Second Nature for Boston Teachers & Students
With the dedication of the Boston Women’s Memorial (BWM), Boston Public Schools (BPS) students and teachers realized a dream begun more than a decade ago.
Committed to integrate women’s history into curricula and funded by a federal grant, the founders of Boston Women’s Heritage Trail (BWHT) represented teachers, librarians and administrators who first met at the John F. Kennedy Library in 1989.
Grade 5 Harvard Kent teacher Maria D’Itria remembers the early BWHT years. "Our mission was simple," recalls the author of a Boston TeachNet Learn and Serve project Walk Her Way on a Women’s History Trail. "We wanted Boston students to hear the rest of the story."
Fifteen years later, with IMPACT II Teacher Network providing ongoing support for countless grants, showcases, publications, and neighborhood women’s history walks, Cheryl Brown-Greene computer teacher at the Mary Lyon agrees, "We’ve come a long way."
That was certainly evident at the October 25th dedication. BWHT founders like BPS Director of External Funds Charlotte Harris, who co-wrote the original proposal, and past Co-Directors of the BPS Library Program Barbara Clark Elam and Polly Welts Kaufman had waited years for this glorious day. Several teachers including Marilyn Hyder, Alex Pappas, Mary Rudder, and Alma Wright greeted past BWHT President, now Principal of the Ohrenberger Carol Geyer, past principal of the Lucy Stone Maria de los Angeles Montes, and Mary Smoyer, current BWHT President and Trotter Teacher.
Front and center for this year’s Service Learning opportunities is the Boston Women’s Memorial that celebrates the lives of Abigail Adams, Lucy Stone, and Phillis Wheatley.
This fall, Barbara Locurto, Director of IMPACT II @ School to Career and BWHT Board Member, focused on BWM so students could study these and other women’s achievements. She offered high school teachers an exciting curriculum package plus a supplemental grant opportunity with impressive results. Her curriculum package plus a supplemental grant opportunity produced an enthusiastic response:
Teachers from a variety of disciplines:
Engaged 545 students in Pen and Parchment: Abigail and John at Quincy’s Adams National Historical Park (thanks to funding by the Presidents’ Heritage Foundation).
Attended Patriotism, Poetry and Persistence two Saturday Teaching Boston History Workshops, sponsored by The Bostonian Society at the historic Old State House.
Committed to integrate women’s history into curricula and funded by a federal grant, the founders of Boston Women’s Heritage Trail (BWHT) represented teachers, librarians and administrators who first met at the John F. Kennedy Library in 1989.
Grade 5 Harvard Kent teacher Maria D’Itria remembers the early BWHT years. "Our mission was simple," recalls the author of a Boston TeachNet Learn and Serve project Walk Her Way on a Women’s History Trail. "We wanted Boston students to hear the rest of the story."
Fifteen years later, with IMPACT II Teacher Network providing ongoing support for countless grants, showcases, publications, and neighborhood women’s history walks, Cheryl Brown-Greene computer teacher at the Mary Lyon agrees, "We’ve come a long way."
That was certainly evident at the October 25th dedication. BWHT founders like BPS Director of External Funds Charlotte Harris, who co-wrote the original proposal, and past Co-Directors of the BPS Library Program Barbara Clark Elam and Polly Welts Kaufman had waited years for this glorious day. Several teachers including Marilyn Hyder, Alex Pappas, Mary Rudder, and Alma Wright greeted past BWHT President, now Principal of the Ohrenberger Carol Geyer, past principal of the Lucy Stone Maria de los Angeles Montes, and Mary Smoyer, current BWHT President and Trotter Teacher.
Front and center for this year’s Service Learning opportunities is the Boston Women’s Memorial that celebrates the lives of Abigail Adams, Lucy Stone, and Phillis Wheatley.
This fall, Barbara Locurto, Director of IMPACT II @ School to Career and BWHT Board Member, focused on BWM so students could study these and other women’s achievements. She offered high school teachers an exciting curriculum package plus a supplemental grant opportunity with impressive results. Her curriculum package plus a supplemental grant opportunity produced an enthusiastic response:
Teachers from a variety of disciplines:
Engaged 545 students in Pen and Parchment: Abigail and John at Quincy’s Adams National Historical Park (thanks to funding by the Presidents’ Heritage Foundation).
Attended Patriotism, Poetry and Persistence two Saturday Teaching Boston History Workshops, sponsored by The Bostonian Society at the historic Old State House.
Does all this make a difference? You bet! Student reflections on the Adams National Historical Park experience testify that infusing women’s history into the curriculum makes for thoughtful girls and boys.
Look for further proof when BWM Grant Awardees share their products. We’ll learn how Madison Park Tech Voc students in Charlotte McCullough’s Networking course identify Women in Information Technology; how English High students in Sue Mortensen’s Media class design commemorative stamps honoring women journalists; how at the Burke, Cynthia Bergeron’s History students interview woman neighborhood heroes and Stephanie Bryan’s Math students research African American women’s educational opportunities in Colonial Boston.
As Women’s History Month, March is the logical time for schoolwide expos and assemblies about women committed to social change and public service. Watch for more on West Roxbury High’s Service Learning Festival where Mary Ellen Bower’s TEACHBoston students share information on "Lucy’s Literary Legacy," Grace Diggs’s Leadership students review readings from their "Go Girl Book Club," Maggie Hoyt’s TV Production students produce a special on "American Women of Substance," and Demetra Stavrianides’ English Language Learners tell "Success Stories of Immigrant Women."
Summing up how Boston students remember the ladies is the following excerpted review of the Boston Women’s Memorial by West Roxbury High Junior Jacquelyn Coffin:
Boston Women’s Memorial is a solid representation of three remarkable women... They blaze the Commonwealth Avenue trail as they take their rightful place alongside their useful pedestals. When women were not acknowledged for their ideas, Lucy Stone, Abigail Adams and Phillis Wheatley were bold enough to speak for what they believed. Though the three women didn’t know each other, they stand together as role models for women of today...
Look for further proof when BWM Grant Awardees share their products. We’ll learn how Madison Park Tech Voc students in Charlotte McCullough’s Networking course identify Women in Information Technology; how English High students in Sue Mortensen’s Media class design commemorative stamps honoring women journalists; how at the Burke, Cynthia Bergeron’s History students interview woman neighborhood heroes and Stephanie Bryan’s Math students research African American women’s educational opportunities in Colonial Boston.
As Women’s History Month, March is the logical time for schoolwide expos and assemblies about women committed to social change and public service. Watch for more on West Roxbury High’s Service Learning Festival where Mary Ellen Bower’s TEACHBoston students share information on "Lucy’s Literary Legacy," Grace Diggs’s Leadership students review readings from their "Go Girl Book Club," Maggie Hoyt’s TV Production students produce a special on "American Women of Substance," and Demetra Stavrianides’ English Language Learners tell "Success Stories of Immigrant Women."
Summing up how Boston students remember the ladies is the following excerpted review of the Boston Women’s Memorial by West Roxbury High Junior Jacquelyn Coffin:
Boston Women’s Memorial is a solid representation of three remarkable women... They blaze the Commonwealth Avenue trail as they take their rightful place alongside their useful pedestals. When women were not acknowledged for their ideas, Lucy Stone, Abigail Adams and Phillis Wheatley were bold enough to speak for what they believed. Though the three women didn’t know each other, they stand together as role models for women of today...
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