Teaching Teaching
In April of his senior year at Colby, Ed Ducharme '55 was asked by Professor of Education Norman Smith what he wanted to do with his life. "I really hadn't put much thought into it," he recalled. "[Smith] then asked if I'd ever thought about teaching and if I'd like to be nominated for a full scholarship to Harvard for a master's in education. I said, 'Sure.'"
A year later Ducharme had his Harvard master's and was on his way to becoming one of the most respected teacher educators in the country. He has written more than 50 articles, essay reviews and encyclopedia and book chapters on the subject.
Currently professor of education at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, Ducharme also serves as co-chair of the department of teacher education and curriculum studies along with his wife, Mary. They are co-editors of the Journal of Teacher Education, a leading educational journal.
Last summer Ducharme's first book, The Lives of Teacher Educators, was published by Teachers College Press. The book followed his appointment in 1993 as the Ellis & Nelle Distinguished Professor of Education at Drake-one of the college's highest honors.
He says his accomplishments are a far cry from his childhood experience. "Growing up in a household with non-college-educated parents . . . you don't dream large, you don't know about all the opportunities," said Ducharme, who was reared in Dover, N.H., and in Waterville. "But college wasn't an issue. My dad drilled it into our heads that we were going to college."
Ducharme says he and his brother, Raymond '53, both attended Colby because it was affordable and close to home. Raymond is on the faculty at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., in the department of child studies.
"Colby was such an eye-opener for me in terms of learning about education and knowledge," said Ducharme, an English major. "It was wonderful to find out that people cared about teaching and learning."
Ducharme had a short stint in the army after receiving his master's. In 1958 he took a job teaching English at New Rochelle High School in New York. It was there, he says, that he decided to get a Ph.D. and move on to higher education.
"There were really three reasons why I decided to leave," he recalled. "I saw several people who had run out of gas and were really short-changing the kids, and I didn't want to end up like them. I had worked with a few teachers and student-teachers and saw that I could really help. And I was feeling restless."
Ducharme received his doctorate from Columbia University Teachers College in 1968. He took a job at Trinity College in Washington, D.C., followed by an appointment at the University of Vermont, where he was on the faculty for 19 years. He took early retirement from UVM and is a professor emeritus after serving as dean of the College of Education and Social Services.
His enthusiasm for teaching about teaching has never waned. "There are certain things that make some people good teachers," said Ducharme, who has five children, two of whom also are teachers. "You have to have a deep and profound love and respect for what you are teaching, you have to love, trust, understand and have faith in kids, you must have a sense of humor, and you have to have a willingness to always question. A distrust of other human beings is what makes a poor teacher."
His faith in teachers and students is what he says makes the recently published book The Bell Curve so frustrating. He says the book, which concludes that different races have innate intellectual capabilities that produce differences in social class, is simply a validation of people's darkly held views. "If what is said in The Bell Curve is true," said Ducharme, "then there is no need for places like Colby College."
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