• Sue Sadler

      Head of School

Thanking Miss Bloom
The task of the excellent teacher is to stimulate apparently ordinary people to unusual effort. The tough problem is not in identifying winners, it is in making winners out of ordinary people.
-Patricia Cross
When I walked into my first day of sixth grade, I think I fell just a little bit in love with my new teacher. It was Miss Bloom’s first year of teaching at my elementary school, and she was by far the coolest person I had ever seen with her stylish haircut, white Go-Go boots and peace sign earrings. Not to say that I didn’t have great teachers up to that point, but Miss Bloom was in an altogether different universe. I could even imagine Miss Bloom outside of the classroom, and that was a new concept for an eleven-year-old.

Maybe I was just more open to learning from someone who had really caught my attention, but sixth grade was the year when I understood I had something to offer the world. Miss Bloom saw something inside me that other teachers had missed, and she spent the year coaxing that out of me and every other one of her students (except one Randy Delaney, a heart throb and definitely the bad boy of the sixth grade). I had always been a good student, that wasn’t new, but something about her belief in me changed the way I thought of myself.  
Changing friendships, changing bodies, altogether too much attention to the aforementioned Randy Delaney….suffice it to say that it was a grenade waiting to explode amongst the sixth-grade girls at my elementary school. When I found myself on the wrong side of my group of friends, Miss Bloom helped me find my way back. I don’t remember ever telling her what happened, but somehow she seemed to know, and orchestrated a truce and, eventually, a return to normalcy.  
I never really thanked Miss Bloom, beyond following her around all moony-eyed. I am pretty sure she knew how I felt, since I jumped up to help whenever she asked, and I overdid every assignment she gave (oh, and yes, the word brown-nose did get tossed around by my classmates). Alas, it’s only in the rear view mirror that I can really appreciate the confidence leap she encouraged me to take.  
Which brings me to my point- teachers can make all the difference in a girl’s life, and never know it. Small things can have a big impact for the better, as Miss Bloom’s encouragement did for me. I will forever be grateful for this one woman’s faith in me. In my own way, I try to pay that forward with each one of our girls here. During this season of gratitude, perhaps you will recall someone you appreciate from your own school days, or encourage your children to thank teachers who make a difference for them.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

Located in Baltimore, Maryland, The Bryn Mawr School is a private all-girls pre-kindergarten, elementary, middle and high school with a coed preschool for ages 2 months through 5 years. Bryn Mawr provides students with exceptional educational opportunities on a beautiful 26-acre campus within the city limits. Inquisitive girls, excellent teaching, strong student-teacher relationships and a clear mission sustain our vibrant school community where girls always come first.