The Observer Newspapers | Educator Continues to Help Community

July 18, 2008

Educator Continues to Help Community

By Leslie Perales
Observer Staff Writer

By the time she was in the 10th grade, Margaret Boyd had decided what she would do with her life. She wanted to teach. "I was so impressed with my teachers," she said, explaining that her teachers and her parents were her role models growing up.

Boyd attended school in Ardmore, Okla., where, she said, the community worked together to help support and raise children. The community believed in the proverb that "it takes a village to raise a child," Boyd said, adding that teachers were a big part of that community. "I just had a great love for my teachers," she said. There were only about 35 people in Boyd's graduating class in high school and 27 of them attended college with the encouragement of their community and teachers, she said.

Boyd said she decided to study home economics at Langston University in Oklahoma, and she started her teaching career during her first year of college, working as a substitute teacher at the high school she attended. Boyd later received her master's degree in curriculum and instruction from Virginia Tech.

After college, Boyd married her childhood sweetheart, a military officer. During their marriage, the couple traveled all over the United States and spent some time overseas. Boyd said she would find a school to teach at wherever they went, and in 1971, they landed in Reston. "I like learning about cultures," Boyd said. "I must live in a place where we can meet people from all over the world."

She said Reston offered her that opportunity. Boyd said Reston only had about 15,000 residents when she arrived, and it has been exciting to watch the area's growth. She applied for a job with Fairfax County Public Schools and was placed at Forest Edge Elementary School in 1971. She said she enjoyed working at Forest Edge, but she did not teach at the school for very long. "Being in the military you get used to being very mobile," she said. So she said she would change schools every few years, but always stay in the area.

In addition to Forest Edge, Boyd taught at Terraset and Dogwood elementary schools in Reston, Westbriar Elementary in Vienna and Oak Hill Elementary and Herndon Middle schools in Herndon. Boyd wanted to change schools often so she always had a new experience and a new challenge, she said. "Out of all the schools I've taught in, in Reston, my favorite was Dogwood," she said. The school was diverse and strived to provide its students with a multicultural education, Boyd said.

"I still feel there's a great need for diversity," Boyd said. She would like to see people interact with other cultures more and is dismayed when she sees people segregate themselves, she said. A strong advocate for diversity, Boyd founded Reston's Multicultural Festival after noticing that many ethnic groups were hosting separate festivals in the community. She said she thought it would be great to have a single celebration and contacted the Reston Community Center to begin a planning committee for such an event. She said they had two goals for the festival: for it to attract residents of all cultures and all ages.

Boyd also founded the Fairfax County Youth Leadership Program, which at its inception provided students with the opportunity to participate in leadership and team-building activities, she said. The program now serves to motivate high school students to become engaged citizens and leaders in their communities.

For more than 50 years, Boyd has been trying to impact the lives of her students, many of whom she said she still keeps in touch with. "I have a need to know how their lives are going now," she said. Boyd taught Reston resident Stacy Brooks' second-grade class, and Brooks said Boyd has been a staple in the community. "Thirty years later that woman is still my mentor, my friend and most importantly, my teacher," she said.

Boyd also has been friends with Hunter Mill district Supervisor Cathy Hudgins and her family for nearly 40 years. They met while Boyd was teaching Hudgins' son at Forest Edge. "She has always been involved in trying to improve the community," Hudgins said. "Margaret is a very caring person. She gets very energized when she thinks of things that she can do in the community."

Boyd, who has been honored as a Lady Fairfax nominee and received a Best of Reston award, retired from teaching in 2000, but she continues to substitute teach in Fairfax County. "I do it because I will never stop being in education," she said. Boyd said she tells her students that resiliency is the key to happiness and success in life. "When you're falling, always fall on your back," she said. "Because if you can look up, you can get back up."

Boyd said she would like to write a book about her experiences that would inspire young people, especially teachers, to keep going in their careers. "It wasn't easy for me," she said. "Every time I'd get distressed I thought about the teachers I had." Teachers need to believe in themselves, their students and their communities, Boyd said. "What's important to me in the world today is really the young people," she said.

Boyd is currently developing a program to teach students about entrepreneurship and she would also like to produce a family health fair to combat obesity and provide information about living healthy.