Five Secondary School Teachers Nominated by Williams Students Receive 2006 Olmsted Prize12:00AM / Wednesday, May 31, 2006
"The best way to ensure that we have teachers who inspire their students is if we recognize and reward those who clearly have done so," New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote last June after meeting the winners of the college's Olmsted Prize, which honors secondary school teachers nominated by graduating seniors.
"As faculty members, we should always be reminded that we stand on the shoulders of great high school teachers, we get great material to work with: well educated, well trained, with a thirst for learning," Friedman wrote, quoting President Schapiro as he honored last year's winners.
Each fall, Williams invites seniors to nominate outstanding high school teachers for the George Olmsted Jr. Class of 1924 Prize, which awards $3,000 to each winning teacher and $2,500 to each teacher's school. Winners are also flown to campus for graduation weekend and honored at Commencement. Established in 1984, the prize is funded by an endowment from the estates of George Olmsted Jr. '24 and his wife, Frances, who wished to recognize excellence in secondary school teaching.
This year's five recipients are Simon R. Butterworth of Ozel Inanc Lisesi in Gebze, Turkey; Andy Cai of the Madeira School in McLean, Va.; Scarlett B. Gaddy of Hillcrest High School in Tuscaloosa, Ala.; John A. Orefice, Jr. of Pelham Memorial High School in Pelham, N.Y.; and Sarah Grimke Taylor of Eastern Sierra Academy in Bridgeport, Calif.
Simon R. Butterworth
Ersen Bilgin '06 described Butterworth, his physics teacher and dorm parent, as "extraordinary…both in and out of the classroom." In addition to presenting engaging physics lectures, Bilgin said, Butterworth played soccer with students, started a cricket club, and emphasized the value of small colleges like Williams. "He believed that learning should be hands-on and one-on-one, and was a big supporter of liberal arts education," Bilgin wrote in his nomination.
Bilgin said, "He taught his students how to think about the problems. In addition, he found ways to keep the attention of all the students who had different levels of interest in the subject."
"I love physics," said Butterworth. "I concentrate on the basics; I relate it to the real world; I have a laugh while I teach and so far it all seems to come out all right."
Bilgin remembers Butterworth’s generosity. "He had a big collection of books and movies when our school library consisted of a few reference books. He didn't hesitate to lend to his students," Bilgin remembers of his time at Ozel Inanc Lisesi, a secondary school in Turkey for gifted students from low-income families. (Butterworth is now chair of the science department at Uskudar American Academy in Istanbul.)
"I love laughter, and since stress is the biggest inhibitor to learning you have to use it -- a lot of students seem to get very stressed about physics!" Butterworth said after learning that he had won the prize.
Butterworth graduated from the University of Wales in 1986 with an honors degree in geology and geophysics. In 1993 he received his doctorate in geophysics and engineering from the University of East Anglia, and in 1995 he moved to Turkey to teach physics.
Andy Cai
In her essay nominating Cai, a math teacher at the Madeira School, Lauren Edmondson '06 describes how his mentorship became pivotal to her high school experience. "I would show him my poetry, and he would share his own amateur portfolio of incredibly beautiful photographs. It was a very simple moment -- a moment some other teachers perhaps would have congratulated me on and then forgotten about. But it was the start of an incredible exchange."
Cai was born in China and graduated from the University of Shanghai with a degree in mathematics. He was imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution and spent close to a year on a re-education farm. He immigrated to the United States in 1988 and worked odd jobs, often in restaurants, before returning to teaching, his profession of 20 years in Shanghai.
At Madeira, Cai teaches calculus, pre-calculus and advanced geometry, and coaches the math team. "He was awarded Master Teacher, the highest honor a Madeira teacher could receive, yet he remained humble and ceaselessly level-headed," said Edmondson, an English and history major.
"Mr. Cai created one of those classrooms I assumed existed only in movies. One where the boundaries between academics and life disappear. He taught me and all the other girls that his class wasn't just about algebra or geometry. It was about patience and trust -- patience to understand the problem in front of us; trust to realize that we could solve it."
