| Science: Faculty |
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Faculty Research Download a pdf version of the paper.
Ned’s academic and professional focus has always been science. He majored in Environmental Science at Middlebury College and has a background in genetics. Upon graduating, Ned spent a year as a teaching intern at Saint Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire. He next taught at Peddie School in New Jersey where he began his independent school track: teaching, coaching and participating in residential life. In Ned’s biology and chemistry classrooms, students are encouraged to ask the questions that will help them work toward their own conclusions. “At Milton, students seek a level of understanding and explanation that we (teacher and students) reach collaboratively,” he explains. “As a teacher, you have to be prepared for students’ inquiry—that’s where [teaching becomes] interesting. When a student asks me, “Why should I do this? Why do you think it’s a good idea?” my stock answer has become, “Why do you think it’s a good idea?” The big difference with Milton students is that I can say that and it’s not received as my not knowing the answer; rather, the students understand that I have confidence in their ability to figure the problem out themselves.” The residential life side of Ned’s School life is focused in Goodwin House, where he has been the head for nearly ten years. “My favorite thing about Goodwin House is that we’re on East Campus, set slightly apart from administrative and classroom buildings. As a collective community, we’re in a physical environment that is pastoral. We can ‘check out’ for a short time. We still have to do all the work, but as far as the geography, the setting is fertile ground for building long-lasting relationships.” Ned also credits the Goodwin staff with making the house a wonderful place to live and work. “A stable adult community in the dorm is likely to mean a stable community of students. If the students perceive the adults’ mentality to be ‘This is our home, this is our space, we share these things together,’ they sense that degree of security and attachment, and it filters through.” Never one to take himself too seriously, or allow life to become routine, Ned maintains a wide variety of hobbies and interests. Before he began teaching, he managed a nightclub in Martha’s Vineyard owned by Carly Simon, which drew big name performers like the Blues Brothers, Bonnie Raitt and James Taylor. These days, Ned spends his downtime as a beekeeper with hives all over Milton. He restores old cars, recently reviving a 1973 Corvette with his daughter Alex ’07. He dabbles in various civic organizations, spends time at his house in Vermont, and continues to train his six-year old Newfoundland, Otis, to be a therapy dog. First and foremost, however, as a parent he spends as much time as possible “engaging and supporting the things [his] children like to do.” This theme rings true in Ned’s connection with all the young people in his life: “If I have the luxury of working with students who are curious and motivated to learn, what I’m really trying to teach them is how to be successful for the rest of their lives. It doesn’t matter if it’s math or biology or chemistry or peer counseling—the students are working hard to acquire a skill set. We’re engaged in the business of building character so that these young people can go on to make successful decisions.”
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Faculty
John
E. Bean (1993) Matthew
K. Bingham (1998) Darcy Corson (2007) Michael
Duseau
(2004) Michael
Edgar (2000) Linda
S. Eyster (1990) Lida
Famili (1987)
Thomas A. Gagnon (1992) James
C. Kernohan (1988) James
L. LaRochelle (1996) Elizabeth Lillis (2006) Kelly McQuighan (2007) Bradley
Moriarty
(2004) Kimberly Samson (1993) Thomas
W. Sando (1988) Robert
S. Tyler (1988) |
Ned Bean has been teaching science for nearly thirty years, 15 of those at Milton. “The beauty of being at Milton is that the students are so diverse—what they enjoy, what they’re good at. No two people have the same background, the same skill set, or the same strengths and weaknesses.”