Farewell to Veteran Faculty

LEGENDARY FIGURES

Alice Davidson, Michael Hunt, and Eric Lerch Reflect on Their Years with EHS

Alice Davidson, Michael Hunt, and Eric Lerch sat down with Faculty Writer Emma Tsai to reflect on and celebrate rewarding careers with Episcopal and are looking forward to what comes next, albeit with emotions of connection to leading Knights.

Michael Hunt, Math Department Chair celebrating his twenty‑fourth year, puts it eloquently: “Mathematics is to me a window into the very mind of God. Every day I’ve gotten to step to that window and invite young inquiring minds to join me there and take in the awesome view. When I think about the classroom, I don’t think about particular instances. I think about a daily sense of well‑being that comes from students and those meetings at that window.”

For Eric Lerch, Ninth Grade Dean among many other roles, the classroom shapes his memories at EHS. He reflects, “The classroom stands out. It’s always interesting when students come back and they share what they remember, whether it was an activity, a role playing game, or other things in class. They’ll say ‘that was so fun,’ or ‘I loved the hard work for that research project.’ Sometimes a former student will come to me twelve years later and say, ‘I still know all about Bolivia because I did that project.’ I love those moments. I find it encouraging and affirming when students share those specific memories of the classroom.”

Alice Davidson, History teacher, is still in touch with a lot of alumni from the early days of her career, as she gets ready to wrap up her thirty‑second year. “Alums make comments all the time about things they learned in class, but the one I hear most about is mapping the world by heart. It’s a project where ninth graders learned to draw the world by heart, all on a blank sheet of paper, longitudinally and latitudinally correct. Many of them have their project framed. No one thinks they can do this when it’s first assigned. They’ll say, ‘You cannot draw every country of the world and have it be correct.’ These kids are fourteen and fifteen and they learn, yes, they can. It gives them a real sense of accomplishment. Then they feel like they can do anything because they’ve already done something that’s considered impossible.” Alice has loved teaching ninth grade. She remarks that students do sometimes forget her by the time they’re upperclassmen, but she would never want to swap. She adds, “I really believe it’s a very influential year for them—the mindset, how they’re still young enough to be junior high‑ish, they’re not cool yet, they don’t quite know all the rules, but just obey most of them, the attitude. They’re still at an age where a lot of things can be fun, and they haven’t lost their interest in trying.”

When thinking about his legacy after he moves on to be the founding Head of School at a new middle school, Eric hopes they remember him as someone who is passionate and enthusiastic. He says, “I think the students remember Mr. Lerch’s loud volume, and they carry that with them, but I hope they also remember me as someone who cares about history, and what I’m teaching, and that Mr. Lerch cared about them as a person. That’s a legacy a lot of us would hope to have.”

Michael feels extraordinarily fortunate to have had exceptional math teachers in high school, and one in particular he tries to emulate every day. He says, “She sticks out in my mind because of the exposition she gave. She was so clear. She could make the most complicated concept easy to grasp. I hope that has rubbed off. I do get many calls and emails from alumni. They’ll tell me they’re taking calculus again and that they’re having to keep themselves awake because they feel so well prepared. It’s why you do this kind of thing.”

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Alice’s advice to other faculty members who will be here after her: “Take advantage of everything that’s here. There’s so much for faculty and students. Go to the kids’ games, go to the shows. Even if someone is not the best kid in your class, they might be really shocking somewhere else. Take the opportunity to see the kids shine somewhere here. The faculty get so much help here with different programs. Take advantage of all there is to offer.”

Eric adds that many of us go into this profession because we have a passion for a particular area, whether it’s math or history or English or science. “Those subjects are important, really powerful,” he says, “but ultimately the students are young human beings in need of mentorship and advice. Remember to keep the child and the overall growth of the person at the forefront. The individual subjects are just windows we use to communicate bigger lessons about life and the type of people we want to be in our lives.”

For Michael, as a math teacher, he considers how many of our students have not had historic success with mathematics. He says, “They’ll show up in plane trigonometry and I get to be a wilderness guide helping these kids make pathways where they would see impenetrable forest. In a certain sense, the strongest kids don’t need a teacher—it’s the kids who haven’t had a lot of success in math you can turn out. When I taught Algebra I, I saw the most progress. Kids would go from being someone who says I hate math to someone who says I didn’t realize I could do this. My advice to fellow faculty is come in and join the crowd and jump in the deep end. When a young person is learning how to swim in the deep end, you have several ways you can assist them if they get into trouble, but we ask our teachers get in and help them to the side of the pool. I’d recommend any new teacher perceive themselves as a leader.”

In this farewell interview, Michael, Alice, and Eric expressed gratitude for their time at EHS and know when next year begins they will miss the students, faculty, and staff. The feeling is mutual. From all of us at EHS, thank you for your time, commitment, and leadership.

—Emma Kate Tsai