Caitlin Cahill is a 2006 graduate of Wellesley College who majored in French and minored in religion. Following her graduation, she began teaching in the New York City schools as a New York City Teaching Fellow. Last year, she won a Mary Elvira Stevens Traveling Fellowship to travel to France, England, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway and Finland to study how these countries teach their official languages to their immigrant populations.
Caitlin has been documenting her trip via her blog and was kind enough to share some of her travels and insights with us.
Just like Paris, as soon as I begin to feel settled and secure, it’s time to take off again, this time from London to Dublin. Such is the life of traveling fellow! I’ve made some really wonderful friends here who have made my London life so much richer. I’ve been saying “yes!” to every activity that friends have suggested, visiting museums and schools, eating English cuisine, going on tea/coffee dates and wandering the city.
I spent an amazing weekend with my friend Kara in Oxford. It was lovely to spend time with an old friend and be able to say things like, “Remember when…” and laugh about how hard we thought life was when we were 19 years old. It has been wonderful meeting so many new people and making new friends but being with a friend who has witnessed your life for the last 10 years is a special thing. Especially a friend that was also a roommate; she had a ring-side seat!
When she and I were meandering around Oxford we spotted a woman with a Wellesley sweatshirt on and so I said, “Wellesley?!” and she said “Yes!” Then she asked us if we were students and we had a little laugh and a sigh and said, no, unfortunately we were no longer students at Wellesley. We chatted a bit and then she directed us to the Turf Tavern where we sat for a long time- chatting over pints- in the very place where Bill Clinton didn’t inhale.
I also took a day trip yesterday with my teacher-friend Anna to Canterbury, which was excellent. We took a walking tour of the city (led by a former history teacher who reminded me of Peter Ferguson), warmed up with Moroccan food, explored the Cathedral and its murderous history, wandered around and ate more.
Both Anna and Kara did Teach For America and over the last few days I’ve been thinking about our experiences in education. It’s remarkable how many friends I have who are in education and, in a very Captain Planet type of way, I really believe that with our powers combined, we could do such great things. The problem is that everyone feels so alone, overwhelmed and inadequate. This needs to change. TFA and Teaching Fellows tried to provide professional networks for us that were meant to support us in those dark days of teaching but they were insufficient. We need networks based on personal relationships and mutual support, not on how to get the best test results by tomorrow.
I’ve been thinking about what to do when I return. I feel committed to teaching in NYC. I believe that we need people in schools who care, who are willing to work hard, who know their stuff and who know how to connect with students, parents and colleagues. I also love being in schools- I find them really exciting. And I just love kids. But people keep on asking me what’s next with this project, “Will you write a book? Will you get a PhD? You need to share what you’re doing with others!” I love that people in all fields have taken an interest in what I’m doing. As I continue on my journey I need to start thinking about what to do with all of my notebooks of notes and thoughts that are flying around in my brain.
But for now, it’s time to continue on my journey. In the last few days, I secured a place to stay in Dublin at the beginning of my Irish adventure, arranged two meetings with Dubliners, bought my plane ticket to Spain, reserved my place in a Spanish school in Granada and Cadiz, arranged for school visits in southern Spain (which required me to write emails in Spanish, ay dios!), wrote to contacts in Norway to plan my visit in May and made plans with people here to say a final “Cheerio!”