Every year, a few of our hardworking teachers get to take a yearlong break to experience life away from campus. This year, history teachers John Lyons and Jen Wallace took sabbatical leaves to travel, read, and prepare for another ten years at Groton. The Circle Voice contacted them for updates on their sabbatical years, and their responses are below.

Mr. John Lyons

“It’s amazing how swiftly a year passes,” responded Mr. Lyons. Mr. Lyons’ travels began the day after Prize Day last summer. His first stop on a year away was Europe, with students from Groton, Deerfield, and St. Mark’s joining him on a Global Education trip tracing the historic sites of the First and Second World Wars. His trip, titled, “A Descent Into Barbarism,” included stops at Verdun, Maginot Line, Berlin, Warsaw, and Auschwitz, among others. “It was an extraordinary trip,” said Mr. Lyons.

After exploring Europe, he continued to travel domestically to Zion, Bryce, and Grand Canyon National Parks. The rest of his year was spent closer to home in New England. He and his family moved to Cape Ann, Massachusetts, where they rented a house less than a mile from the Atlantic shore. Mr. Lyons especially enjoys the views of Crane Beach and Plum Island. Upon his return to the New England area, He has spent his time reading and developing a course, “Explaining Trump: The American Conservative Movement, 1955-present,” to be offered in the spring term of the 2017-18 school year.

For the coming months, Mr. Lyons has planned a trip to England, where he will be attending a colloquium at Oxford University on “The Age of Lincoln.”Although he professes to have enjoyed his year away, Mr. Lyons looks forward to “moving [back] home” and beginning another year at Groton.

Ms. Jennifer Wallace

Ms. Wallace has also spent some of her year abroad, travelling to the Philippines, where she stayed for two weeks before returning to the United States. There, Ms. Wallace spoke at libraries throughout the country and the Ayala Museum in Manila, which is dedicated to contemporary art and history. In her talks, Ms. Wallace argued that the “Philippine-American War is more relevant [now] than ever.” Since returning to the United States, Ms. Wallace has stayed in central New Hampshire to do a slightly different style of teaching: teaching adults. She has taught classes on doing historical research online, a field in which she is well-versed from years of experience. Ms. Wallace also visited Groton briefly and gave lectures to the Fifth and Sixth Form students taking United States History. Noelia Carbajal’ 18, who was in one of the classes that received the lecture, commented that, although she had never previously had Ms. Wallace as a teacher, she “could listen to her all day.” Groton’s history students will be awaiting Ms. Wallace’s return with excitement.

This upcoming year, five teachers will be leaving for their years on sabbatical: Peter Fry, Ian and Martha Gracey, Bill Maguire, and Andy Reyes. Time will show the paths that their sabbaticals will take.