Meghan Clarke is an Instructor in Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science and a House Counselor in Bertha Bailey House. After living and teaching in the United Kingdom (U.K.) for 11 years, Clarke came to Andover in 2022. As a Tang Institute Fellow, Clarke is a member of the ethi{CS} project. Aside from math and computer science, Clarke also enjoys yoga and gymnastics.
How did you discover your interest in math and computer science?
When I was in high school, I thought I wanted to be an architect, but I realized that wasn’t for me. I moved away from that but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. In my Senior year, they canceled AP Chemistry. I needed another AP and… I hopped into AP Computer Science and fell in love with that. When I got to college, I was taking as many classes as I could, but I couldn’t take a lot of the electives. The ones I could take were the math and computer science electives like mathematical modeling. So I took those classes early on, and I just kept on taking more and more math classes. In my Junior year, one of my teachers pulled me aside and told me to declare a double major in math and computer science, which had never occurred to me [as] something you could major in. When I graduated from college, I was a software developer for a year, but I realized working in a cubicle all day was not for me. I also really missed having time off. I later got… offered [a position] teaching math and computer science at a day school outside of Washington D.C., so I did that and fell in love with teaching.
What drew you to Andover?
After [my partner] retired from the [British] military we went back to the area. In the U.K., I was a teacher at a boarding school. I fell in love with the sense of community. Living on campus had a lot of the same benefits of being in the military, and we loved the idea of going back to a community where [people] are living together and get[ting] to know each other. At the day schools I’ve been at, it’s difficult as your colleagues and students live far apart, so it was really hard to get together. I was looking at boarding schools in the area, and Andover jumped to the top of my list.
After spending 11 years in the U.K., what is the main difference you’ve noticed between the English and American educational systems?
The U.K. is really centralized around exams. I did not give out grades, what I did give out were predicted grades. I also gave a score on effort and progress… On the flip side, I had no control [over] the content I taught and when to teach it. Exam boards would decide what exams you did and what you had to learn [and] your college acceptances are conditional based on those exams. It was hard as a teacher. I didn’t have a lot of control, because students were not always interested in learning something that was outside the test. The U.K. is very grade and exam-focused but, if you score in the highest [percentile] you know you’re the best of the best. But if you’re someone who didn’t test very well in standardized tests, that’s a really hard system to be in.
How different was the coding scene back in the day and how did you learn about it?
I coded for the first time when I was around five years old. I didn’t know that’s what I was doing. For Christmas that year, we got an Amiga 2000 computer. There was no operating system, so you had to put in a floppy disk. A game came with it that would teach you how you could load this particular disk and had some example code. I got my name to jump around the screen, and it was the coolest thing. I forgot about it for a while since, for a long time coding, wasn’t available easily and we didn’t do it in school… The accessibility of resources is wildly different now.
What has your role been in the ethi{CS} project?
[The] ethi{CS} project is the idea of weaving ethical-based thinking into our computer science curriculum, into our classroom activities [and] projects. [It] felt very authentic. I was lucky enough that they had space for a Tang Fellow in that program last spring, where I worked with Dr. Kiran Bhardwaj, [Instructor in Philosophy and Religious Studies], to do a little bit more thinking about how we can weave it into our [Computer Science 401] Python class. I worked with her to come up with ways that we could weave those elements into our projects and some of our collaborative activities in class. That’s what we did for our fellowship. It was lovely, having someone to bounce ideas off of and the time and space to think through that.
You’re involved with track and field at Andover, and you also used to coach gymnastics. Could you expand on that?
Track and field is something I do here, and that speaks more to my computer skills than it does to my track knowledge. I had no affiliation at all with track until I came here. [Only that] I’ve been running computer lines from a young age. I always loved gymnastics, especially in 1996, when the U.S. women’s team won the gold medal. I decided to try it. I was never really good at gymnastics, I was five foot seven [inches tall] and 13 when I started. The coaches just looked at me and said, ‘No, this isn’t going to happen for you.’ But I loved it so much that I ended up coaching more than I did it. It refreshed me in a way that made me really excited when getting back in the classroom.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
I have two daughters who are eight and ten years old. I love spending time with them and following whatever new thing they are obsessed with. Most recently, they had me learning how to play Roblox, which was really fun. My oldest daughter loves to play piano, and so I like to play with her. Getting outside, playing board games with them, whatever is going to keep us fun. We love Boston sports, so we watch the teams in the area. We also love traveling back to England to visit our family and friends there and bringing as many of our British cultural traditions back as we can. Also, I love yoga, so I am trying to do as much yoga as I can. I also love reading.
What’s your favorite book?
My mind immediately goes to “Harry Potter.” I just fell in love with it and went deep when it came out, and reread them several times. It’s really funny looking back now, at the connection when I moved to England and [taught at a] boarding school and looked around and was like, ‘Oh my gosh, J.K. Rowling didn’t just make this up… all these things actually exist.’ We actually wore robes as faculty to chapel every week at that boarding school.
What’s one of your favorite memories at Andover?
They’re all tied to the sense of community that I feel here. It’s been watching my own children feel a part of the community here, and see the change in such a short time. From originally feeling a little intimidated [about] saying “hi” to students in [Paresky] Commons and sitting with their friends from school, [to] feeling really integrated into this whole community. What makes this place really special is the relationship and community that you have in and outside of the classroom.
What’s one piece of advice you would give to students?
One of the things I learned in England was there were some benefits to students specializing so early, but if I had specialized super early, I never would’ve gotten a chance to do computer science and discover [what] I truly love and wanted to do. Being open to new experiences, trying new things, meeting new people, it’s never too late. The same can be said for me trying gymnastics. I loved it so much, and it led to coaching and a summer job that I did for years and absolutely adored. Never closing the door on something, if you’re really passionate, continue to follow it, even if it’s not going to pan out, even if you’re not going to be the best. Also, it’s never too late to start. If there’s something that sounds interesting, give it a try. You never know where it’s going to lead.
