Valentine’s Day at Robinson is characterized by the abundance of puppy love, high school sweethearts, mysterious chocolate hearts and maybe a few giant teddy bears. Students aren’t the only ones who get to celebrate with their significant other on Feb. 14 though; teachers who found love outside of school and bring back it back is what makes Valentine’s Day at Robinson. The Knight Writers interviewed the couples who teach with their sweetheart.

Mr. Ketchum & Mrs. Loges

Q: What is it like working at school together?

Ketchum: “It’s pretty great, working at the same place. It helps–we can commute together so that makes it easier. We can have lunch together, talk about each other’s classes so it’s pretty nice.”

Loges: “It’s pretty awesome, I like it because I can see him in the hallways sometimes. And we have the same students so it’s interesting.”

Q: How did you meet?

Ketchum: “We met using an online date site.”

Loges: “We met online on a dating app.”

Q: Is it hard to work at the same place and always be together?

Ketchum: “Not really. We pretty much enjoy each other’s company and get along most of the time. I don’t think there’s too many downsides to it.”

Loges: “Nope, not for me at least.”

Q: What’s your partner’s best quality?

Ketchum: “She has a lot of good qualities. Her sense of humor, and empathy. She’s very good at listening to people and helping them out.”

Loges: “Patience, he’s the most patient person in the world.”

Q: Do you ever hear about your spouse from students?

Ketchum: “Not too much. Sometimes she’ll come up or her class will come up, I don’t hear students gossiping about her.”

Loges: “Yeah all the time. Kids often tell me when they’ve done something to feel embarrassed in his class. They’re  like ‘Oh my god, did he say anything?’ and I’m like, ‘No he didn’t even mention because it’s not that bad.”

Q: Is it hard with two teachers in the house?

Ketchum: “Not really, it’s pretty nice being a couple with two teachers because we have the same days off, we do vacations over the summer, we have kids now so our schedule aligns with theirs.”

Loges: “Yes, because the grading takes a long time and that has to be brought home sometimes, so it cuts into our family life and when we both have to do it, it cuts on both sides.”

Q: Do you do anything cool and exciting for summer since you’re both away from work?

Ketchum: “We usually try to do something. This past summer was tough because we’re in the middle of a pandemic, but we usually try to do some sort of trip–maybe up to the mountains like in North Carolina.”

Loges: “When it’s not a pandemic we normally travel at least to one different place. We’ve been to North Carolina a couple of times, we’ve been to San Francisco, before we had kids, [and] we went to europe one summer. We travel a lot, [including] concerts and musical festivals. Our vacations have turned more kid-oriented, but it’s hard to say since we haven’t been able to do anything.”

Q: Have you had any funny stories when students realize your spouse also works here?

Ketchum: “Because we have different last names she heard a student who said that another student was thinking we had an affair. They didn’t know we were married–it was pretty funny.”

Loges: “Yes. So I had one student, I heard this from someone else, I heard that this student who was my student for almost a whole semester thought that I was married to someone else and I was having an affair with Mr. Ketchum. I think other students thought that too, because we have different last names so I guess people think that people can’t be married and have different last names.”

Q: Has anyone complained about your spouse to you?

Ketchum: “No.”

Loges: “Yes. It’s just like “Mr. Ketchum didn’t post the homework” or “I didn’t like the assignment.””

Q: What’s your thoughts on student couples? Do you notice them? What about PDA?

Ketchum: “I don’t think its a problem at school, it’s interesting because I don’t even realize it. Mrs. Loges knows more about it [though]. I don’t know if she notices it or if she talks to kids about it, but sometimes we talk about students. Especially when senior year starts so we can compare our experiences with them.”

Loges: “I think it’s adorable sometimes, I notice almost everything. I notice who the couples are and I  think its cute.”

Q: Has any romantic aspect like anniversaries or birthday celebrations been done at school since you both work here?

Ketchum: “Yeah. The year we got married was her first year [working] here, [so] the following year I did a thing with my homeroom where we went over to her homeroom and they were each holding a letter that spelled out ‘Happy Anniversary’ and we played our first dance song.”

Loges: “Yeah, when I started working here that’s the year we got married. And our first year anniversary, which was my second year working here, we had an ACCA day and he surprised me and sent all his students in and they each had a t-shirt on and each shirt had a letter on it and it said ‘Happy Anniversary.’ They played our wedding song and I think he brought me flowers. It was the sweetest thing and I couldn’t stop crying. The song was ‘You Are The Best Thing” by Ray LaMontagne.”

Mr. Pippin and Mrs. Perez

Q: What is it like working at school together?

