Only in Vermont

This is a picture of Callie and Hilary, two students in my ED325 Teaching Elementary School Math and Science course which met for the first time yesterday. As I was getting ready for class Callie asked me if I knew her mom, Joan Clark, who had been a student of mine when I was a professor at Trinity College in Burlington Vermont. I replied that I remembered her very well because she was one of the best students I had in my math and science classes during my 17 years at Trinity College.

It then dawned on me that it had happened; I was finally teaching the children of students I had taught in the past. Many years ago I remember giving as a reason for my immigration to the US that I didn't want to teach the children of the children I had taught in my 4th grade class like several of the teachers I worked with were doing at the time. I'm joking of course, and now that it's happened I think it's pretty neat. Callie told me that her mom is now a district-wide math curriculum specialist in the Swanton schools on the Canadian border.

As for Hilary, the "small world" adage becomes even more amazing because Joan Clark was her fourth grade teacher in Swanton; and here they are, Callie and Hilary, sitting together in my class!!!!!!!!

Trinity College, by the way, was the young lady's equivalent to the St. Michael's young gentleman's college until both went coed some time ago. While St. Michael's has flourished and grown Trinity College sadly closed its doors around 1991. At one time 1 in 10 elementary and special education teachers in Vermont were Trinity trained; such was its reputation as a center for teacher education. One can see a brief history of the college in the Trinity conference room in the Pomerleau Alumni Center on the St. Mike's campus.

I am now delighted to be teaching the next generation, so to speak, so I have absolutely no plans to emigrate.