Lasting Lessons
by Ginger Ellsworth Reiner, Ed.M.’06, a math and computer science teacher at Boston Latin School, the nation’s first public school. She joined Boston Latin in 2006 after six years as a software developer in San Francisco.
I sit in my classroom at 3 p.m., windows open and lights
off, as it’s June. It’s muggy and I’m on the third floor. I’m
exhausted after another action-packed day at the chalkboard
as I set out to write about a “lasting lesson” that I
have taken from the Ed School and carry with me today.
The question is: where to start?
I came to the Teacher Education Program two years ago, fresh off a software career that certainly never left me this exhausted at 3 p.m. I walked down Appian Way in a cap and gown a year ago, the culmination of countless lasting lessons about education and who I am as an educator. These lessons came first in the form of intense discussions on race, class, and power in the basement of Gutman with Dorinda Carter, Ed.M.’01, Ed.D.’05, and Heather Harding, Ed.M.’00, Ed.D.’06. Later, on the third floor of Gutman, there were passionate debates with Professor Kay Merseth, M.A.T.’69, Ed.D.’82, about charter schools, small schools, school reform, and above all, the purpose of education. During my practicum, the lessons became conversations with Paul Natola and my fellow calculator-toting math geeks in Longfellow as to why we solve proportions with cross-multiplication, why two-thirds of three-fourths is one-half, and why students should do the “heavy lifting.”
The common thread that tied my lessons was my fellow students. Professors and readings set the stage, but the varied perspectives, ideas, and expertise of my peers made the most lasting impressions: The New Orleans teachers dedicated to resurrecting a devastated school system post-Katrina who kept issues of equity in the front of my mind; the banker, lender, and lawyer making career shifts who reminded me of the world outside of education and the importance of bringing that world into the classroom; the D.C. policymaker who opened my eyes to the macro view on improving education nationwide; and the experienced teacher who focused my thoughts on how to convert theory into practice. The Ed School’s legacy is all the extraordinary students who helped me sculpt my own knowledge and beliefs about education.
And so, as I sit in my classroom and begin the task of getting ready for tomorrow’s lesson, my thoughts turn to my amazing classmates, whose words and opinions have proven as lasting as I can only hope my lessons are to my students.
About the Article
A version of this article originally appeared in the Fall 2007 issue of Ed., the magazine of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Respond to this story with an e-mail to the editor.
photo by Mark Morelli
