EILEEN PRINCE

EILEEN PRINCE: 35 YEARS OF SHARING HER ARTISTRY

The best lesson I took away was that art was not just a collection of techniques and

styles, but a window into and expression of a culture and a society. My ability to

distinguish the different types of Greek columns became a running joke in my family.

But, more than that, it inspired a lifelong passion for art that has brought me so

much joy. –JOEL MARTIN | CLASS OF 2001

There has never been a school year in the past 35 years

that Eileen Prince has not been in her Sycamore art room,

teaching Sycamore students.

“To still have a founding teacher at Sycamore in 2020 is

amazing,” says Diane Borgmann, Sycamore’s Head of

School. “Probably one of the most meaningful aspects of having a teacher with a long-standing tenure like Eileen’s is

the institutional memory and perspective.”

When Prince started, Sycamore was renting space from

a church. That meant teachers were sharing rooms and

putting away all supplies and projects in a small closet at the

end of each day. “As an art teacher, you can imagine the

limitations,” she says. “Children brought their own pencils,

markers, crayons, scissors, glue, and watercolors, and we

supplied paper. There were no student art displays in the

halls. I got slides for my lectures from the Indianapolis

Museum of Art, spending hours culling each batch.”

Prince has been a constant force for good at Sycamore and is the

lone remaining teaching link to the first school year, back when the staff and parents were still putting together the school that would

serve gifted education, everything from filling classrooms with the used desks they procured, to teachers beginning the construction of

a curriculum worthy of gifted students.

“Eileen knows how far Sycamore has come because she remembers

‘the old days,’” Borgmann says. “She provides an appreciation that

is hard for a newer teacher to fully understand, she knows that our

mission and our commitment to our mission have never changed.”

Even though I am not as talented as some, I still find myself reaching for my art supplies when I need to recollect myself, and I thank Mrs. Prince for introducing me to this outlet.

I hope she knows how influential she is. –KAYLEIGH GEISSE | CLASS OF 2008

Before Prince came to teach at Sycamore, she was teaching art at

the Hasten Hebrew Academy, a school her family and husband’s

family were instrumental in founding. It was where the Prince boys

attended school. “My job was only part time, and I was looking for

more full-time work,” she says. “My older son had two more years

until high school, and my younger son had four. One of the Middle

School math teachers there had his gifted certification, and one day at lunch he mentioned a new school that was forming.”

By the time Prince applied to Sycamore, Gene Eib had been installed

as the founding Headmaster, and he hired Prince for what was, at the

time, still a part-time position. “For four years I juggled both schools,”

she says. “My younger son wanted me to stay at the Academy until

he graduated. When he did graduate, I thought I would get a ‘real’

teaching job. Sycamore offered me full-time employment that year.”

If you ask Prince how Sycamore has changed in her time as a

teacher, she has seen a lot. While much has changed, Prince says

a couple things have not.

“One thing that has never changed for me is the unbelievable

level of support I have always received from the administration,

board, parents, and other faculty,” she says. “To say that art teachers do not normally share the respect and positive

experiences that have marked my involvement at Sycamore would

be a vast understatement.”

Still, she says a lot of the physical and digital aspects have evolved.

“We have always had exceptional teachers, but I feel that the school

continually improves,” Prince says. “Class size has had a profound

effect, growing substantially through the years. Technology has

changed dramatically. Getting health coverage and retirement

benefits was an enormous watershed. I had spent years in private education even before Sycamore, and that was quite a turning point

for any independent school.”

After leaving Sycamore, I continued to learn more about art on my own and

developed a passion for photography, and as a college student, I am taking

photography elective classes so I can keep art a part of my daily life. Although

I may not be an artist, she taught me to be an art lover, which will forever

enrich my life. –SOUMYA GUPTA | CLASS OF 2015

One of the things Prince notes is that Sycamore has always had

a support for the arts; it is part of the foundation of a school that

nurtures the whole child. Sycamore builds the art curriculum into

the program, just as STEM subjects are included.

“The arts are a strong aspect of the curriculum from Preschool

through 8th grade,” Prince says. “Our math, science, history, and

language arts departments are second-to-none; we have extremely

strong language, technical, and physical education programs.

Combined with our focus on the arts, our students leave the

school superbly prepared for a rich, full life.”

“She understands art theory, art history, and various forms of studio

art,” Borgmann says, noting one of Prince’s strengths is her wide

ranging knowledge. “Eileen has many strengths as a teacher, and one

of the most valuable, I think, is just her vast and broad knowledge

base. Our kids get a broad, deep, and rich art education.”

“Mrs. Prince has a brilliant mind for art history and art’s

connection to the events and culture of every era she presents to

the students,” Alyssa Wei, Art teaching assistant and Sycamore

parent, says. “Students have come back to tell her how much they

learned about art history in her class, and how prepared they were

during high school and college history, literature and art classes.

This is due to her breadth of knowledge and the faith she has in

her students to rise to the challenges she provides them. She never

dumbs down information or project expectations, and because of

these high standards of content and execution, students learn and

create in ways they couldn’t have expected of themselves.”

Prince’s perspective of Sycamore includes the starting point, the

evolution, and how the school has built itself into a nationally

known place for Preschool through 8th grade gifted education.