Pippin: “Once you get into your room, it’s just teaching. You don’t really focus on anything but what you’re doing when you’re teaching. But knowing that I can go ahead and walk down the hall and ask her a question, check up on her, it does help a lot. It makes feel as if you’re in a situation where you have a little extra support from your spouse.”

Perez: “It’s super fun because you share your happiness and go through the hard times together. It’s really cool to cheer on our kids together, because that’s a common thing. We know the same kids, we work for the same kids. It’s really nice because we’re both supporting them and it’s a bigger family that way.”

Q: How did you meet?

Pippin: “We met when she was in college studying to be a teacher.”

Perez: “In college while becoming a teacher.”

Q: Is it hard to work at the same place and always be together?

Pippin: “Like I said, we’re not always together. It’s not like we teach in the same room. It gives us a little bit of separation, but no I don’t think it’s hard at all. It makes things go better.”

Perez: “No, because we don’t ever leave our classrooms. So we don’t ever see each other, so that’s the beauty of it: we’re separate but it gives us these common things [like] the students we cheer for, the sports we cheer for, our team, we cheer for academics yays and nays. However, we have our separate space and I think that’s key to have that separate space. If we we’re sharing a classroom, he may have not made it this long! I may have not made it this long.”

Q: What’s your partner’s best quality?

Pippin: “She cares deeply for the people around her. It doesn’t matter if it’s me, or family, or students, she cares very deeply. She’s hurt when you’re hurt and she happy when you’re happy. She’s just a wonderful person.”

Perez: “That he’s very chill and he’s very smart.”

Q: Do you ever hear about your spouse from students?

Pippin: “Nah, I try to ignore that. You learn to ignore [and] it’s not her in particular, it’s all teachers. You learn to ignore what students are saying about other teachers, not only because you don’t want it to color your opinion of them, but also because it creates a situation where a kid needs a chance to vent. And if a kid needs to vent, let them vent. You don’t need to put your opinion on their opinion [and try to change theirs].”

Perez: “All the time.”

Q: Is it hard with two teachers in the house?

Pippin: “No. It makes it easier. We think the same.”

Perez: “I don’t think so, [but] it [does] makes our kids brainiacs and it gives them a lot of advantages. But I don’t think so, because we have the summers off , all the holidays off, and our days off [line up].”

Q: Do you do anything cool and exciting for summer since you’re both away from work?

Pippin: “We always take big trips, whether it’s to the Carolina mountains or overseas or something. We always do big trips, it’s always fun. Of course COVID stopped that this time around, but believe me when the vaccines happen we’re going somewhere- anywhere.  Our honeymoon was in London and Paris and every summer we go to the Carolina mountains.”

Perez: “Yes. We take a family vacation to North Carolina every year and slowly as the kids get older we’re working our way to overseas. [My favorite vacation is] Lake Lure, North Carolina. It’s our very favorite spot.”

Q: Have you had any funny stories when students realize your spouse also works here?

Pippin: “Not necessarily a story, but it’s always fun to see the shock. Like, ‘Wait a second…”

Perez: “They’re really shocked, like they have absolutely no idea. They have no idea about it since he’s IB and I’m traditional, so they just have no idea. Just because we’re in two different worlds, [that] comes together in clubs and sports.”

Q: Has anyone complained about your spouse to you?

Pippin: “I won’t let them. I’ll be like “I don’t want to hear it, don’t tell me, I’m not interested.””

Perez: “No, they love him.”

Q: What’s your thoughts on student couples? Do you notice them? What about PDA?

Pippin: “If you respect yourself, you’re not going to have so much PDA that it makes other people uncomfortable.”

Perez: “I think it’s disgusting, I’ll be honest. Because of diseases and I’m not talking about [only] COVID. I [just] have germ issues, I’m a real germaphobe. I don’t like PDA, touching hands spreads germs, kissing spreads germs. Germs are gross. There’s a time and a place.”

Q: Has any romantic aspect like anniversaries or birthday celebrations been done at school since you work here?

Pippin: “I’m not going there.”

Perez: “No. But our 15th anniversary is this summer so I’m excited.”

Mr. and Mrs. Difederico

Q: What is it like working at school together?

Mrs. Difederico: “We drive in separately and i rarely see him on campus, so there’s not  much difference between working in the same building and not. But occasionally, it’s come in handy if I need to find him and get some information and talk about dinner plans, it’s fairly easy.

Mr. Difederico: “It’s easier, it makes it easier. We come together some days when we want to. If I want to discuss something with her, she’s here. We used to teach at different schools and it was more difficult. It makes life a little easier.”

Q: How did you meet?

Mrs. Difederico: “We met in Miami. We both lived there and I met him after he had been in a wedding and he had caught the garter that night.”

