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The Amazing People of Wellsprings A year long + series
This newsletter's focus: Gen Schaack, teacher at Wellsprings since 2015. Interviewed by Chris Meeker (parent at school).
Quick Bio:
Gen Schaack has BAs in both Mathematics and Fine Arts from the University of Oregon. While there, she cultivated her love of education by working in the Math and Science Libraries as a tutor. In 2017, she completed her Master’s degree in Public Administration and Nonprofit Management, with an emphasis on educational policy making. Gen has a long history with Wellsprings, which started even before working here. When she moved to Eugene 18 years ago, her first friends were recent alumni of the school. Those friendships have persisted, and five years ago Gen herself became part of the Wellsprings community. A part-time teacher during the 2015/16 school year, Gen joined us full-time in the fall of 2016. Her duties include serving as the Dean of Students and also teaching math, art, and other classes, most recently Health, Arts & Crafts, Economics, Auto Maintenance, and Climate Change & Community.
Gen, what drew you to teaching?
When I was young I really liked learning and liked the idea of high school, but despite my best efforts, I was pretty unsuccessful at it. I knew that a place could exist where I could be successful. I could envision it. I had really meaningful relationships with teachers along the way so I knew if we could take what those teachers did and what they were passionate about and not have the other stuff in the way that there could be places where students like myself could be successful. I remember thinking, maybe I can be the high school teacher that can help others.
What didn’t work for you during high school?
I had trouble sitting still and focusing. I had certain issues with authority when I was being told to do stuff that I didn’t think I should necessarily have to do. And home life...I wasn’t able to have a place that was supportive and comfortable to study. I also experienced food insecurity. And it was hard bouncing around from friend’s house to friend’s house: It’s hard to figure out the space to do your homework in that situation and to get to school on time. But amidst this, up until the last few weeks of school, I had a solid grade point average.
How did you become a teacher?
In 2008, after enrolling at the UO, a supportive and encouraging professor encouraged me to take a calculus class. After being disappointed with a C on the mid-term I asked the professor, “Can I do this?” He answered, “I think you’re smart enough and I think you’re stubborn enough but I think you don’t realize how much work this is.” So...I took it as a challenge! And along the way I discovered that math is very disciplined, and very beautiful! I ended up getting an A+ in the class because I dedicated most of my free time to learning. And in the process I realized I loved math.
I ended up working at the university’s school library as a tutor. Because I had been away from math for so long I found I could often explain math more easily to others who were struggling. I could help the students find different pathways to the answers. And I found that I really liked teaching.
I also realized that I wanted to have a meaningful impact on student’s lives as well as to change education in a way that supported students instead of punishing them. I believe that the greatest thing that we as humans can do is to be creative and to learn. Anything I can do to promote a culture that values those two things I want to be involved in.
How did the beginning of Wellsprings feel?
Really exciting, scary, and wonderful! Everyone was supportive. An interesting aspect of Wellsprings is that there is not a lot of oversight but there is a lot of guidance. So you’re both totally supported as well as left to your own devices. It’s great. You get to figure out what works for the students and what works for you.
And you get to learn from the other teachers who have been working here for many years. You can’t work at Wellsprings if you don’t want to be challenged. But if you’re up to that and willing to accept the challenge of your own growth and learning then this is a place where you can be your best possible self just as it is for the students.
What is it about math that you enjoy?
I like solving puzzles. I like problems that have an easier, concrete solution and math offers this. Sometimes using math or a crossword puzzle that utilizes the strong, critical thinking part of your brain without a lot of emotions attached to it can be really satisfying. And it can be a really healthy coping mechanism. Math allows us to describe the natural world in particular ways. It allows us to think abstractly.
When I was studying art and math in college many of my friends thought that art was the beautiful part of my studies and math was the cold, concrete part. But actually I found the art degree is often about understanding a system and using it to your advantage and commercializing it. Whereas math is understanding a system and using it to everyone’s advantage in a non-commercial way and understanding how things work. Math felt like more of a pure pursuit of knowledge.
What are some of the connections you’ve seen between math and the natural world?
One parallel I can draw on is the Fibonacci Sequence. Fibonacci described a sequence of numbers that mirror the natural world. An example is the way that sunflower seeds grow in a pattern.
There is also something called the Golden Ratio (Editor’s note: A special relationship approximately equal to 1:1.618 that appears many times in geometry, art, architecture, and other areas- for instance, the dimensions of an iPhone). There are things in the natural world that can be mathematically described or are mathematically consistent that help us organize the world around us. Sometimes this presents as how things grow or how we interpret beauty. There are all sorts of patterns you can see which is both fun and rewarding to observe.
What keeps you going from one day to the next?
The students are awesome. It’s wonderful to watch each student grow so much. You watch them graduate and wonder if that is the last person I can help. And then other students are there that need help from math to other subjects. I get really excited to talk about math with students.
What I like about Wellsprings is we provide so much of what I didn’t get for the students. I love this supportive environment where I get to keep learning along with everyone here. And I’m lucky enough to work with teachers where every single one of them is that special teacher I spoke about meeting when I was young!
 Photo by Gen Schaack
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Artwork by Donovan, Photo by Gen Schaack
Pictured/Artwork by: Tavari, Photo by Gen Schaack
