Jeffrey R. Ryan
2003 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year
Mr. Ryan has been teaching American and European History to years eleven and twelve at Reading Memorial High School for twenty-five years.

What are your beliefs about teaching?
“While I became a teacher because I love history and delight in telling stories, I have remained a teacher because, it is, essentially, my favorite thing to do and it gives me a chance to put my beliefs into practice. I teach for many other reasons, but the primary one is that education is the way that society perpetuates itself. While families pass on their lineage through procreation, cultures transmit their tradition, beliefs and knowledge through the institution known as school. School is a child’s first serious contact with the world outside of his family home, and is, therefore of vital importance to every young person. This places an immense responsibility on the teacher who has the potential to have a profound and permanent impact on the children in his charge.
I believe what I teach to be of life-altering importance. Nothing I discuss or assign is perfunctory or trivial. I frequently quote Howard Zinn’s recent remark, ‘History is a matter of life and death’ and I teach with the sense of urgency that these words imply. My students know that I believe that through knowledge and commitment we can learn how to save the world. My classes are always full of energy, passion, and fervor, because my students are the future of this planet, and they deserve nothing less.”

How are your beliefs incorporated in your teaching style?
“Sitting in a van driving through the settlement of Villa El Salvador in Lima, Peru, during the summer of 2001, I was able to see the faces of two students who had asked me to lead the humanitarian mission in which we were engaged. I could see the expressions on the faces of Shelby and Jessie as we drove from our hostel in Surco, one of the few affluent sections on the Peruvian capital, through the poorer outlying areas. The trip to Peru was a special example, but I have been involved in leading contingents of teenagers working soup kitchens, raising money in the Boston Walk for hunger and as the faculty advisor of Amnesty International. There is never a shortage of children willing to participate in the projects. That gives me immense hope for the future and glowing pride in the fine young people whose futures have been entrusted to my guidance.”

What is your greatest teaching accomplishment?
“Tuesday the 11th of September, 2001 was an unforgettable day to be a teacher. That morning I had to tell my students that our country had been attacked in the worst act of violence on our soil since Pearl Harbor. The following day my Amnesty International group organized a candlelight vigil on Reading Common. The ceremony was simple but graceful in a gentle, unpretentious sense. Our principal described the event as ‘the finest moment we have had’ and I heartily agree. It was an intensely moving experience, one where I saw that my own students were becoming the magnificent people I have always wished they would become. My children offered hope to themselves and to their town in a moment when it was desperately needed. While many Americans will remember September 11th as a day of tragedy, shock and horror, I shall forever recall September 12th as a day of renewal and redemption. While it did not occur in an ordinary classroom, it was without doubt, one of the high points in my life as a teacher and as a man.”

What's the most critical issue facing educators today
“As the classroom is a reflection of the wider society in which it exists, it is evident that the starkest issue facing America and its schools today is the one that has been our number one domestic problem almost from the beginning. That problem is racism. It is a problem that is sensitive and disturbing, and one that many people would wish that we not mention or discuss. Yet most of the dilemma which faces our nation can be traced back to the roots that racial bigotry has in our culture.

What do you think can be done to resolve this issue?
If the material relating to this issue is presented sensitively it can help to lance the boil of racism that has been festering among us for so many generations. I cannot pretend to have all the answers for the eradication of racism in this country. What I can do is offer a program that has garnered positive results. We owe it to our children to present an accurate picture of the world that they shall inherit. It is incumbent upon us as educators to do all we can to provide our students with the intellectual tools to shape a more harmonious future. Only through sincere and determined efforts by educators of this generation does the next generation have a hope of living in a hate-free world. I suggest that we commence without delay.”

One thought to inspire teachers to excel
“Howard Zinn recently said that ‘history is a matter of life and death, not just some dusty academic exercise.’ I try to convince my students of the truth of this statement, for only through understanding of the past can we have any hope of improving the future. Schools are the places where democracy is nurtured, where justice and freedom must be celebrated and preserved. Education gives the children the power whereby they can, in the words of President Kennedy ‘truly light the world.’ Let us continue this grand pursuit with determination and exuberance.”

One lesson every student should learn
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”(Martin Luther King quoting Theodore Parker, 1965).