Q&A with Mr. John Ford: Being a Well-rounded Scientist
This year at Convocation, Mr. John Ford, a long-time Choate science teacher, received a faculty chair for his incredible dedication and passion for teaching. Recently, I had a chance to sit down with Mr. Ford to talk about his background in STEM and teaching, as well as some fun facts and advice for students.
Q: What is your background in STEM?
A: I was a biology major in college, and I also did some graduate work in similar fields for my master’s degree. In my 45 years of teaching or so, I’ve taught all levels of biology as well as first-year physics and first-year chemistry.
Q: What made you decide to pursue a career in STEM?
A: When I was in high school, I found that both my strength and interest was more in STEM areas — particularly, my interest was in biology. In high school, I never really took to the more verbal courses, English and history. I worked hard in them, but they just didn’t come as easily to me as STEM classes. And when I went off to college, I was pretty certain that I was going to major in biology — and I did. Sometimes people change their minds, but I didn’t. I did find some areas of biology that I didn’t know I would be interested in until I was exposed to them in college, which was good. I got to do a little bit of research with a couple of professors, and so I continued to pursue it.
Q: What are your views on STEM education at Choate and beyond?
A: I worry a little bit about over-specialization. I think that sometimes high school students are too quick to specialize in an area and therefore dispense with other areas that they don’t realize they might have an interest. So I’m more of a fan of a general education, or what we consider a liberal arts education. I think that it’s really important, no matter what you’re doing, to be reasonably experienced in reading, writing, and scientific thinking, as well as quantitative skills. I don’t think any high school student should be avoiding any of that.
Q: What are some important things you think Choate’s future scientists should know?
A: I think that what they should be careful of is getting too far down the road with something supposedly advanced in study without having a really good coverage of fundamentals. I worry sometimes when I see what students are doing in SRP in that they are looking at some pretty intricate and detailed studies related to their summer work in the lab, and that’s at the expense of covering the fundamentals. So what I think Choate science students should know is that it’s okay to take your time. Make sure that you don’t rush ahead into detailed, advanced work without covering core concepts first.
Q: What are your proudest STEM or education accomplishments?
A: In my earlier days, my primary area of interest was in marine biology, and I think I did quite a few things to establish the study of marine science here at Choate. It’s been a long time since I’ve taught it here, but I laid a lot of groundwork for that. I did some pretty good and fun research myself, especially in coastal marine ecosystems and coral reef ecosystems. Q: What is your favorite book and/or character? A: I guess still my favorite book is The Catcher in the Rye and my favorite character is Holden Caulfield. It’s hard to pick one favorite, but I feel like Holden Caulfield has been with me for a long time.