Glasgow's work in education has allowed her to combine her interests in children, in classroom work and administration and in effecting social change. Her work experiences range from teaching third grade in a large public school to helping plan and implement small charter schools. Glasgow has just received a master's degree in education at Harvard University, and she is currently a learning specialist at the Excel Academy Charter School, a school she helped develop in East Boston.
Amherst educates an educator
Originally from Portland, Ore., Glasgow was a law, jurisprudence and social thought (LJST) major at the College. The summer after her junior year, Glasgow interned at the Washington, D.C. Superior Court House, where she realized that she wanted to work with children, instead of just for them. "Lawyers who work for kids don't really work with kids," she said. As a result of this realization, Glasgow reconsidered her decision to seek long-term employment in the field of child advocacy.
Glasgow's professors were one of her many influences at Amherst. In particular, Glasgow's advisor, Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science Austin Sarat, helped her to think seriously and analytically. "He questioned me. He made me think harder than anyone had before," she said. "I wrote my thesis about the voice of children in the legal system. He challenged that, and, as a result, I was forced to turn something I was passionate about into an academic subject."
Glasgow influenced Sarat as well. "Emily was the kind of student from whom teachers learn a lot, and I certainly learned a lot from teaching her," said Sarat. "That was especially true when we worked together on her senior honors project. There, her special gifts were amply displayed." Glasgow's thesis won the "Best Undergraduate Paper of the Year" award from the American Law and Society Association in 1998.
Glasgow also appreciates having the opportunity to make use of her volunteer experiences at the College. Service activities in shelters and classrooms, as well as the courses Reading, Writing and Teaching and Representing Domestic Violence, involved leaving campus and working with people in the real world. Glasgow also learned a great deal from the leadership and support roles she took on at The Student, in student government and as a resident counselor.
Glasgow has few complaints about Amherst. But primarily, she is disappointed by what she called a "corporate atmosphere" dominating most students' professional plans for the future, and by the lack of support for students choosing to go into education. However, she did note that Professor of English Barry O'Connell was a wonderful resource in that area.
Learning to become a teacher
Glasgow decided to plunge back into the classroom setting after graduation, this time as an educator rather than a student, through the program Teach for America. She spent her first year after college working as an elementary school teacher in a large public school in Oakland, Calif. According to Glasgow, her students were underprivileged and they fell far behind acceptable performance levels in the classroom.
She found the work challenging and emotionally difficult. "During my first year teaching, I beat myself up quite a bit ... I didn't think I was giving my students what they deserved," she said. "I didn't feel qualified to be doing such critical work without proper training."
However, Glasgow remained committed to her students, returning to Teach for America for a second year. Largely, this motivation developed from a close relationship she had with a student named Raymond, who passed away during the summer following their academic year together.
When Raymond's mother asked Glasgow to speak at his funeral, Glasgow realized the great impact she had on her students. "I had actually given my first students something very powerful. I realized that although I didn't have all of the skills of a teacher down yet, I had the heart and the love of a teacher ... and that, even in my first year, this had mattered quite a bit to at least one family," she said. "That's the story that drives me when the work gets hard."
Since her two years in Oakland, Glasgow has worked at Teach for America summer institutes and has trained new corps members in New York. She has discovered that the Teach for America program offers teachers important training and a unique and valuable lens on the world. The program also puts students in contact with skilled and inspirational educators.
"Teachers are agents of social change, leaders, people that inspire and shape places," Glasgow said. This idea, which is the basis for the Teach for America program, has had a lasting impact on both Glasgow's method of teaching, and on her future plans. She is committed to working with children of color in low-income urban populations, focusing on the need of communities and her ability to have a positive impact on families.
Building learning institutions
While working for Teach for America in Oakland, Glasgow became active in a movement to develop autonomous schools, like in-district charter schools. She was on the design team for the first project, the first new school built in Oakland in thirty years. She worked with teachers, other community members and the school district to help accomplish this goal. The school, which opened the following September, was based on the philosophy of "education about social justice."
Glasgow learned a great deal from the experience, which was a challenge as a result of the many decisions that needed to be made in the process. Ultimately, Glasgow found herself in a pivotal administrative role.
This experience prepared Glasgow for her current job, working at a start-up school based on a charter written in a fellowship program by Yutaka Tamura '94. Glasgow became the learning specialist and a founding teacher on the development team. After going through a six-week planning period, the development team opened the school this September. Glasgow is part administrator, part teacher, and she is in charge of special education and special needs.
A quest to improve the system.
Glasgow enjoys developing and implementing educational strategies. She finds teaching to be exhilarating. "Every day is different. You don't know what will happen when you walk in the door. You're dealing with little people who have crises in their lives all the time," she said. "It's exciting not to sit in a cubicle. It's exciting to be running and jumping around, to be with kids all day." However, Glasgow pointed out that the field has its failures, particularly in the condition of education across the nation and the world.
"If education doesn't improve, I'm not sure anything else will. It's very much the foundation, and it's a mess right now. It needs a lot of work," Glasgow said. Although her constant grapple with the question of how to improve education often leaves her with varying answers, right now she feels that a greater focus on teacher development is key.
She believes that the poor quality of teacher training relates in part to the idea that teaching is not an intellectual pursuit. "But there is a huge knowledge base, there is so much to learn about how to teach well-it's just not conveyed," she said. In Glasgow's opinion, if more teachers had access to that kind of learning, they would teach better and more easily meet individual student's needs in the classroom.
Glasgow rejects the notion that teaching does not make use of intellect or is misplaced as an academic pursuit. "There's a societal perception that elementary school teachers are not academic, but I haven't found anything that's challenged me more intellectually. [When you teach,] you're making decisions that matter for someone's life," she explained.
Glasgow's plans for her own future parallel her hopes for her field in general. She hopes to continue to make an impact, both on individual students and the larger educational system. She would like to eventually become a principal.
Glasgow also hopes to start another school someday, getting involved from the very beginning. "I have a group of friends in education all over the country, and we dream about starting a school together. If that happens, I'd love to be the principal. But we're not rushing it," she said.
Glasgow knows from experience that time is a crucial element when developing a school. She values all she has learned and is continuing to learn, and hopes to be able to do even greater work because of it all. "I want us to take our time, learn the lessons we need to learn, and bring it all together to make an amazing school."