Barbara Seavey
Born in Brewer, Maine, in 1909, Barbara Seavey earned a B.S. and an M.A. from the University of Maine and later an M.A in economics from Wesleyan University. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, she accepted a teaching position in Branford in 1947, where she spent all of her teaching career. Her courses included government (civics), American History, and senior seminar, but her forte was economics. For several decades she was the advisor to the student council. Through her efforts this group was able to create a scholarship fund that enabled many Branford students to attend college. Barbara was tireless in her efforts to get the community behind this endeavor, even enlisting students to do the leg work involved.
Another Student Council program she initiated is Youth in Government. From the outset, students formed their own political parties, developed platforms, and ran campaigns that culminated in a school-wide election using actual voting machines. The victors "held" town offices for one day, shadowing their official counterparts and learning first-hand what representative government is all about. Today this same program continues at BHS as a lasting legacy of a teacher who understood that learning is an active process and that authentic learning produces lasting learning. She also launched a program in which seniors took the train into New York City to attend sessions of the United Nations each October.
Barbara Seavey was strict and demanded respect and discipline. She set very high standards and expected all of her students to strive to meet them. In spite of (or perhaps because of) that, she was loved by her students. The dedication to the 1950 Milestone reads: "In appreciation of the many ways in which she has been so close to us, seeming one of us, for her deep understanding of high school youth and wonderful sense of humor, we, the Class of 1950, take great pleasure in dedicating this, our class book, to Miss Barbara E. Seavey."
She was also a caring and supportive mentor to new teachers. She respected them as equals and thereby created in them a feeling of confidence. She was always accessible to newer teachers who wanted to brainstorm and offered suggestions to help them achieve lesson objectives. She also encouraged newer, younger teachers to realize that teaching extended beyond the classroom.
One way in which she exemplified this in her own life was truly unique. A woman who loved learning, books, and children, Barbara Seavey maintained a free lending library in her home for students and children in her neighborhood, who could select from the hundreds of volumes that she had found at garage sales through the years. Eventually others started to add to the collection. This was a labor of love-her love for people, for learning, for passing on the blessings that life had given her.
Barbara Seavey left one more legacy to all of the teachers, and indeed to the entire town of Branford. No one, least of all Barbara Seavey went into teaching with the idea of becoming rich; however, they did expect to be treated with respect. Based on this, she was among a handful of teachers who founded the Branford Education Association. After a number of years during which teachers went door-to-door asking residents to sign petitions to raise their salaries, the teachers and like-minded citizens believed the situation was so demeaning as to be unacceptable. Considerable contention and disharmony were associated with issues such as earning a living wage, equal pay for women, and securing rights for maternity leave. Barbara was in the forefront, not, according to colleagues for self-interest, but because she believed in these rights. Her persuasive voice and steady assurance to uncertain teachers were an important factor in the early success of the BEA. When she arrived in Branford, teacher contract language cited as cause of dismissal a single woman's marriage; Barbara Seavey's tenure concluded with enactments that fostered equal rights for women teachers, as well as bargaining procedures for all teachers.
Another Student Council program she initiated is Youth in Government. From the outset, students formed their own political parties, developed platforms, and ran campaigns that culminated in a school-wide election using actual voting machines. The victors "held" town offices for one day, shadowing their official counterparts and learning first-hand what representative government is all about. Today this same program continues at BHS as a lasting legacy of a teacher who understood that learning is an active process and that authentic learning produces lasting learning. She also launched a program in which seniors took the train into New York City to attend sessions of the United Nations each October.
Barbara Seavey was strict and demanded respect and discipline. She set very high standards and expected all of her students to strive to meet them. In spite of (or perhaps because of) that, she was loved by her students. The dedication to the 1950 Milestone reads: "In appreciation of the many ways in which she has been so close to us, seeming one of us, for her deep understanding of high school youth and wonderful sense of humor, we, the Class of 1950, take great pleasure in dedicating this, our class book, to Miss Barbara E. Seavey."
She was also a caring and supportive mentor to new teachers. She respected them as equals and thereby created in them a feeling of confidence. She was always accessible to newer teachers who wanted to brainstorm and offered suggestions to help them achieve lesson objectives. She also encouraged newer, younger teachers to realize that teaching extended beyond the classroom.
One way in which she exemplified this in her own life was truly unique. A woman who loved learning, books, and children, Barbara Seavey maintained a free lending library in her home for students and children in her neighborhood, who could select from the hundreds of volumes that she had found at garage sales through the years. Eventually others started to add to the collection. This was a labor of love-her love for people, for learning, for passing on the blessings that life had given her.
Barbara Seavey left one more legacy to all of the teachers, and indeed to the entire town of Branford. No one, least of all Barbara Seavey went into teaching with the idea of becoming rich; however, they did expect to be treated with respect. Based on this, she was among a handful of teachers who founded the Branford Education Association. After a number of years during which teachers went door-to-door asking residents to sign petitions to raise their salaries, the teachers and like-minded citizens believed the situation was so demeaning as to be unacceptable. Considerable contention and disharmony were associated with issues such as earning a living wage, equal pay for women, and securing rights for maternity leave. Barbara was in the forefront, not, according to colleagues for self-interest, but because she believed in these rights. Her persuasive voice and steady assurance to uncertain teachers were an important factor in the early success of the BEA. When she arrived in Branford, teacher contract language cited as cause of dismissal a single woman's marriage; Barbara Seavey's tenure concluded with enactments that fostered equal rights for women teachers, as well as bargaining procedures for all teachers.