Fair Lawn History Teacher Honored For Promoting Social Justice

FAIR LAWN, NJ — A borough history teacher is being honored for his work educating his students about social justice.

Gabriel A. Tangalo teaches 10th- and 11th-grade Advancement Placement U.S. History at Bergen County Technical High School at Teterboro.

He has been named an Alfred P. Sloan Teaching Champion by the Council for Economic Education, one of two Bergen County teachers to receive the honor this year. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a philanthropic grantmaking institution based in New York City.

The award honors teachers who effectively deliver content to students in and out of the classroom.

RELATED: Oakland Economics Teacher Honored For Running Food Co-Op, Battling Poverty

Tangalo is passionate about the humanities. He has advised the National Social Studies Honor Society, the Model United Nations and has served as a STEM mentor.

Tangalo is a Filipino-American. He has traveled the country as a speaker, organizer and trainer and works to build coalitions around the issues of racial, economic and environmental justice.

"As the son of immigrant parents, I believe economics education is a vital stepping stone in the mountainous climb toward the American Dream," Tangalo said in a statement. "If the Great Recession was an earthquake, then wealth disparity is the tsunami. Our role as economics educators is to help these students move to higher ground."

Email daniel.hubbard@patch.com. Get Patch breaking news alerts sent right to your phone with our new app. Download here.

Photo: Gabriel A. Tangalo/Courtesy of The Council for Economic Education