This June, the Haverford Community says goodbye to a one-of-a-kind English teacher.
Arriving at Haverford in 2019, Ms. Harnett has served the community for the past six school years. Ms. Harnett is a faculty advisor for the Honor Council and an upper school English teacher.
Every student who has encountered her acknowledges that she is a great writer. You don’t often find people who write for The Atlantic, Harper’s Magazine, and more.
“You don’t get in those magazines unless you’re a heavy hitter,” History Department Chair Ms. Hannah Turlish said. “We’re all replaceable, but sometimes when I say that, I feel like some people aren’t, and I feel like Ms. Harnett is one of those people.”
In addition to her writing talents, Ms. Harnett comes in every morning with a smile on her face, ready to inspire many high school boys. She has a passion for educating young people, as she aims to ensure all her students never stop wanting to learn.
“There are just so many forces in the world that have conspired to make education less about learning but about these arbitrary metrics of success,” Ms. Harnett said. “So many forces in the world have instrumentalized education, have kept education from being about learning and made it about your future job, your earning potential.”
That’s not what Ms. Harnett taught her students.
“Learning makes you a more interesting person, and that makes life more interesting as a result.”
Ms. Emily Harnett
“If there’s one thing that I try emphasizing to [my] students is the idea that you should learn not to make money one day, not to get a college degree, but to learn because learning is how you flourish as a human being,” Ms. Harnett asserted. “Learning makes you a more interesting person, and that makes life more interesting as a result… You should want to learn so that you don’t spend your life being bored. Loving learning for its own sake is the only way to avoid that consequence.”
Recalling on the memories of “the camaraderie of a boys school, the shenanigans that you encounter in a boys classroom,” and the community’s past mischief, Ms. Harnett said, “Of course there’s things that you have to curve, that you have to corral, [that] you have to keep them from disrupting the learning environment. But, I think if all of a sudden students out of nowhere stop bursting balloons in class, or at least having the impulse to burst water balloons in class, I’d be alarmed.”
Ms. Harnett said, “Learning should be fun, or the highest form of fun that could possibly be had. I do see to some degree it’s a good sign that students are having fun in the classroom even if they are having fun in the ‘wrong way.’”
Ms. Harnett also mentioned that while she loves “teasing the students and dunking on them and giving them a hard time,” she is ultimately “impressed by their resilience.”
“We’re able to set high expectations for students here,” Ms. Harnett said. “While students may grumble about it, ultimately, they just put their heads down and do their best. I’m not sure that you can find that at every school.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.