By Mandy Hui’23
I believe I can say on behalf of the St. Mark’s community that we all will miss Ms. Putnam. She has spent a total of 43 years teaching studio art at St. Mark’s, making her the longest standing faculty member at this institution.
Surprisingly, Ms. Putnam did not want to be a teacher growing up. Although she always had a love for art, specifically printing, she had never planned to become an educator. Before her high school teaching career, Ms. Putnam was a ski instructor in Italy. She taught all year round and had a teaching degree as backup in case her skiing career did not work out in the long run. Unfortunately, as she expected, Ms. Putnam suffered from frostbites, which forced her to switch out of her skiing career to teaching. She first taught at a public school in Worcester for a year and was then offered a position at St. Mark’s in 1979. This was when she began her 43 year journey at St. Mark’s School.
I asked Ms. Putnam what her experience was like at St. Mark’s, and she said jokingly, “as a third former would say: it was fine.” Continuing, she responded, “it’s been wonderful, but there were definitely ups and downs.” Ms. Putnam’s first impression of the school during her first year of teaching in 1979 was that there were “a lot of bricks.” She shared a memory from her first year of teaching: she walked across the sixth form quad and a sixth form student yelled at her, thinking she was an underformer. A couple of blocks later that day, the student ended up being in her class.
St. Mark’s has changed dramatically over her time working here, especially for the role of women in the institution. During Ms. Putnam’s first few years at St. Mark’s, there were often gatherings after athletic games where tea was served. One day, a man came up to Ms. Putnam and asked her to pour him tea. Ms Putnam reflected on that moment, saying: “things have changed a lot for women who come to work at a very male-dominant school.”
She shared that the most rewarding part of her job was meeting up with St. Mark’s alumni, who received their PhDs or continued their studies in the field of art. She always loves to watch people graduate or earn awards every year because it makes her wonder “if she is able to measure up to [her] students’ accomplishments.” She continues to reflect, “school is all about the relationships you form, with students collaborating with teachers.” When asked what was the biggest thing she learned from her students, she answered that “they are her teachers too. Students teach teachers a lot. That’s the wonderful thing: it goes both ways.”
Furthermore, Ms. Putnam had a lot of funny and memorable encounters with students at St. Mark’s, but one of her funniest ones happened during an eighteen-inch snowstorm. The school completely lost power, and no one was able to leave the school. With no way out of the main building, west-campus and day students were forced to stay overnight in the library while Ms. Putnam was put on supervision duty. There were no beds or cushions. However, Ms. Putnam remembers vividly a male student, who lived on main campus, bringing a mattress to a girl as everybody else was just sleeping on the ground. Main-building boarding students eventually brought more pillows and blankets for the students who were sleeping over in the library, but none were given to Ms. Putnam. The next morning, when she went to the dining hall for breakfast, someone asked her how she slept last night. In her head, Ms. Putnam thought, “of course, I didn’t sleep at all!”
Throughout her 43 years working at St. Mark’s, Ms. Putnam has not regretted a single thing, with the exception of there “not [being] enough hours of the day.” Being in Ms. Putnam’s Studio Art classes for the past few years, I have always wondered how she was always able to keep up her positive and enthusiastic energy everyday. The simplest way to answer is that she loves what she does. She genuinely cares a lot about her students and is passionate about art, desperately wanting to share her extensive knowledge on the subject. The pure joy and happiness on her face is evident every time she observes her students’ artwork or notices the small details of improvement with each new piece. She always speaks highly of all her students and makes it known that she is immensely proud of each and every one of them. Moreover, not only has Ms. Putnam been an amazing teacher, but she has also been a reliable and supportive friend to lean on for me and other students. Her presence alone can liven up the mood of her surroundings, and she never fails to make sure that each of her students is doing okay and always knows how to cheer people up with her jokes and funnily accurate impressions of third-formers. From chatting with every person she comes across, to randomly placing M&Ms on students’ work tables, she puts effort into ensuring that every individual at this school feels known and loved.
I asked a few St. Mark’s faculty members and students that have worked alongside Ms. Putnam for several years to share what it was like to have Ms. Putnam as their colleague, teacher, or friend. Mz. Belt, a fellow St. Mark’s art teacher since 1991 who specializes in ceramics and sculptures, said “Mrs. Putnam, Barbararella, Putnamdo…has been my mentor that has morphed into my ‘other half’. More than thirty years together…we are like an ‘old couple’ that can finish each other’s sentences and work seamlessly to accomplish any task…All while cursing, laughing, sassing, and supporting each other. Barbara is an amazing artist, scholar, teacher, and friend to so many of us.” Ms. Bryant, who has been employed since 1995 as St. Mark’s Mathematics teacher and head varsity girls’ cross country coach, shared, “what I love about Ms Putnam is that she spreads her passion about art all over the school. She does this by putting up art everywhere, taking students on trips to art museums for weekend activities, and bringing in speakers for the entire school. Also, I love that she is always seeking connections between art and other disciplines. Look at the paintings outside my classroom that are beautiful pieces of geometric art. My favorite memories are traveling with her. I love that she always carries a sketchbook. She sketches in it whenever she can. We ended up having wonderful conversations with people in Turkey and Spain because they saw her sketching and asked about it.” Laryssa Barbosa ‘22, the current head monitor, remarked, “She is always ready to help students and works to showcase everyone and their talents. I love that she helps her students find an idea that they are passionate about and allows students to grow independently.” Moreover, Mr. Warren, the head of the school, added how he appreciates “the inspiration Ms. Putnam provides to her students because she is an accomplished artist herself.”
From me to Ms. Putnam: I am so happy to have had you as my art teacher for the last three years. You have made me feel like I belonged in this school since the first day I arrived, and I vividly remember being dragged by my prefect to meet you during my first lunch at St. Mark’s. Your excitement when speaking to me, who was a stranger to you at the time, immediately got me looking forward to all of your classes. You were the first teacher at St. Mark’s that I felt comfortable being around, so I will miss seeing you at school, including hearing your witty remarks and sarcastic jokes. I am so grateful to have met and gotten to know more about you. At times when I couldn’t believe in myself and thought of giving up, thank you for always believing in me. I hope you know that you have made an immense impact on not only my life, but also the rest of the St. Mark’s community. The whole St. Mark’s community is sad that you will be departing, but we all wish you the very best in your future endeavors. We hope that you will update us with your art adventures and visit us whenever you can.
From Ms. Putnam to current and future St. Mark’s faculty and students: “Do your job. Work hard, so at the end of the day you just know you’ve done everything the best you could.”
