Scituate High School science teacher George Goodfellow is hugged by his wife, Cynthia, after being named the state’s teacher of the year.

The Providence Journal / Andrew Dickerman

SCITUATE — It was a difficult time to hire a 56-year-old teacher who claimed to be interested in commuting all the way from New Bedford to help Scituate teens learn chemistry.

Scituate High School Principal David Light was comfortable paying top dollar in the midst of a tight budget year, but only if he could be certain that George Goodfellow would stay five years, and only if the guy really knew his chemistry.

To his surprise, he only had to ask one question at the interview. The candidate’s answer was so convincing that he was chosen on the spot, Light recalled yesterday afternoon, speaking at a joyous ceremony in the high school auditorium — only moments after Governor Carcieri had named Goodfellow the “ 2008 Rhode Island Teacher of the Year.”

So what was the question? And what was Goodfellow’s answer?

For some reason, Light withheld that information from his public comments and he didn’t budge when a reporter asked him about it afterward.

As it turns out, his exchange with Goodfellow had demonstrated precisely what the teacher tries to do every day in the classroom: help his students see the relevance of whatever content they are learning.

Five years later, the teacher, now 61, has a vivid memory of what Light told him that day:

“George, I need to know right now that you know your chemistry,” he said.

So Goodfellow took a close look at Light’s hair and told him that each follicle held protein.

Then, he focused on the lenses inside the principal’s glasses. Definitely, a network solid of silicon dioxide.

He turned to Light’s suit coat. Hopefully, it’s not a polyester, he said. Either way, he ruled, the fabric is a type of polymer.

He delivered a head-to-toe chemical classification of his interviewer.

“When I hired him,” says Light, “I said, ‘George I’m going to hire you on one condition. That’s that you stay for five years.’ ”

That was in 2003.

It wasn’t long before the school’s chemistry students — frequently juniors — were singing songs about the bonding of chemicals and other essential facts of chemistry. (“If it isn’t love what’s going on?” was the name of one melody.)

That’s because Goodfellow ardently believes that teachers should help students develop multiple types of intelligence that aren’t usually evaluated in the classic school setting.

Most tests evaluate students’ verbal, math and visual skills, he says.

Students don’t get much credit for musical and rhythmic intelligence or any of the four other “intelligences” identified by a renowned Harvard education professor, Howard Gardner.

Goodfellow, a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is a disciple of Gardner’s multiple intelligence theory, which dates back to the 1980s.

The theory can explain lots of societal conundrums, he says. Take the Ph.D. who turns to corruption or some other ethical lapse despite the fact that he or she has what many would consider a superior education.

Such a person has low “interpersonal intelligence” Goodfellow says. In other words, he or she has little capacity to interact with other people or to understand the importance of treating other people fairly.

He believes the job of an educator is to help students develop their various intelligences, not just the ones that might lead to high SAT scores or six figure salaries.

Moreover, if developed, one type of intelligence can help a student succeed in an exercise that might require another type of ability. For example, a musical ability can help someone retain important information about chemistry.

Also, in Goodfellow’s opinion, a teacher who can bring a greater combination of intelligences into the classroom, or any other venue, is likely to have more success at solving problems.

“What does that say?” he asks rhetorically. “You have to have a team to solve the majority of problems because nobody has seven intelligences.”

And this is why Scituate High School students have become acquainted with Goodfellow’s wife, Cynthia, a former science teacher who joins him in the classroom almost every day.

It also explains why so many students seek out the chemistry teacher for help and advice on all sorts of non-molecular problems.

Maddie Clarke, a 17-year-old senior, says Goodfellow was always in the building early, before the start of the school, to help her learn chemistry. He was available after school, too, she says.

“He’s so intelligent,” she says. “He just interprets everything he says down to the level where we can understand it.”

Andrew D. Mowry acknowledges that he didn’t perform so wonderfully in class, but he loved Goodfellow.

“I can go to him about anything and he can give me advice, not just on chemistry but on anything,” the 17-year-old says.

Ashley E. Valentine, also 17, describes Goodfellow as a “father figure” who gives her great advice.

Those sorts of sentiments impressed the Rhode Island Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education, according to the panel’s vice chairman, Patrick Guida.

Guida said that teachers such as Goodfellow are needed in today’s classrooms.

“What I most admire about Mr. Goodfellow is his innovation and talent in making learning fun,” Guida said. “If we are to make public education superior globally, we will need more such innovation and talent in refocusing our popular culture on quality education.”

His selection as teacher of the year, by the Board of Regents, means Goodfellow now becomes eligible to be chosen as the 2008 National Teacher of the Year.

After the ceremony in the school’s auditorium, many of Goodfellow’s students stopped by a reception in the library to congratulate him.

When challenged, an admirer, 17-year-old Sean T. Murphy, joined his teacher in striking up a group in song about chemistry.

“A mole is a unit oh have you heard?” they sang. “That’s six times 10 to the 23rd. / That’s a six with 23 zeros at the end. Much too big a unit to comprehend.”

“We get asked to do this act at places around here on the weekend,” Goodfellow joked.

mreynold@projo.com