About me

As a child, seeing the Egyptian mummies at the Museum of Fine Arts and the Metropolitan Museum of Art left me terrified, yet more importantly, fascinated.  I wondered who the people were, where they came from, and why they were buried with such treasures? I asked myself similar questions during visits to Plimoth Plantation and Sturbridge Village, and while exploring the pre-Civil War forts and WWII submarine observation posts on the islands of Portland’s (ME) harbor, during my school vacations. I read everything I could get my hands on about the Egyptians, the early Americans, and the settlers of Maine, and probed my father about his life growing up on a Portland Harbor island during World War II. My curiosity about the past was deepened by stories of the disputed origins of Stonehenge, the tragic history of Pompeii, and the lost city of Troy.  Like many a young student, I was captivated by the story of German businessman and amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, who, as an 8-year old boy in the early 19^th century, was determined to locate and excavate Troy. I dreamt of making similar discoveries.

As an adult, and educator,  my interest in the past is as strong as ever: I love reading history, visiting historical sites, and reveling in new historical discoveries. My appetite for artifacts was most certainly whet this past fall with the release of Neil MacGregor’s A History of the World in 100 Objects, the “Making History: Antiquaries in Britain” exhibit at Boston College’s McMullen Museum, and the Museum of Science’s “A Day in Pompeii.” As an educator, I want to open the past to my students, just as my parents and my teachers did for me. I believe object-based education, using artifacts, to be powerful. While reading about, and looking at pictures of, historical events and sites was for me as a child riveting and increased my curiosity, holding an artifact in my hand, with its tangible link to the past, was unbeatable. It immediately raised in my mind a slew of questions: What is it? What is it made of? Who did it belong to? What was it used for? What does it offer us to understand the past? I firmly believe using artifacts, which were less available to most educators when I was growing up, will nourish and encourage my students’ curiosity about the past. It will also meet head-on one of the great challenges of early childhood education: the development of both observation and critical thinking skills, which are used in historic and scientific inquiry.