Chatham’s favorite Poster Collector—An Interview With Dr. E

In the Chatham Hall community, "Dr. E" is known for her lively classroom, filled with posters and a small collection of stuffed animals. The posters, she said, are there for students to rest their eyes on if they start to zone out in class—though, with her vibrant teaching, I find that to be highly unlikely. Her menagerie of posters includes those that help illustrate the literature she teaches in class, such as posters advertising the movie adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays, as well as a depiction of David Bowie encouraging students to read. She also has posters up that she got when she was teaching AP US history, which are more history and culture-related. According to Dr. E, the poster with the most interesting story is a one she got in Nashville, Tenn. She said that this is a “poster honoring women who have made and continue to make a difference through song. The poster is entitled 'Song Suffragettes: Let the Girls Play!' A clever poster with a clever title.”

 

While these posters adorn her walls, stuffed animals call the cot by her window home. Dr. E’s favorite of her collection is her Kermit the Frog. She said, “When I was little I was a big fan of Sesame Street, and I loved to imitate Kermit’s voice and facial expressions. In fact, if I had known how to get an internship or a job at Sesame Street, I would have, and would have happily spent my career providing voices for puppets and writing storylines for them.” When I inquired about her Curious George, she said that she might have gotten him for her husband, Dr. Spearman, who loves Curious George. Dr. E grew up checking out the massive collection of Curious George stories from her local public library and reading it voraciously as a child. She says that The Man with the Yellow Hat’s hat reminds her of a banana to this day. 

The bulletin board outside Dr. E’s classroom is decorated with this year’s edition of the embroidery project she pairs with the completion of The Scarlet Letter in her Advanced English III class. When she first introduced this project, she felt that she was copping out, however, when the juniors who did the project were working on their college essays, the project was found quite useful. She found that the reflection required by the written portion of the project helped them with the necessary self-insight that comes with writing a personal essay. Though this project requires an amount of knowledge about embroidery on the students (or at least, how-to tutorials on the internet), Dr. E doesn’t know how to embroider. Despite her lack of knowledge in this specific area of fiber arts, she has prior experience in other areas. Her great aunt Mary taught her how to crochet when she was a child, and Dr. E enjoyed this craft until she got too wrapped up in her schoolwork, which is something she regrets in hindsight. Though she has the supplies and has made attempts at knitting, it has been to no avail. Dr. E is an eclectic woman of many wonders, and is an integral part of the Chatham Hall community.