Students Find Calling in the Classroom

A Harvard hockey jersey and a crimson Veritas flag cover the faded walls of Marc A. Parris’ ’06 ninth-grade classroom at Community Charter School of Cambridge.

At the school, a tuition-free institution that opened in 2005, Parris teaches physics, coaches mock trial, and gives salsa lessons to students.

As a young teacher with an Ivy League degree, Parris bridges two distinct worlds: one where students pay more than $41,000 to go to college and another where 45 percent of students qualify for free lunch.

Parris’ love of teaching was nurtured at Harvard, where he concentrated in physics and participated in the Undergraduate Teacher Education Program (UTEP), which allows students to study at the Graduate School of Education, complete fieldwork in Boston public schools, and ultimately earn a teaching license.

Nationwide, nearly half of new teachers leave the profession after five years. And for the roughly half a dozen undergraduates who receive the training the tools to teach, the transition from Harvard to the public school system is not always easy.

CHOOSING BETWEEN STUDENT AND TEACHER

Students who enroll in UTEP, founded in 1985, must balance a normal course load with four courses at the Education School and more than 400 hours of observing and student teaching in a Boston-area school.

Katherine K. Merseth, director of teacher programs, said that teaching—like other rigorous professions such as surgery—requires substantial training.

“How would you like to have a doctor conduct a challenging heart procedure on you with only six weeks of training and no follow up support?” she wrote in an e-mail. “Teaching without adequate preparation can be a recipe for disaster.”

Lisa S. L.

Pao ’08, who is an assistant teacher in an 11th grade humanities class at Community Charter School, said that she had to reconsider some of her academic plans to participate in the program.

“I had to choose UTEP in lieu of a thesis,” Pao said. “It’s been pretty challenging to schedule classes.”

UTEP’s assistant director, Orin Gutlerner, said that for the five to eight students who complete the program each year, the challenges are worth the eventual pay-offs.

“There are a number of students who are really thinking about teaching and education as a viable career and are willing to make some pretty significant sacrifices in their undergraduate years to get prepared for it,” Gutlerner said.

Katheryn M. Funderburk ’07, who currently teaches at St. Patrick’s School and Educational Center in Lowell, Mass., said taking part in UTEP required some sacrifices.

“I decided to bite the bullet and not have a life for a semester,” she said, adding she had no regrets.

Those who complete the program say being a teacher is worth the sacrifices.

Elana C. Rome ’07 said her 10th-grade geometry class at Community Charter School of Cambridge gives her “such a high.”

“I love being in the classroom with kids and helping them make breakthroughs, it gives me such a rush of adrenaline,” she said.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

Despite the positive reviews the program receives from its budding teachers, the rigors of the program have kept the number of those who choose to enroll small throughout its existence.

“I’ve tried to expand what I do and what I consider UTEP, to accommodate other students who come to me and are really passionate about teaching,” Gutlerner said.

Over the past several years, Gutlerner has reached out to students from the Spoken Word Society and Cambridge One-to-One, a volunteer program based out of the Phillips Brooks House Association. He has also secured teaching internships for undergraduates who wish to pursue the profession but cannot enroll in UTEP.

Gutlerner and Merseth are also considering reinventing UTEP into a one-year program for graduates of the College that would provide them with health benefits and financial assistance and enable them to remain at Harvard as teaching fellows.

Harvard students who go into teaching enter a profession in which 40 to 50 percent of new teachers leave within five years, according to a 2003 University of Pennsylvania study. But Parris, the physics teacher, said that students who complete the program will be long-lasting members of the teaching pool.

“I definitely think that UTEP is more for the serious folk,” Parris said. “People at UTEP just plan on teaching forever for the most part.”

On a recent morning at Community Charter School, Parris challenged his physics students to add vectors. He gives them two sets of directions in hopes of showing that it doesn’t matter how they order the quantities.

After they finish he asks, “Do you end up on the same spot?”

Manny Saez, a student, answers, “It depends. If you have Mr. Parris sitting next to you at the right time, you might make it. Otherwise you’re out of luck.”

—Staff writer Natasha S. Whitney can be reached at nwhitney@fas.harvard.edu.