“The current faculty, staff, and administration are outstanding,”

she says. “There have been so many people who have influenced the school through the years. Some names that pop into my head

from the past are (former Heads of School) Gene Eib, and Dr. Nyle

Kardatzke, Jeff Stroebel, Ginny Burney, Jamie MacDougall, and

Paula Fair. There are people like Kathy Hollander, Elaine Sandy,

Sheila Hyatt, Betty Krebs, and Pat Gabig who are special friends.”

Nyle Kardatzke, a longtime Head of School at Sycamore, says

Prince’s ability to see art in its historical context was impressive.

“From the beginning, Eileen made art a key part of the

curriculum. Far from being a merely decorative activity, she led

students to see art as part of the larger curriculum,” he says. “She

helped students learn to make decisions about the pieces of art

they were creating. Perhaps her greatest strength was elevating

classroom art to the same position in the curriculum as science,

mathematics, and grammar. In her hands, art became an essential

part of the Sycamore experience.”

Ginny Burney, who was integral at the inception and early growth

of the school, is now a professor at Ball State, teaching graduate

courses, including Investigating the Social Emotional Needs of

Gifted Students and Introduction to the Gifted and Talented

Student. “Eileen understood the big picture of gifted education.

It is not just about a collection of subjects, or just acceleration, or

just enrichment,” she says. “It is about an opportunity for kids to

understand big concepts, to understand the world in a way that

transcends time and place, to make interdisciplinary connections.”

Eileen Prince’s individualized teaching style made a lasting impression on her students.

Q&A WITH EILEEN

WHAT WERE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE THINGS TO TEACH EACH YEAR? WHAT DO YOU THINK STUDENTS WILL REMEMBER MOST VIVIDLY ABOUT YOUR CLASSES?

This is a toughie. I created the curriculum, so theoretically, I

should love everything I teach. But for many years, I taught art in

grades 1-8, and there were definitely projects in every grade that

I really looked forward to more than others. Since I have taught

predominantly Middle School for the last few years, I will choose

mainly from those grades. I really enjoy introducing the idea of Art

History in 4th Grade - it’s a fun little unit. I love doing all the art

history lectures, and I really look forward to the unit on criticism and

aesthetics in 8th grade. In the hands-on department, I really enjoy

the sculpture project and the Alien Culture assignment in grade 5,

teaching perspective in grade 6, the pinhole camera, milk carton,

and Impressionism projects in grade 7, and seeing what the kids

produce in grade 8. In eighth grade, the students also do some

responsive writing, and I never cease to be blown away by some of

their observations. It rivals some college work I’ve seen. n

Prince and the Middle School teachers coordinate a curriculum

that makes those interdisciplinary connections. Prince says the

teachers work together to make it successful. David Schuth, a

Middle School Science teacher, says Prince has the “depth of

knowledge and passion for the subject and embraces diverse ways

of thinking about art” to make it work.

“In the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak, I hosted a Zoom art class for my

daughter’s 1st grade friends. They have already learned their primary and

secondary colors, so I taught them to draw trees. It is the single sketching subject

that makes me think of Mrs. Prince. I even remember the day she explained that

each set of subsequent branches cannot be larger than the total of the source

branch. It is math and science and art all at once – just like our world.”

MARGOT MONTGOMERY O’DONNELL, MD | SYCAMORE

CLASS OF 1994

“I would like to think that I contributed to Sycamore’s belief that

the arts are a worthwhile use of a gifted student’s time,” Prince

says. “I would like to believe that I helped elevate the status of

visual arts here over the years. I would love to think that, if I visited

the school 50 years from now, it would still have a strong visual arts

program, and all the humanities would still be respected and a core

part of the curriculum.” Borgmann knows leaving does not mean

Prince will be forgotten. “Eileen has been a Sycamore fixture - an institution in herself,” she says. “Although she is retiring, her legacy

and the program she has developed will continue.”

What Prince would like for her legacy? “My students are my

ultimate legacy,” Prince says. “I hope they will carry a respect and

knowledge of the visual arts with them to other places where they

settle and to other schools their children might attend. As far as

lasting impressions, only the students can answer that, but if notes I

have received are any indication, it is the overall understanding of

art history that is the most helpful in later years. I have received some

very gratifying messages from students in their teens and twenties

and thirties who just visited the Louvre or Pompeii or a Spanish

cathedral, and claim that their experience was enhanced by their

years at Sycamore.” n

IN HER OWN WORDS:

WHAT I WILL MISS

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I will greatly miss the inspiration and joy I get from working

with the students.

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I will miss my fellow teachers and staff.

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I will miss the family atmosphere and humor.

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I will miss the pride on a student’s face when they

complete some wonderful project and realize that yes, they are

“artistic.”

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I will miss the brilliant questions and observations from

pupils during slideshows.

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I will miss the funny comments in the Daily Scoop and all

the wonderfully silly stuff that goes on here.

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I will miss fascinating conversations with other teachers

about our subjects.

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I will miss my daily interactions with Alyssa Wei and seeing

Lauren Ditchley, both of whom have helped me immeasurably

over the years.

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I will miss the kindness of the parents.