For over three decades, Ted Collins has taught social studies and coached cross-country and track and field in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, at Monument Mountain Regional High School. The district includes students from the neighboring communities of Stockbridge and West Stockbridge. Now, Collins is the recipient of the 2026 William Spratt Award for Excellence in Teaching Secondary Social Studies by the Massachusetts Council for Social Studies. He recently sat down with WAMC.
COLLINS: I benefit from having done it for a really long time. I benefit from having six children of my own. After years and years of experience with teenagers, a lot of it is just being able to read the room, kind of know where you are on a given day. And some days you can kind of produce more and go harder. And some days, you know you just need to ease back and kind of figure out what you're going to do. But whenever you're engaged in a conversation that seems to be going somewhere and people are engaged in, you really kind of follow that right to the end.
WAMC: Is there an example from your approach to this- Like, a particular sort of arc you take students through that you think sums up or captures the spirit of that approach?
If I take economics or psychology, I like to kind of drop something near the end of class that gets them talking or agitated. So, if you can kind of get them bothered or questioning things- Actually, the best feeling is when the class ends and they're talking about the subject as they're leaving the room. So, you kind of want to touch a nerve, not in a negative way, but in something that sort of gets them inspired to kind of get after it and talk to each other about it in the hallway or as they're leaving classes is the best feeling for me.
One of the endless narratives about young people and young students is the sense of pessimism that often pervades conversations in the in the public sphere. From your experience working on the ground with kids in 2026, what do you think about that? Is that a misrepresentation of where young people are at right now?
I think it's a complete misrepresentation of where young people are at right now. They are excited and generous and they really want to learn, and they have a lot on their plate, but if you can get them back into the classroom where they're not distracted by anything else, they're just as good or better than any of the students I've had for the last 30 years. So, we have a lot of wonderful young people in our schools who want opportunities, and they want to learn, and they're really excited to learn. So, I think it is a misrepresentation to say they're cynical or passive or lazy.
If you had to give advice to a young teacher just starting out- Like, what would you tell a young Ted after 30-something years in the profession that you've learned over that time about what makes a teacher capable of success in this often-challenging role?
I guess the two simple analogies are, first, you have to read the room. I think that's the most important thing on a day-to-day basis, is to kind of get the level of where your students are coming into you at. And then the second thing is another kind of silly coaching analogy, but I say all the time- Do you know how you threw a good pass? Well, you know, they caught the ball. So, same thing with teaching. Do you know how you taught a good lesson? They grasped the lesson. So, it's not about necessarily what the subject you're teaching is. It's about whether it's being received and processed and caught, basically.
When you think back over the last 30 years, are there any particular moments or memories that stand out to you as an a-ha moment, or, oh, this has locked me into this career path, and it's sort of brought it all home for me. I mean, 31 years, that's- You clearly are hooked on this job. So, was there a moment, maybe early on, where you were like, okay, this is the thing for me?
I think it's not any particular moment, but I mean, it's very difficult to say that you're not impacted when you see kids win a race or have success in athletics. And it's very difficult to not be impacted when you see kids excited about the French Revolution or economics for the first time. So, I guess it's just the idea of seeing people excited by material that you've been teaching for a long period of time, and be inspired to talk about it, write about it. That's pretty fun year after year.
Now, I alluded to one example earlier, but when you think about misconceptions about public education in this era, what's something you'd like to maybe correct the record on in the conversation around public education in America in 2026? Is there anything you hear out there in the media or something that doesn't really reflect your experience on the ground?
Well, I think public education is the last great vestige of democracy, really. We have to take everybody in, and we have to listen to everybody, and it's contentious and difficult at times, but every day, teachers and students keep coming back, and that raft sort of keeps floating along. So, I think it is probably the best of democracy, honestly, because we have the struggles and the opportunities that a lot of other places, people just walk away from each other- And I think public education is a struggle, but I think it's a wonderful thing in this country.
And lastly, give me your pitch to a young person who's considering being a teacher. What would you tell them about why this is a good thing to embark on?
Well, no two days are the same. There is a lot of satisfaction when you do things the right way in a classroom. And it is intoxicating to see people find their path and go off and have success in the world. It really is fun looking back now at some of the students I've had and what they're doing now, and how happy they are, and successful, so just even being a very little part of that is pretty fun.
