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S U M M E R 3 R E A D I N G six days between Park meetings and Bread Loaf classes I had to read 83 pages a day. Minimum. I am proud to say that I arrived having finished the book. The Bread Loaf program is very intense. You have two classes everyday and it feels as if the whole world goes away while you’re here. My two classes started at 10:00 a.m. So I’d wake up at 6:00 and read what I needed for classes: whatever chapters I needed to be ready to discuss in War and Peace and whatever was on the agenda for my other class. I also had writing to keep up with; both of my professors wanted a short paper each week, and both had major projects due at the end of the term. What course did you pair with War and Peace My other class, a seminar called “The Language Wars,” examined the struggle about linguistic power and how gender, race, and class have shaped and responded to the English language in recent years. It was equally amazing in terms of content—although much more varied. We read everything from heady linguistic theory to Junot Diaz’s Nobel Prize winning novel, The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao. Describe the Bread Loaf program. How did you choose it Initially, I was undecided about whether I should pursue a master’s in English or drama. I wasn’t all that interested in going to ed school—I really wanted to learn the material that I was teaching. One of my mentors at Gould Academy, who is a Bread Loaf graduate, suggested that I look into this program. The sixweek summer term enables students to earn a degree over five years, which works well for those of us who are teachers. While the main campus is in Vermont, there are also locations in Asheville (North Carolina), Santa Fe (New Mexico), and Oxford (England). I actually spent my first summer in Juneau, Alaska; now they’ve discontinued that one. Some of my peers spend a summer in each place, but I’ve stayed in Vermont both for its incredible professors and the special addition of theater. The professors here are truly masters in their fields. With no undergrads, and an idyllic setting, the program attracts a lot of high caliber scholars. The curriculum is divided into five groups: 1) Writing and the Teaching of Writing; 2) English Literature Through the 17th Century; 3) English Literature Since the 17th Century; 4) American Literature; and 5) World Literature. Courses range from “Poetry Writing” (with Paul Muldoon, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet!) to “Metaphysical and Cavalier: Poetics and Politics in 17th Century England.” Up here in Vermont, Bread Loaf has an acting ensemble that joins the campus. The company is made up of professional, equity actors who put on a full-scale production each summer for the Bread Loaf and Middlebury communities. They also work with professors to do dramatic readings and performances of the material in our courses. I love how English and drama coincide here; it really appeals to my interest at Park. 34 The Park Bulletin | Fall 2009
S U M M E R 3 R E A D I N G What has been your favorite course I love War and Peace. But another course that springs to mind is one I took two years ago called “19th Century Fiction and the Meaning of Space.” It was taught by the wife of my War and Peace professor, Isobel Armstrong, and it blew my mind. The reading list was intense— Charles Dickens, Joseph Conrad, Mary Shelley, all three Brontës, George Eliot, Jane Austen, to list just a few. We also read lots of critical theorists. We did close reading, specifically thinking about how details in the physical space can inform an interpretation of the text. How do you apply what you’re learning to your own teaching This is a great question—it’s amazing how frequently my experiences up here “on the mountain” come to mind as I teach my Park students during the year. Simply put, being a graduate student helps me understand better what my students are experiencing. I turn papers in and feel the same expectation that they do in waiting to get them back. I have to craft thesis statements and close read— two truly tough but thoroughly enjoyable skills I get to teach my ninth graders. It’s also fun to hang out with a bunch of English teachers all summer— we share ideas all the time. Walking to lunch, we might plan a lesson on Romeo and Juliet. After class, we might discuss whether English curricula could become less canonical and start teaching lesserknown world literature. I keep a list at the front of my notebook about any ideas that stir in my brain as I attend class every day—I am, after all, in the presence of greatness! Do you remember your own summer reading as a kid Any favorites I went to a Waldorf School and we didn’t have specific requirements. I remember getting ahold of another school’s list and making my way through it. I read a lot of Newbury Award winners, all the Nancy Drew mysteries and, I have to admit, lots of The Babysitter’s Club series. What’s your next book I think I need to re-read Anna Karenina. The last time I read it, I had just graduated from college so I need a refresher. Tolstoy wrote the book five years after he finished War and Peace and the final epilogues set the scene for the familial struggle in Anna K. But, before that, I’m making my way through Gone with the Wind. Somehow I’ve never read the book OR seen the movie. I’m 300 pages in (another long one!), and loving it in a vacationy-summer-reading kind of way. I think Margaret Mitchell must have also been reading Tolstoy when she wrote it. It’s like her response to War and Peace — but in America. By the way—I think I might try to keep up the 5:15 a.m. reading schedule, at least during the fall and spring. I love starting the day with a bit of literature. Here’s to another year of reading! . . . it’s amazing how frequently my experiences up here “on the mountain” come to mind as I teach my Park students during the year. The Park Bulletin | Fall 2009 35
Page 1 and 2: The Park School Fall Bulletin 2009
Page 3 and 4: The Park School Fall Bulletin 2009
Page 5 and 6: High Stakes P robability theory cam
Page 7 and 8: “So, even though I’m not a Park
Page 9 and 10: Jonathan Kraft (Park ’79) went to
Page 11 and 12: Each year, an alumnus/a with six ye
Page 13 and 14: Allegra Borak I’ll take a strong
Page 15 and 16: Andrea Galligan I will take the com
Page 17 and 18: Sophie Moss I will take with me mem
Page 19 and 20: Lily Steig I will take a strong sen
Page 21 and 22: Class of 1984—25th Reunion Top (L
Page 23 and 24: The Park School Class of 1984 Twent
Page 25 and 26: P A R K S C H O O L C L A S S O F 1
Page 27 and 28: S U M M E R 3 R E A D I N G GRADE V
Page 29 and 30: S U M M E R 3 R E A D I N G Reading
Page 31 and 32: S U M M E R 3 R E A D I N G The Inf
Page 33 and 34: S U M M E R 3 R E A D I N G Alice P
Page 35: S U M M E R 3 R E A D I N G War and
Page 39 and 40: A lifelong public servant, Mike Del
Page 41 and 42: 1979 Classmates Nadia Belash McKay
Page 43 and 44: 1982 Class Representative: Allison
Page 45 and 46: 1994 Class Representatives: Alan Be
Page 47 and 48: COMMUNITY SERVICE EVENT AT GAINING
Page 49 and 50: NEXT SCHOOLS FOR GRADE VIII CLASS O
Page 51 and 52: We are assembling a farewell album

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