Will Saunders: Where did you grow up, and what was it like to grow up there?
Taylor Torres: “I grew up in Boulder, Colorado which is a very liberal place, with lots of hippies and general openness. I grew up in government housing in the city of Boulder, which was a smaller area in this larger city. It was challenging being brown and low-income, and I had already known that I was gay so I felt very othered. Boulder was a pretty open place, but it was lowkey racist and classist with lots of microaggressions. However, when I grew up and moved to Denver, I felt more welcomed. I felt like I could be myself in Denver”
WS: What led you to become a teacher?
TT: “I fell into teaching by mistake. I had wanted to be a broadcast journalist, and when that did not work out, I found a job opportunity to teach at an English department in graduate school but as a Spanish graduate student, it didn’t feel right. However, they allowed me to teach English composition classes about intersectionality and that was what got me excited about teaching, that I could be good at something that I loved.”
WS: What subject do you teach and what led you there?
TT: “My experiences teaching at CU Denver where I was teaching about intersectionality and how it intersects with college writing let me know that I was good at something academic and it was something I was passionate about. This led me to teach at Fieldston where I teach the Sophomore U.S. History class and a Modern U.S. History elective.”
WS: How do you see your culture reflected in the ECFS community?
TT: “I see a lot of people who look like me working here, not necessarily in academics, lots of the kitchen staff and groundskeepers reflect my culture. I also see my culture in the curriculum that the students are being taught. There is a Puerto Rican studies elective, and I will be teaching about a lot of Latinx and Mexican things in my classes. In the faculty, I also see diversity, and I see diversity in the students as well which I think is cool. In San Francisco, I taught at a very exclusive all-boys school, and there were not many people who looked like me in the student body or the staff.”
WS: Is Fieldston your first time teaching high school students? If not, then how does it compare to your previous experience?
TT “I previously taught at a high school in Denver. The school that I taught at in Denver was a public school and not an independent school, and I noticed a different vibe from the students. I have noticed that when students have less, they sometimes have more appreciation for learning especially when it is a curriculum regarding their culture. I do notice that at Fieldston there are so many intelligent students who know so much and sometimes more than what I know.
WS: What general themes or messages do you want to convey to your students?
TT: “The general idea or basis of everything is that I want to help my students be better people. If I am teaching you to have manners in an email, respect someone’s culture, or know your own culture and to know how to do that academically, I hope I am helping you become a better person. Students are supposed to come here and make mistakes and have fun and it’s not always supposed to look so perfect.”
WS: Who was your favorite teacher ever? Tell me about them and how you may reflect their beliefs/teaching style.
TT: “The first out, gay teacher that I had was in grad school, and that’s why I come out to my students on the first day of class. I am brown, I am gay, and that is who I am, I’m not trying to be secretive. That was how he was, very expressive and open, and he would talk about the school material but also real-life things. He made learning very fun and he liked to use his hands a lot and be a performative teacher. I like to make learning fun and like to use my hands and gestures when I teach. When I was in high school, learning was not fun and I did not enjoy it. So when I am teaching I like to make learning enjoyable and connected to the students’ real lives.”
WS: How do the cities you previously lived in compare to New York City?
TT: “I feel like NYC is like Denver on steroids but in the best way possible. Everything that Denver has is here in NYC but just magnified. There are so many welcoming communities in terms of race and sexuality. I feel safer leaving my house here at all hours of the day whereas I did not when I lived in San Francisco. I felt like I wasn’t safe being out alone when the sun was setting, due to the upsurge of violence when I had lived there. Here, it feels safe and I feel so fortunate and blessed to be living in a place that is safe like that.”
