Sydney Chaffee is the first National Teacher of the Year ever selected from Massachusetts. She is also believed to be the first charter school teacher to receive this honor.
Sydney teaches humanities at Codman Academy in Boston, illuminating for her students the many relationships between literature and history. Has our world ever more desperately needed to learn so many stubborn lessons of history?
We routinely praise teachers who deserve our endless appreciation and yet, as a society, we do not elevate and reward them in keeping with the infinite contributions they make to our world. With this award, at least, Sydney now has a year to make the case for teachers across the United States.
Photo courtesy of CBS Boston (2017).