In his note of acceptance, Cai quoted a Chinese proverb: "Being a teacher is the most beautiful job under the sun. Teachers are the engineers of man's mind and soul."
Scarlett B. Gaddy
Gaddy taught American government during her first two years of teaching at Hillcrest High School from the temporary space of a portable classroom in Alabama, but her words had lasting impact, Sarah Louise Smith '06 said in her nomination. "Mrs. Gaddy constantly reminded us that, as educated individuals, we could change what most pained and frustrated us about society," Smith wrote. "She approached each lesson with enthusiasm, presented issues with honesty, and moderated discussions with genuine interest in the outcome."
Smith also emphasized Gaddy's ability to bring politics to life, organizing mock elections and asking students to defend their political beliefs in class debates. "Coming from rural, conservative households and communities, many of my classmates had never before been challenged to defend their long-held beliefs," she wrote. "But Mrs. Gaddy encouraged all of us to think more critically about why we held those beliefs and to develop opinions about issues that we had never before considered."
Principal Jeff Hyche noted, "Gaddy is an active member and former president of the League of Women Voters, has been an integral participant in the group seeking the needed rewriting of our state constitution" and was committed to teaching for citizenship.
She graduated from the University of South Alabama in 1981 with a bachelor's degree in psychology, which she teaches in addition to government and economics. She is also the winner of numerous awards, including selection as one of 10 fellows statewide by the Alabama Best Practices Center.
Gaddy said of her goals as a teacher, "Knowledge of democracy and basic citizenship skills are vital to the continued success and existence of democracy." She wrote, "My ultimate objective is to create not only a base of knowledge for my students, but to create an interest or need to explore these subjects."
John A. Orefice, Jr.
Orefice, who has taught in New York for 29 years, was nominated by Charlotte Delaney '06. "He was my English teacher in ninth grade and my theater arts teacher in 12th grade," Delaney wrote. "What Mr. Orefice teaches, however, transcends the study of English or theater. I learned from Mr. Orefice how exciting learning could be. He made sure that I was constantly being stretched into unfamiliar, and sometimes intimidating, new territories.”
Delaney, a psychology and music major, described Orefice's role as producer of school shows since 1978. "He puts a piece of his soul into every show he directs, and under his direction, I invested a piece of my soul as well. Mr. Orefice's acting troupe was a second family to everyone involved." Hundreds of former students, who participated in his Sock'N'Buskin theatre program returned a few years back to collaborate with former classmates and recreate scenes and musical numbers representing a quarter century of theatre productions in his honor.
Orefice graduated from Colby College in 1975 and has taught at Pelham Memorial High School since 1980. "I am indeed fortunate to do something I love and feel it matters," Orefice said. "In the classroom I have attempted to educate the imagination by providing students with opportunities to invent and play as well as to study. In rehearsals I try to communicate the value of kindness and respect as well as commitment to the artistic process."
"When we did a show with Mr. Orefice, we didn't learn just about that particular show; we learned about art and music, speech and movement, history and social policy, love and loss, triumph and regret, the complexity of the human spirit and the infinite paths of creativity -- and, of course, about ourselves," Delaney said.
Sarah Grimke Taylor
In her nomination of Taylor, Nora Matell '06 praised her teacher's ability to broaden students' horizons at a high school with 20 students, two rooms, and just two other teachers. "Ms. Taylor is an amazing teacher, and her strength is in how she works to widen her students' horizons."
Taylor graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College in 1991, and has a M.A. from the University of California - Irvine. She taught English in the rural schools of California's Eastern Sierra region for 12 years.
"Teaching at a school with only 20 students and two other teachers poses challenges very different than the ones faced at typical high schools," wrote Matell. "As the only English teacher, she taught four different English classes as well as several elective classes and PE -- six or seven class periods a day. She arrived at school early and often left when the janitor kicked her out."
"She had high standards, and adjusted them even higher when it was fit, challenging me to write well and have interesting things to say," said Matell.
"Ms. Taylor challenged me. She encourages her students to look beyond the expected… that we had control over where we went in life. Ms. Taylor works to let students know that opportunities are out there, waiting. This idea of choices and possibility is one which I will remember for the rest of my life." |
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