07/01/2005
Beloved teacher leaves gift for the gifted
JUDITH WHITE , For The Saratogian

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SARATOGA SPRINGS -- A top-level education administrator once told Phyllis Aldrich that there were no programs for gifted children in upstate New York because there were no gifted children here. She's spent the past 29 years proving him very, very wrong.

Aldrich retires today from a 29-year career as coordinator for where she organized and oversaw a long list of groundbreaking programs designed to identify and serve children from grades four to eight, who reason near the top 1 percent of their age mates.

The WSWHE BOCES Young Scholars Program alone has served some 4,000 area students since it began in 1985. That program brought 750 bright young students to classrooms at BOCES' Gick Road facility this past academic year to participate weekly in a full day of intellectually challenging learning activities.

Visiting experts and area professionals from a wide variety of subject areas join BOCES teachers in the interdisciplinary humanities program.

'Yesterday we heard from a rattlesnake expert and today we hosted a cosmic evolutionist,' Aldrich tosses off as examples of the material studied during one of the final weeks of school.

She points out scale models of Odysseus' fabled ship, made by students after reading 'The Odyssey.' In another corner of the BOCES exhibit space is a medieval castle, constructed after students studied 'The Once and Future King.' Artwork hangs everywhere, as well as copies of the literary and arts journal the program publishes annually, filled with samples of Young Scholars' artwork, essays and poetry.

Pushed to choose from the many programs her team has developed through the years, Aldrich said that Young Scholars is the one of which she's most proud, and which, perhaps, has accomplished the most.

'I love counseling the parents and working with principals to design ways to serve these kids. There is no law mandating that this service be offered, but I really feel wonderful about the attitude that there is an ongoing search for talent in kids,' she said.

Carol Batker, a recent visiting associate professor of English at Skidmore College, is mother of two Young Scholars, Aaron and Olivia Pritzker-Batker. Batker said the program has had a positive impact on their love of learning. Her son just finished his second year in Young Scholars, with Bairbre McCarthy as teacher, and her daughter participated when in middle school, with Donna Armour as her teacher.

Aaron, who just finished fifth grade, came home from class in fourth grade at Young Scholars and asked his mom for the Old English original version of 'Beowulf,' and proceeded to read the whole thing.

'He thought it was cool, and his attitude came from the general excitement that Bairbre created in that class,' Batker said.

He was just as intrigued this past year, learning about Lilliputians while reading 'Gulliver's Travels' in Young Scholars.

That excitement for learning is the trademark of BOCES Gifted and Talented programs, after-school mini-course enrichment programs and the regional Odyssey of the Mind program, which invites children to develop divergent thinking and builds problem-solving skills.

The first program Aldrich established was a ballet class, with ballerina Melissa Hayden as instructor. Then came career and technical education, a regional spelling bee, junior Great Books, Japanese for primary school pupils, literary backpacks for preschoolers, programs for overseas American schools and a host of others.

BOCES also offers a comprehensive resource center available to teachers, administrators, librarians and parents. Aldrich first developed that service as a means 'to touch the hearts of the teachers' in the schools served by BOCES.

The resource center was once a mobil service: an old school bus filled with the latest enrichment materials available, as well as an early computer. And of course, Aldrich was available to everyone, offering contagious enthusiasm as well as top-notch enrichment consultation.

'I had to learn to drive the bus, but it was great, and I went from school to school,' she said, eyes sparkling with the memory.

Detailing Aldrich's many accomplishments, WSWHE BOCES District Superintendent John Stoothoff noted that she has achieved international recognition for her work.

'At BOCES we work hard on the 'Big Picture,' serving a large area (31 component schools in five counties) with many services. Phyllis Aldrich IS the big picture in the area of study known as gifted and talented education,' he remarked.

'But even in my short time here, it's become evident to me that Phyllis Aldrich also is a lot of fun,' he said. 'That side of Mrs. Aldrich has found its way into the programs she's devised.'

Quite possibly both gifted and talented from a young age herself, Aldrich is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard University, where she studied history and literature. She earned a master's degree in American civilization, studying at both Brown and New York universities. Her administrator's certification is from the College of Saint Rose.

Aldrich was a master teacher for gifted children in Brooklyn before marrying then State Parks Commissioner Alexander (Sam) Aldrich and moving with him to Saratoga Springs. The couple had seven children between them when they married, and together added two more.

While working as special assistant to the then president of Skidmore College, Aldrich was asked in 1973 by the late F. Donald Myers, then district superintendent, to volunteer as chair of the County Advisory Committee on Gifted Education. In 1977, Myers hired her to run the new program.

'He was the mastermind behind the very first vocational program,' she says of Myers with admiration. 'There were no models (for gifted and talented education), so we had a blank slate.'

As coordinator, Aldrich wrote boldly on that slate, and her vision and energy nurtured and fueled a department that now includes 12 teachers for Young Scholars and 70 to 80 teachers for after-school programs.

Her annual budget is a little more than $2 million, dependent on grant funds received, 'when you add all the gifted pieces together,' she said.

'And make sure you say that we do all this as a team,' said the team leader.

Among other volunteer activities, Aldrich found time to use her administrative talents for eight years as president of New York AGATE, a statewide advocacy organization for gifted children. In 1977, she chaired the 'Vienna Waltzes' Ballet Gala of the newly organized Action Council for Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

'She was a real crackerjack,' recalled Jane Wait co-chair with Philly Dake of the council in its infancy. 'It was truly one of those magical evenings at SPAC.'

BOCES will continue its work with gifted and talented education after Aldrich leaves, with a new coordinator whose appointment has not yet been announced.

As for Aldrich, she's retiring from BOCES, but still has much she wants to accomplish in her field. She'll go to Botswana in October as a member of an advisory committee on exceptional children. She may teach a course at Skidmore and she's already established her own business, Mindspring Educational Consultants, to advise parents, schools, international schools and state agencies on ways to nurture talent.

'The waste is horrible when these kids aren't challenged,' she said.