A L U M N I M A G A Z I N E - Colby-Sawyer College

Much of the physicality in Neary’s classroom comes from
her experience of teaching an experimental all-boys class based
on Dr. Leonard Sax’s research into how boys learn—he says
you can’t teach boys the same way you teach girls.
“In a mixed class you have to gear some lessons to how boys
learn, and when they learn and what they’re open to,” explains
Neary. “If you only ask ‘How do you feel about that poem?’
they’re not going to react because they don’t want to talk about
their feelings. But if you have a swordfight to represent that
poem, they might get hooked.”
In 2008, Neary knew when boys dropped out—after ninth
grade—and considered what she had seen in her lower-level
reading class for freshmen, which students entered with reading
levels as low as second and third grade.
“They drop out and they’re failures at 14, because they can’t
read and write,” says Neary. “The social studies teacher says,
‘Read this chapter on the Great Wall of China and the silk trade’
and they’re like, ‘Read what?’ None of the words make sense.
So why would you want to come to school every day and be a
failure? And be six feet tall and look like you’re a grown man?”
26 COLBY-SAWYER ALUMNI MAGAZINE
Neary requested a group of incoming ninth grade boys and
spent the summer learning how to teach them. She discovered,
for example, that boys don’t sit still. When school started,
she gave one boy a clipboard on which to take notes while
he paced. She put a Rubik’s Cube in the hands of an excellent
listener who simply needed something to fidget with. By
March 2009, these boys had written poems of hope, apology,
grief, despair and triumph that were published in the school’s
magazine, Magpie. Twenty-three of the 24 students passed and
increased their reading levels by one or more grade levels.
Though a success, the school moved on to other projects
and the all-boys class experiment faded away. The lessons
Neary learned didn’t.
“That class totally changed the way I teach,” she says.
“And because that was a relatively small class, it taught me—
as Colby-Sawyer taught me—the importance of individual
instruction. It’s hard to do with a lot of children in your classroom,
but the more time I can spend with each one, the better.
It has a lot to do with noticing what each child can do.”
Senior Veronica Vergara says Neary’s attention and concern