Mr. Difederico: “I had gone to a wedding of a friend of mine and I went out with a bunch of friends afterwards to a local drinking establishment and she had happened to be home from college at that time. And we met! She told me she didn’t go out a lot, so it just became one of those things where I guess it was meant to be. I also had caught the garter that night. Usually that signifies you might be the next person to get married or meet somebody. So I was wearing the garter the night I met her.”

Q: Is it hard to work at the same place and always be together?

Mrs. Difederico: “No. We’re in different departments, different buildings, and so there’s no strain with working at the same school.”

Mr. Difederico: “Well no, because we’re not always together. If I’m off to see here, I can. She’s a lot busier than I am, as far as she has to stay in her room and do her thing. I have a little  more freedom. So, if we have something to discuss or something’s come up during the day, I can go talk to her. I try not to go and bug her a lot because it’s our time to do our jobs so we don’t want to interrupt each other’s job.”

Q: What’s your partner’s best quality?

Mrs. Difederico: “Overall, he’s extremely compassionate and giving to others. So, I appreciate that about him whether it’s making me dinner or working on my daughters new house or helping someone on campus to get a job done. He just always seems to be open minded and open hearted to getting others the job done.”

Mr. Difederico: “She’s just a good person, she really cares about what she does and I respect the fact that she really cares a lot about the students. I know a lot of teachers who just see it as a job, it’s never been a job to her. It’s always been a calling. She was teacher of the year one year, I thought that was pretty cool. I just respect her business.”

Q: Do you ever hear about your spouse from students?

Mrs. Difederico: “Yes. I do because many of my 11th grade students have had driver’s ed with him, the year before as 10th graders. They often tell the stories he shares from his driving experience, which often times involve me. So I hear often ‘oh, Coach told us about the time you were whatever…’ so I do hear about how they enjoy his class because of the personal touch and the stories that he shares with them. There are funny stories, I do sometimes bother him when he’s driving. I think kids appreciate the fact that he brings real life experiences and situations in the discussion.”

Mr. Difederico: “I have some IB kids, but they’re not in her grade. She’s 11th grade and most of my students are 9th and 10th so, not too much. But when I do hear things, it’s always positive.”

Q: Is it hard with two teachers in the house?

Mrs. Difederico: “No, actually it’s wonderful. We share the commonality of the stresses of teaching and the challenges of changes that occur in our profession. We have the same holidays and we have the entire summer together, so it’s actually perfect.”

Mr. Difederico: “No, I mean I think it adds to the home. We talk about  mutual interests, we talk about the school, different kids we can help, and I think it helps with conversation because we’re doing the same thing.”

Q: Do you do anything cool and exciting for summer since you’re both away from work?

Mrs. Difederico: “No, [but] we had previous summers where we planned vacations and things like that but the past summer we spent mostly working on our house, remodeling certain areas, organizing areas. We’re empty nesters now so we’re trying to make the best use of our space that we didn’t have before.”

Mr. Difederico: “We always go to Longboat Key once a summer, we’ve started to take other trips like we’re doing an Airbnb in Tennessee or [go see] my daughter’s dancing. We like to travel.”

Q: Have you had any funny stories when students realize your spouse also works here?

Mrs. Difederico: “No it’s pretty obvious, it’s pretty recognizable and I can’t recall a shock from someone. I haven’t heard any extravagant stories.”

Mr. Difederico: “Not really, she’s pretty serious about her work.”

Q: Has anyone complained about your spouse to you?

Mrs. Difederico: “No I don’t think I’ve ever heard a complaint about my husband.”

Mr. Difederico: “The only complaint I hear of is about the annotations. I try to explain them it’s not my wife’s rule, it’s the IB rule. Other than that, no.”

Q: What’s your thoughts on student couples? Do you notice them? What about PDA?

Mrs. Difederico: “I tell my students I seem to be the last person to know who’s dating who. I don’t pay a lot of attention to that. I’m not really cognisant of relationships among students. But they generally know we’re husband and wife.”

Mr. Difederico: (Answering the “do you notice them?”) “Not really. I have a feeling about it [though] but not really any student in particular.”

Q: Has any romantic aspect like anniversaries or birthday celebrations been done at school since you work here?

Mrs. Difederico: “Oh yes. It’s been quite a few years since we’ve been together, so I’ve received birthday and Valentine’s bouquets. My husband has set up a wonderful lunch one year for my birthday in the teachers lunch room to share with my co-workers.”

Mr. Difederico: “Well I always have things delivered to her here at school, like flowers. I like kids to see that. I think it’s a good thing to see it. Some students come from not really great home lives. I think it’s good to see that, like “It’s ok, couples can get along and they can work together. It does work. If you use mutual, respect and admiration [it works].” I would deliver stuff to her, in front of the students so they would see that she is cared for.”