March 2007

David Lynn, ’00, Lauds Unique Learning Environment at American School of Paris


David Lynn, ’00, has known since a young age that he wanted to teach, and so he has—in Hungary, China, the United States and, most recently, France at the American School of Paris (ASP), where he serves as a middle school educator, club advisor and sports coach.  

Lynn, who majored in leadership studies and history and minored in education, developed a love of learning early. “Since it’s kind of expensive to be a student your whole life, I figured being a teacher is the next best thing,” Lynn said. 

He got his chance to explore his interest in teaching right after graduation when Jepson alumna Amanda Howland, ’99, recruited him for the ESL-teaching position she was vacating in Kétsoprony, a village of approximately 1,600 people in southeast Hungary. Following his yearlong assignment there, Lynn accepted another yearlong ESL-teaching assignment in a public high school in Linyi, a city of two million in Shandong Province in eastern China.  

Lynn returned to the United States in the fall of 2002 and entered a graduate education program at Harvard. While there, he regularly attended lectures given by Joanne Ciulla, Douglas Hicks and Hugh O’Doherty (a former Jepson professor), all of whom were serving as visiting fellows and faculty members at Harvard at the time.   

After graduating from Harvard, Lynn taught for two years at the Shackleton School, a four-year secondary-level boarding school in Ashby, Mass. Students hailed from diverse ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, including many from the inner city. The school offered an innovative curriculum combining rigorous academics with extended learning expeditions throughout North America in which teachers doubled as guides and bus drivers.  

When the Shackleton School closed in June 2005 due to financial constraints, Lynn contacted an agency to help him find a teaching job closer to his family in New Jersey. So he couldn’t have been more surprised when he received a call from France. 

The middle school director at the American School of Paris needed to fill a last-minute vacancy and had done a blanket search to find qualified candidates. During a two-hour phone interview, Lynn answered numerous questions about his Jepson education and how he incorporated it into his work both in and out of the classroom. He received and accepted the job offer from ASP. 

Founded in 1946, ASP became the first international school in Europe. Today the private school enrolls 805 students representing 50 nationalities in kindergarten through 12th grade and employs 103 faculty members, guaranteeing small classes. Lynn compared his classroom to a mini-United Nations with students coming from a myriad of backgrounds and cultures. His 15 advisees, for example, represent six continents. 

ASP classes are conducted in English, with English immersion classes being offered to non-native English-speaking students. Frequent field trips throughout Paris and its environs augment the school’s rigorous international baccalaureate and advanced placement programs. The most noticeable differences between ASP and a well-run American public school, according to Lynn, lie in the tremendous diversity of the student body and the extraordinary resources available both in and out of the classroom. 

“I feel deeply connected with the educational philosophy of the school which focuses on the holistic development of the student,” Lynn said. “I value the professional freedom teachers are given and the support younger teachers receive from more experienced colleagues. As the No Child Left Behind Act inadvertently dismantles the potential of the American public education system, it is refreshing to work in an environment where teachers are respected and provided with the support and encouragement they need to create quality learning experiences for students.” 

Now in his second year of teaching middle school debate and eighth-grade modern world history, including a month-long lesson on 20th-century leadership inspired largely by what he learned at Jepson, Lynn has discovered he truly enjoys working with middle school students and helping them channel their tremendous energy and enthusiasm into a positive learning experience. 

He faces his greatest challenge in designing activities and lessons appropriate for the wide ranges in maturity and intellectual development common among students this age. “On the most difficult days when I am frustrated with how a lesson is going,” Lynn said, “I ask myself, what would Dr. Wren do? The answer that pops into my head is usually what saves the day.” 

“I learned a lot about teaching from observing how classes were run at Jepson. I try to encourage a similar learning environment based on experiential learning, discussion, simulation, case studies and the occasional research paper. I also do my best to incorporate aspects of critical thinking, conflict resolution and ethics into my lessons. It amazes me to see the level of depth that a group of 13- and 14-year-olds can reach when analyzing some of the challenging issues of the past decade.” 

In addition to drawing on his Jepson education, Lynn has used his broader ties to the University to his students’ advantage. For example, this February, Scott Erwin, R’05, currently a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, visited ASP on Lynn’s invitation and spoke to students about his experiences in Iraq, first as a budget advisor for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad and later as a freelance journalist.

Lynn believes that just as students can learn much from speakers like Erwin, they can also enrich their education through out-of-classroom experiences. He has taken his students on field trips to Verdun (site of a major World War I battle), Provence, numerous museums and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) headquarters where they participated in a simulation exercise. 

Just last month, Lynn, the faculty advisor to ASP’s Model UN Club, accompanied a group of students to Mexico where they spent several days touring Mexico City before heading to Monterrey to participate in the 2007 Model United Nations Conference. Details.

In addition to the work he does with students, Lynn serves as a faculty liaison to the ASP Board of Trustees and as an officer for the European League for Middle Level Education (ELMLE). He spends his free time exploring Paris, sampling the French cuisine, improving his French and traveling. A constant stream of visitors—“everyone seems to like a reason to visit Paris,” he said—has mitigated his longing for home.  

Like most teachers, he often devotes nights and weekends to school-related work, but doing so seems somewhat less onerous in Paris than it might elsewhere. “The Louvre is a great place to go and grade papers on weekends,” Lynn said.