Bartlett Walker is the new director of Opportunity for Change (OFC).
What do you teach and how do you interact with your students?
WelI, [I] like to refer to myself as a mirror. My interaction with students is usually contingent on their presentation, which is something we tend to work on here at OFC.
What is OFC all about?
OFC is a program designed to facilitate the successful social and academic intriculation of our students. The students who come here are students who primarily have had complications in their undergraduate experience based on some of the choices which have been counterproductive to their success. I laud Brookline for providing a program like this in order to help students get back on track. OFC is a program that’s designed to assist those students who may have affected their ability to successfully matriculate in four years and giving them the opportunity to compensate for some of the bad decisions that they may have made in the past, and a system of making more productive choices.
How long have you been teaching so far?
This will be my 14th year in academia.
When you were applying for this job, what kind of expectations did you have for this program and how have they been different or similar thus far?
Brookline was the first job that I applied for. They called me in for an interview. There’s a strong commitment to their students and the families that they serve. That was my perception. They have a somewhat rigorous interview process. I ended up having three or four interviews prior to being accepted for the position. That’s the first time I’ve ever been through such a rigorous hiring process and I realized that the purpose of that was to acquire the best in education. By the time I went to my second and third interview, I realized that this is a quality school and I wanted to be a part of it.
What kind of things do you like about BHS?
Commitment to the students, commitment to the families, the fraternity in the building amongst staff members. I was a very welcome part of it. I think one of the most difficult things for me to adapt to was the lack of a bell schedule. I didn’t realize how dependent I have become on bells even myself as a staff member, so that was an adjustment for me here. But in light of the credo “Freedom and Responsibility,” it makes perfect sense. I think it’s important not only for students but for staff as well to be aware of their surroundings and be responsible to fulfill their obligations without having to be reminded.
What did you teach before coming to BHS?
I taught history, ELA and math. That was my initial foray into education. I was hired in 2004 in Chelsea to become the director of the Chelsea High Alternative Program, which was located off-site. It was a separate school. After the first year, I was charged with integrating into the mainstream in order to ford the students the ability to access all the resources of Chelsea High School. We synchronized the schedule, and promoted greater student involvement in the culture of the school.
How similar or different from OFC was the program in Chelsea?
It was different in the fact that there was more challenging behavior; much of it was concentrated on students with behavior that was [detrimental] to their academic and social success. Our primary goal was to foster positive citizenship and get them to change their presentation in a way in which they could be successful in the classroom. OFC has a bit of a higher mission in that it’s not so concentrated in behavior but more so in academia. The staff members here are the pinnacles of their areas of study.
What do you find challenging with working with high school students?
The changing social dynamics in adolescent life. When I was growing up, certainly we had challenges, but the nature of the environment has changed so much. I think probably the most pointed example of the change is social media. When I was growing up, most of the socialization happened within schools, so you could get a sense of not only the interactions but also the challenges that students have, and I think that much of that information happens in a cyber environment instead of in the school setting.
What do you find rewarding about working with high school students?
Adolescents tend to be more capable of change than do adults. The ability to assist students in decisions and changing in ways that facilitate their learning both socially and academically is probably the most exciting and rewarding capacity that I have working with adolescents.
Did you always know that you were going to work with high school students?
No, I didn’t. I was late coming to the educational game. I was a graduate assistant in college and I recruited for the graduate school and at that point I really wasn’t sure how I was going to pursue or what profession I was going to pursue. I had a friend that was in education and realized that I had a couple of degrees and they were in need of competent staff in Arlington. I pursued it, and got into education, and found it very rewarding.
Was there anyone that really inspired you to pursue this career?
I guess for a long time I was under the illusion that I was going to pursue a career in athletics. Many of the people I admired were in athletics. I guess when I got to be about 24 years old I realized that professional sports was not the way I was going to go and I had to make an alternate decision. I’ve been more inspired by some of the peers that I’ve worked with since getting into education than myself as an adolescent.
Which sport do you enjoy the most?
I’m an avid golfer now. I like the fact that golf is a meritocracy. You are as good as you can make yourself. You are the only one responsible for both your successes and failures. It requires a certain amount of introspection and self analysis, which can be difficult at times. Usually when you have to overcome adversities that are difficult, it inherently makes you a better person, and I think that the game of golf has afforded me all the same challenges that the sports I played as an adolescent. At the same time it doesn’t matter where you came from, what you look like, what you’re wearing. The clarity of that relationship between being a player and the game is quite inspiring once you overcome some of the difficulties.
What kinds of things do you like to do outside of school?
I’m an angler. I like to fish in the ocean, love the ocean. Fishing and golfing are two passions of mine. I also have two Scottish terriers that take up a lot of my time—Brooklyn and Bronx, they’re my boys. And I have a seven year old daughter who is just entering third grade, so outside of that, I consider myself fortunate that I can take advantage of the things that I do at present.
What is your favorite activity and why do you enjoy it?
I like drawing. My proclivity for drawing has always helped me as an educator. A lot of times you incorporate a certain visual cue and your learning tends to stimulate interest in many adolescents now, since many of them are into art and graffiti. It’s a good hope by which to stimulate their interest in the material. You can take that interest and transition it into the academic necessities of high school.
What is your favorite type of art?
I like realistic art. It’s probably the most appealing thing to me. When I go to art galleries the ability to bring out the essence of the person through pencil, paint and brush, has always fascinated me.
Do you have any advice for students?
I used to have a quote behind my desk, “The dreams for our future are not limited by the history of our past.” That is applicable because as an adolescent you have to pay attention to what you can control, not what you can’t control. Your history in the past is not necessarily something that you can control. Your futures are in complete control simply by the choices that you are making in your existence, and you are in complete control of how one thinks [of] the decisions.
Lizzy Filine can be contacted at [email protected].
