+ Anne McCormack TTC '65

Thirty-four years ago, I was teaching Colonial America to Shady Hill seventh-graders. As part of a fundraising read-a-thon, my class read hundreds of books in one month to support Partners In Health (PIH).As a fairly new teacher and recent graduate of the TTC, supporting PIH was an early lesson in the power of efficacy. The chance to make a difference—to have an impact—is not only a great motivator, but it is also critical to students’ growth and understanding of their position in the world and their personal and shared responsibility for making it a better place. Those 12-year-olds realized that, although young, they indeed could make a difference.

In a similar spirit, PIH was founded by a small group of people that included my husband Todd and his best friend Dr. Paul Farmer. It was built on the audacious belief that healthcare is a human right, and that even the poorest people in the world deserve the best care possible.Less well known is the fact that for over three decades, PIH has supported a network of 40 schools in the Central Plateau of Haiti. While I am a long-time trustee of PIH, Summits Education, as this network is known, has now become the central focus of my work in Haiti.

On the surface, Summits and Shady Hill are completely different. Summits schools have no computers, no playgrounds, and often no walls. But on closer examination, Summits is in many ways a kindred spirit, with a markedly similar mission and philosophy. Carrying forth the legacy of PIH, Summits believes in the right of every child, even the most underserved, to receive a quality education. Like Shady Hill, Summits schools were born of a need for a different approach to schooling, one that addresses the development of the whole child, and that values teachers and their training, an uncommon approach in Haiti, where the education system is sorely broken. Fewer than 30% of Haitians reach sixth grade, and the country’s literacy rate is 53%. 

Haiti’s abject poverty should leave little energy for building a progressive education system, especially when mere survival is at risk. And yet, I have seen students hike for four hours—one way—just to come to school! I’ve seen a fourth-grader carry his baby sister with him to school because he was in charge of her that day and didn’t want to skip class. I’ve known teachers who didn’t miss a single day of teaching even when they hadn’t seen a paycheck in months. I’ve seen schools erected by communities who carried building materials on their backs because no roads existed. These are the Haitians who make up the Summits community. 

In 2015, Summits Education achieved 501(c)3 status, and it has made remarkable strides. We now serve 10,000 students, most from families living on less than $2 a day. Like Shady Hill, Summits understands that excellent teachers beget an excellent education. As a mother of three Shady Hill graduates, I am forever grateful for the heartfelt dedication and talent of their teachers, and I want nothing less for children in Haiti. We work in collaboration with the local communities to support a curriculum that is teacher guided and student focused. Summits teachers complete 150 hours of training and work under the supervision of a cohort of master teachers and supervisors. Sound familiar?

The results speak to the important work we do at Summits: increased attendance rates; the high scores students achieve on national assessments; the interest of our teachers in further training; and the Haitian government’s recognition of Summits as the leader of their Model School Network, setting examples and proving concepts for the rest of Haiti’s schools. But I believe our greatest achievement is in providing our students with a sense of their own agency in controlling their future and that of their communities and country. We believe education is a human right. Without education, prospects for Haitian children are dismal. Without education, a generation of Haitians will fail to rise above their limiting circumstances, and the cycle of poverty that plagues the country has little chance of being broken. Every school day, thousands of children quite literally climb the mountains of Haiti to seek an education and a better life for themselves, their families, and their communities. Our students may not be reading hundreds of books this month but by going to school, they are making a difference and certainly working to make their world a better place. It is a remarkable thing to witness, made all the more meaningful when I consider that the roots of this work reach all the way back to the TTC and Shady Hill.