Lynne Mooney Teta, Ed.M.’95: A New Head for America’s Oldest School

by Mary Tamer

It is the first day of school and Boston Latin’s new headmaster, Lynne Mooney Teta, Ed.M.’95, has entered her large corner office at 78 Avenue Louis Pasteur by 6:45 a.m. On her desk is an immense arrangement of flowers from Winston’s, sent by her mother on her first pre-opening day, August 28. They are somewhat past their peak by September 6, yet still a sight to behold as they remain on her desk in their faded purple glory.

The card reads, “Headmaster Lynne Mooney Teta . . . To an inspirational year. All my love, Mum.”

Purple, it so happens, is the signifying color of both royalty and of America’s oldest school — whose 1635 founding predates Harvard’s own by one year — and today, it is also the color of Mooney Teta’s skirted suit. Long sleeves are in order, given the unusually cool air outside, where the headmaster is headed to help her students cross the avenue nestled between the bustling Boston neighborhoods of the Longwood medical area and the Fenway.

“Good morning,” she says to the young passersby. “Is everybody awake yet? Ready to go?”

It is clear that Mooney Teta is ready, even if her still-sleepy students are not. And while she admittedly never thought of returning to Boston Latin School as its headmaster during her own days there as a top student and athlete, things changed once she entered Harvard in the fall of 1986 and then took classes at the Ed School during her senior year.

Among her defining educational experiences is the time she spent on Appian Way in a course on the history of American education taught by Vito Perrone.

“It was such a different feeling,” she recalls, “to sit there with one of the gurus of American education. That class was a gift.”

Following her graduation in 1990, Mooney Teta spent six years teaching middle school and high school in Belmont, Mass., with one of those years simultaneously spent earning her master’s degree from the Ed School. Administration appeared to be her calling.

“I loved the variety of courses I was able to take,” says Mooney Teta, who also taught for two years at the Steppingstone Foundation. “I was still working full time, but the support at the Ed School was phenomenal. I was learning from real-life practitioners who knew exactly what I was going through, and I could immediately apply what I was learning in theory back to my classroom.”

In 2004, after six years as an assistant principal at the Pollard Middle School in Needham, Mass., Mooney Teta was tapped by Boston Latin School to return to her alma mater as an assistant headmaster.

“She has an excellent vision for the future of the school and where it should be,” says Boston Latin’s current assistant headmaster, Malcolm Flynn, who has worked at the school for 43 years and knew Mooney Teta when she was a student. “The emphasis is going to be on what happens in the classroom, as well as communication with parents and the community. She has already told us, ‘A few years ago, we developed a great mission statement for the school and our job is fulfilling that statement.’ If areas are not perfect, we will work on them.”

Mooney Teta does hold the school’s mission — to ground its students in a contemporary classical education as preparation for successful college studies, responsible and engaged citizenship, and a rewarding life — as sacrosanct and as a beacon to be followed.

“We receive the gift of the most academically talented kids from across the city, regardless of income, regardless of race,” says Mooney Teta. “It is our duty to educate them to their full potential… and if we do that, we are fulfilling our mission. If we put forward our best effort and our best thinking as teachers and parents, I know we will succeed.”

About the Article

A version of this article originally appeared in the Winter 2008 issue of Ed., the magazine of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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photo by Mark Morelli