A Conversation with high school English teacher Diane Bahrenburg M’01
By Diane Goodrich
Diane Bahrenburg appears to be almost always in motion.
“Mark!” she hollers over her shoulder to the blond boy in Colchester High School’s Room 115 holding a file. “Here’s your reviewer!” Then she turns to me and directs me to a chair. “You can be our audience! Mark missed the public speaking class. You don’t mind, do you?”
Diane keeps the conversation moving, like herself, directing you along her expectations. When Mark finishes his oral report, he is congratulated, I am thanked, and we both feel pretty good about ourselves.
Diane apologizes for the delay in getting started with our interview, but the interview seems like a dénouement. Her energy, dedication, organization and intelligence are as apparent as her blond hair and absorbing green eyes. But with equal interest in and patience with me as she had in Mark, she answers my questions that can’t quite capture the skill and focus of a 29-year veteran of teaching whose energy, if bottled, could probably power her home state of Minnesota.
DG: What made you choose the master’s degree program at Saint Michael’s?
DB: Just to know that the Graduate Education program offered courses like “Spirituality in Education” and “Drama as a Teaching Tool” tells you that Saint Mike’s knows teachers! The instructors were excellent and the education rigorous.
DG: Why do you think you were chosen 2008-2009 Teacher of the Year by the Vermont Department of Education?
DB: I love teaching and I’m very involved with kids, advocating for them, establishing service opportunities for them. I’m a notary – I register 20 kids a year to vote. I don’t just teach English; I teach kids.
DG: What led you to teaching and to Vermont?
DB: I taught at an international school in Malaysia, uprooting my three boys, then in grades 2 to 8, and my husband, David, who is also a teacher at Colchester High School. I thought this would give them the experience of living and learning another culture. It was a great experience, but the school was socially and economically homogeneous. I committed then to help all kids. Vermont’s sense of community means I can network easily with other teachers, community members, the higher ed circles, the political circles, and draw them in to what we’re doing.
The fact that in his Senate address on my award as Teacher of the Year, Pat Leahy ’61 noted that we both graduated from the same college, gives you that true sense of community. (Said Leahy: “As an alumnus of Saint Michael’s College, I would be remiss if I failed to note that Diane received her Master’s in Education degree from Saint Michael’s in 2000. I believe that she embodies the core principles of the college’s education programs with her skill in maintaining an inclusive classroom, while keeping a balance between challenge and support and between individual and community.”)
DG: What do you particularly enjoy about teaching high school?
DB: Adolescence is fascinating. In ninth grade, kids are ready to step into the adult world and are ready to discuss ideas. They have so many stories to tell! They’re picking their path, but it’s a privilege to help them do this.
