10: A Happenstance-Based Social Issues Career

In June 1956, I began work on my Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) degree at Harvard University—and I met Donald W. Oliver. The MAT was a summer plus academic-year program. The summer was spent in the HarvardNewton Summer Program, located in a junior high school in Newton, Massachusetts, with student teaching combined with academic coursework. Mornings were spent teaching junior high school students whose parents wanted them to have a summer academic experience. A group of four to five student teachers teamed with a “master teacher,” the team leader. Don Oliver was my master teacher. He also taught the social studies methods course, one of two courses (the other was a general curriculum course) that we attended in the afternoon.