A Taste for Change
Pat Green, the newest member of TC's Board of Trustees, is a Barnard graduate who earned an M.A. in Curriculum & Teaching at Teachers College. She's been a New York City public school teacher; a political wife (her husband was the late Congressman S. William Green, who from 1978 to 1992 represented the district that included Manhattan's Upper East Side); the chair of Barnard's Board of Trustees; and a longstanding supporter of TC. Her past involvement with the College includes service on both the Alumni Council and the President's Advisory Council, helping to renovate the campus and, most recently, generously supporting The Campaign for Educational Equity. Below she talks about her past experiences and what she hopes to accomplish on TC's board.
Pat Green, the newest member of TC's Board of Trustees, is a Barnard graduate who earned an M.A. in Curriculum & Teaching at Teachers College. She's been a New York City public school teacher; a political wife (her husband was the late Congressman S. William Green, who from 1978 to 1992 represented the district that included Manhattan's Upper East Side); the chair of Barnard's Board of Trustees; and a longstanding supporter of TC. Her past involvement with the College includes service on both the Alumni Council and the President's Advisory Council, helping to renovate the campus and, most recently, generously supporting The Campaign for Educational Equity. Below she talks about her past experiences and what she hopes to accomplish on TC's board.
What do you value most from your student days at TC?
"The professors were truly inspirational. I studied with Professor [Howard] Fehr, in math. All of us in his class had been trained in old math, where you go out and memorize those times tables. On the first day he said to us, -'You've all been taught wrong and I'm going to teach this material to you all over again.' He didn't mean that the facts we'd learned were wrong; he meant that we'd learned areas like arithmetic in a way that had no connection to the kind of math people learn later on. And I don't think there was a single person in the class who wasn't mesmerized. We couldn't wait to get out there and do it as he did."
What's different about TC today?
"I think that Arthur Levine has really revitalized and reorganized the school in the time he's been here, right down to the wonderful physical changes in the campus. I do love old buildings, but sometimes you have to do some work on them! Also, while TC has always been a resource for the City and its leaders, right back to the days when it ran its own model schools, it is perhaps even more of one right now-'"in part because of all the positive new things the City is trying to do with the schools."
Why do you want to serve on TC's board?
"I've been involved with TC since I got my degree, but this is a particularly significant time. The Campaign for Educational Equity is so important. It uses all of the College's strengths, from research to learn what works in schools, to our ability to train teachers and administrators, to putting the findings of that research into practice. Having such a cohesive mission galvanizes the whole institution. It's a sign of a place that's constantly evaluating and adjusting what it does and why. And that's how a great institution becomes even better."
Published Tuesday, Apr. 25, 2006
