Some people know what they want to be when they grow up — much to the dismay of their little brothers.
“My brothers still tease me about making them come home [from school], get a snack and go right to the basement where I had a chalkboard,” said Bessie Spears, head of The Ethel Walker School in Simsbury, with a laugh.
She’d be the teacher, her brothers the reluctant students. And she thought it was a lovely way to spend an afternoon.
Spears’ teaching gig in the basement was just for fun. So to earn a few extra dollars, she babysat around her neighborhood, putting her older sister sense of responsibility to good use. She left every house with the children tucked in, the kitchen spotless and the evening’s mess all tidied up.
Meanwhile, the “wad of cash” in her wallet grew so big that she said even family members would ask to borrow a few bucks.
Babysitting To Boarding
Spears occasionally toyed with careers other than education, like a brief fantasy of a journalism career. But in the end, she parlayed an English degree from Middlebury College into a job in the boarding schools department at the National Association of Independent Schools.
The position kept her chatting with admissions directors at boarding schools around the country, and it instilled in her an immense appreciation for education with a residential component.
“I think it was just kind of a continuation of never wanting to leave school,” Spears said.
From that experience on, she never left school again.
Spears worked in admissions at The Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor. Then, it was off to Baltimore to work at The Bryn Mawr School, where she served as director of admission and financial aid, taught English and coached varsity tennis. She had children and moved to the Calvert School, also in Baltimore. Then, it was Episcopal Academy in Pennsylvania, where she tried the higher ranks on for size, as assistant head of school and dean of faculty.
Ethel Walker, the latest stop on her career path, was everything she was looking for in a school, Spears said.
Now, she lives on campus, footsteps from work and her students. In fact, just the other night, some of the campus residents were over at her place for ice cream with her family.
MY FIRST DOLLAR
