior and Senior High School. His classes fill up fast with eager students in grades 7-12 wanting to learn all about art. Photo provided by Amy Haggerty

Now beginning his 24th year of teaching, Jay Langone’s classes remain as popular as ever. Langone teaches all the art classes at Stockbridge Junior and Senior High School. His classes fill up fast with eager students in grades 7-12 wanting to learn all about art.

Langone wanted to become a teacher because of the influence of his own teachers throughout his years in school. He admired how smart and kind they were, he said.

Then while in college, he had the opportunity to work at a children’s art fair.

“The staff there thought I did a wonderful job, and asked me to come back and teach a weekend oil painting class,” he said. That’s when he knew he needed to change his major to art education.

Langone worked in a plastics factory while in college and also as a cashier at a local grocery store in Kalamazoo. He said he learned very quickly how important a college education would be to his future. He spent his undergrad years at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, and then received his Masters in Art from Eastern Michigan University, in Ypsilanti.

The teacher came to Stockbridge in 1994 because he wanted to be in a small-town community, “like the one I grew up in.” He described Stockbridge as “a great place to come to work.”

“I love the people!” he added.

Langone grew up in the Paw Paw, Mich., area. His parents, Joe and Lana, still live there and enjoy the lake living in their retirement years. Langone was married in 2005 to Lori, and the couple have one child, 7-year-old Larenzo. They live in the Mason, Mich., area.

His greatest accomplishment, Langone said, was incorporating the seventh-grade art classes into the school and then integrating them with the rest of his high school art programs.

As a teacher, Langone said he had to learn to become a great listener and put himself into the shoes of his students.

“If you tried your best, that’s all anyone can ask,” he tells his students. “Remember to be kind to everyone, including yourself.”

He also encourages students to “have integrity, keep your work, be honest, and always be yourself.”