Teaching Legends Return to Thayer for Women’s History Month

For Women’s History Month, Thayer Academy’s Women’s Empowerment Club held a March 23 assembly in the CFA’s Hale Theater to celebrate the amazing strides made by women over the decades. 

Fittingly, the club chose to speak with two women who made such amazing strides right here at Thayer. 

Betty Bailey ’63 and Norma Atkinson GP ’07, ’11, ’16 were the honored guests for a panel discussion led by WEC Co-Presidents Nancy Gelina ’26 and Julia Looker ’26. That said, Bailey, who taught English at the Upper School for 30 years, and Atkinson, who taught history at the Upper School for 32 years, can hardly be called “guests” at a school they know so well. A named classroom in the Main Building recognizes Atkinson’s outstanding dedication to her students. Similarly, the annual Bailey-King Author Series honors the teaching legacy of Bailey along with fellow English teacher and longtime colleague Jim King P ’01, ’04, ’06. 

In a thoughtful and thought-provoking discussion, Bailey and Atkinson shared some of their history at Thayer, including their leadership roles as department heads, and how they approached their careers and their responsibilities. And, while the two may have taken slightly different paths in their mentoring of generations of Thayer students, a passion for the classroom was evident in both. 

“I absolutely loved teaching,” said Atkinson, who added that notes from appreciative students always meant the world to her. Earlier in the assembly Atkinson said that she was already an experienced teacher when she arrived at Thayer but found her time at the school eminently rewarding. 

“Some of my happiest years — and I’ve had a lot of them — were at Thayer,” she said. 

Bailey grew up watching her brothers attend Thayer and then attended the school herself. For her, sports played an integral role in both her Thayer experience and her personal development. 

“There was something about sports where I found learning so exciting,” said Bailey, who went on to coach field hockey, basketball, and tennis during her teaching career. 

In fact, Bailey told her Hale Theater audience, she always tried to bring that sports energy into her classroom, working with her students to take that next step, to go from A to B to C. 

“It seemed to work out OK,” said Bailey, employing a literary device any former student of hers would recognize as understatement. 

In response to a question about how she encouraged her female students, Atkinson said that she always sought to create a safe and secure environment in the classroom for them to share their perspectives. She also let it be known that female students could come to her if they needed to talk about anything. She told the assembly that she most definitely considered herself a role model for those young women coming after her and took that responsibility seriously. 

Bailey echoed those comments and added that, in her role within the English department, she successfully advocated for better female representation in terms of the reading lists and the overall course list. At first, she said, Thayer’s English classes were filled predominantly with male authors. 

Ably facilitated by Gelina and Looker, the tone of the discussion was casual and informative. However, the two former faculty members did not shy away from expressing how much has changed over the years and the need for said change. At one point Bailey — a standout three-sport athlete at Thayer and class valedictorian — pointed out that she wasn’t allowed to apply to an Ivy League college at the time but only the colleges affiliated with them (Radcliffe College for Harvard, Barnard College for Columbia, etc.). Atkinson surprised the crowd a little more when she said that she did not participate in sports in high school because her high school simply didn’t offer girls sports. 

In their introduction of Bailey and Atkinson, both Gelina and Looker praised the efforts of the former teachers in paving the way for women at Thayer and helping to shape the school into what it is today.