It’s a Friday in April. I get up at 7:00 a.m. in Goodwin House. Mine is the apartment under the lobby and kitchen. The two floors above me are full of adolescent boys.

I drink a Diet Pepsi ® and eat a mozzarella stick, then I head to Wigg Hall to teach Ethics to sophomores first period. That’s a challenging class to teach. Students that age are very pure. They may not feel that clear again about right and wrong until they hit 40.

It’s a tough age to be. Students have to try on different positions, think them through. I have to decide how much to facilitate and how much to be silent.

It’s my fourth year here [2002-2003], but I’ve been teaching since 1979. I taught for 13 years as an associate professor of English and American Studies at San Jose State University. I also taught for five years at U Cal – Berkeley while I was getting my Ph.D. When I was a senior at Williams College, I helped team-teach the first women’s studies course there. I was only half a step (sometimes half a chapter!) ahead of the students, but I fell in love with helping people learn.

What I really care about is teaching. At San Jose State, my graduate seminars were full of students training to be high school teachers, and in my American Studies classes were students training to teach middle school students.

At mid-career I decided it was high time I gave myself to practicing what I’d preached. At the university, I taught adults who were raising families and developing careers while they went to school. Milton students have the luxury of spending all their time learning; I try to help those brains grow.

Students here are so full of passion, curiosity and conflict: They demand the best you can give them.

Second period is my free period, and I finish up my class preps for the day. Then I’m off to Ware Hall and climb the three and a half floors to teach Class V (Grade 8) English third period; my 11th graders arrive for American Literature fourth period. Then I have a half hour for lunch at Forbes. I hustle back for my sixth period American Literature class. I’m not teaching Advanced Creative Writing this year, but that’s usually also part of my teaching assignment.

After class I go to varsity softball practice. I’ve played and coached for 23 years. I was a catcher when I was a student at Milton; later, I played left field, first base, and pitcher, in the ASA (fast pitch) and USSSA (slow pitch).

Our Milton team is adjusting to changes in the ISL (Independent School League). Pitching in the league has become first rate, and we’re building up our pitching programs and trying to raise some pitchers.

I’m on duty this Friday night, so when I get back from softball practice, I (literally) put up a sign, and I’m available for those 32 people. I look at their blue cards [permission forms from parents] on the weekends; on my regular duty night, Sunday, I sit on the second floor of Goodwin House during study hall, from 7:30 to 9:30, making sure it’s quiet enough for folks to study, and tutoring students in English or U.S. History; at 10, I check them into the dorm for the night. If all else fails, I ply them with cookies.

Sometimes the boys will want a pot for cooking, some change for laundry, a wrench or a printer. It’s not quite like being a parent. You live with 32 energetic, funny, brilliant, dear people whom you didn’t raise. Sometimes, I stagger to vacation, but when I come back, I remember how much I love them.

The other faculty and staff on duty in Goodwin are Ned Bean of the Science department, our very gentle househead; Bob Tyler, also in Science, who lives next door with his family; Kevin MacDonald, in English and Athletics; Andre Heard, admission officer and track coach; and my partner Teresa HerrNeckar, who teaches math and advises several students in Goodwin. We’re all coaches. Our house staff meetings are a lot of fun.