This is Mark Harris’ 50th year at Wheeler, but do you know that Mrs. Daughn came to Wheeler just a few years afterwards? I had Mrs. Daughn for Art in Middle School and I thought she was incredibly cool and interesting, as well as a great teacher. I was curious, as I’m sure many are, about what has changed in the past years, so I interviewed Sarah Daughn about her career and the history of Wheeler. Here are some of the questions I asked her, and her responses: 

What are some of the biggest changes since you started at Wheeler? 

She started off by saying that cell phones, and technology have had a big impact on school communication... “It used to be,” she said, that “if you wanted to give a message to somebody …you had to phone them, but if they weren’t in the room then you had to walk around the school to try and find them. You never could get something done, or get a hold of somebody right away..” 

She added that the physical campus changed, along with the size of the school. When she started, she said, “it used to be so small, it was like a family.” She went on to add: “look at it! It’s like we’re surrounded by a city. It used to be a little town. There were tennis courts, not East Campus, but that was very recent. And the brick paths were kind of dirt passageways, there was no real play area established, so it didn’t have that kind of feeling of a school inside.” 

Finally, she spoke about the benefits of the school’s diversity. When she started, the school only had female students, and now it has students of all orientations and backgrounds. She added:  “There have been a lot of changes in the student body…that makes me extremely happy,” “it’s great to teach all different kinds of kids, because as a teacher you’re supposed to be learning as well as teaching. And I’ve learned more from kids than from anybody else, from any adult I’ve learned more from kids.”

How long have you been at Wheeler, and what have you taught during your time here? 

“I’d say, I started in ’77, so that was like 44 years ago. I was just behind Mark Harris. I remember coming and hearing him down the hallway of lower school, and the kids just screaming with laughter, it was awesome.” 

“I started here in Lower School. So I started 1st grade through 6th, and I taught that for 3 years, until Mr. Prescott came and asked me how I felt about moving up to Middle School. So then it got crazy, because I taught 3rd through 8th and then too many kids. And then 5th through 8th, and finally it paired down to 6th through 8th.” 

Throughout her years here, Ms. Daughn has taught and known many people, including Ms. Anderson, who she worked with for 17 years. “In 2000, this was built, this up here,” she said, gesturing to the wall between the middle school art classrooms up on the fourth floor of Hope Building. Before it was extended, she said, the rooms were all used for the boarding school students. 

What was the biggest change from it being all girls, to coed? 

Ms. Daughn said since she got here around when it was transitioning to coed, she got to teach the first boy to ever enroll at Wheeler. When boys came to Wheeler, she said they had to change the sports program to the liking of the new students and parents. 

“The whole sports program, it was a huge issue since they wanted to attract the boys…So, that’s actually why there’s always been such a rivalry with Moses Brown to get some of those applicants…Wheeler focused on the arts and at the same time tried to supply the sports so we got boys who did art as well.” After a while, she said, the “whole look of the campus and the feeling for what we were doing was changing.” 

What is your career like outside of Wheeler? 

She is an active painter outside of school and she shows her work throughout the area. Take a look at her work if you’d like: https://sarahdaughn.net/ 

What do you think your favorite part about Wheeler is now? 

She looked wistful. “I don’t know what my favorite part of Wheeler is. I’ve always loved to teach, really loved to teach. That’s what I feel comfortable with, so I would have to say that’s my favorite part.”

What do you think the most impactful changes throughout the art program have been? 

“Well, I think, I think it was almost sad that they went to digital photography, because Bob Martin is such a fantastic photography room teacher too, so it’s too bad they couldn’t have kept both.” 

“I would love to see the future of a wood shop here, like woodworking,” “I had it at my middle school. And it was fabulous, the machinery work, I mean. Teaching you how to put things together is just so important, and to work with your hands, and it’s also therapeutic. Makes you feel good.” 

Ms. Daughn also notes the middle school art classrooms and all the new teachers to have been impactful to the program. 

Are there things you would like to see come back to wheeler in the future that you saw before?  

“I think it’d be really really important to keep the arts as a primary focus of this school. No other school really has that…but there are all kinds of attachments to the community, to Downtown Providence, to theaters there, that Ms. Brackett fostered. So theater arts would be important….Dance is becoming more popular,” she added, “and I’m thrilled about that, so I’d like to see that as more of a focus….And music for goodness sakes!…I don’t want to see the arts leave. That’s what I’m all about.”

It was really fun talking to and listening to Mrs. Daughn. People like her and so many great teachers – newer and longtime – make Wheeler what it is. It’s hard to imagine how different our school was at times, and how much it had to evolve to become what it is today.