AUBURN – With most of his students graduated and gone from the building, Edward Little High School teacher Greg Perkins had a small class Tuesday: juniors Abby Roy and Ivy Lyon.

It was one of his last classes.

Called an “Edward Little icon” by Assistant Principal Jim Horn, Perkins is retiring after 43 years. Perkins estimates he’s taught about 4,000 students — 80 to 100 students a year. He’s also coached field hockey, softball and girls lacrosse.

At 64, he’s spent most of his life in the school. He graduated from Edward Little, Class of 1968. After college, he returned in 1972 to teach psychology at a time it wasn’t commonly offered in high schools.

He reflected Tuesday on changes in education.

“One of the increasing challenges we’re having in every subject is for a lot of these kids there are so many technology distractions. It makes it hard for them to focus on reading and learning,” he said. While technology does enhance learning in many ways, “more and more every year I hear kids say, ‘I’ve never sat down and read a book.’”

In study hall some are more likely to watch a movie on their iPad than read a book, he said. Students are so tied to iPads and phones, reading books “is becoming a lost art.”

Another change at Edward Little is the population. Edward Little has between 900 to 1,000 students a year. “When I started teaching we had 1,600 kids,” and that was only three classes: sophomores, juniors and seniors. Ninth-graders went to Walton.

“We had students from Poland, Minot and Mechanic Falls,” he said. There were so many students, “we were on a staggered schedule. That was the only way we could fit them in.” After the Poland Regional High School was built, Auburn freshmen came from Walton to Edward Little.

As for students, the 1970s was the end of the hippie movement and the Vietnam War. “The idea of challenging authority was there,” Perkins said. Students were quick to challenge teachers.

In the Reagan years of the ’80s, “students became Young Republicans instead of rebellious hippies.” During the last three decades Perkins hasn’t noticed major changes in students. Each class takes on its own personality, he said.

He said he has enjoyed teaching and will miss the intellectual exchange with students. “They ask good questions,” he said.

He has a lot of good to say about students. Too often, “all you hear about are the kids who cause problems. The vast majority are really good kids. I don’t think I’ve had to ask a kid to leave the class since the ’80s.”

His class is an elective; he has the luxury most teachers don’t in that his students don’t have to be there. Still, he employs a few techniques to keep students engaged.

“If you came in the room during a normal class you’d see desks are set up in a horseshoe. Everyone’s in the front row. I have eye contact with everybody.”

If he sees a student about to text, students know even though “‘he’s the ‘old guy,’” they can’t do that. “I make my expectations clear. I treat them like adults. They act that way back to me,” Perkins said.

Early in his career he planned to teach history, but the school needed a psychology teacher. He discovered he liked it. Psychology helps students understand human behavior and development, which helps them understand themselves and others, Perkins said.

Students learn about things such as the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which controls reasoning and judgment, which isn’t fully developed until at least the mid-20s. It’s one reason adolescents sometimes react irrationally.

His retirement plans are to continue coaching field hockey in the fall and lacrosse in the spring. “I can’t stop cold turkey,” he said with a smile.

During the winter he plans to haul his teardrop trailer behind his Subaru and visit a few states he has yet to see.

Through teaching he’s learned tolerance and understanding. “For many kids life is a much bigger challenge than we’d like it to be,” Perkins said. “Sometimes kids have bad days.”

His advice for young teachers is: don’t have an ego.

“A good teacher learns as much from students as students learn from them,” Perkins said.

bwashuk@sunmediagroup.net

 

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