Several new teachers have joined Sacred Heart Academy this year, including Mr. Palmgren, the AP and CP Psychology instructor. Many have yet to meet him because he is part-time, so I interviewed him for students to get to know more.
While he may be new to SHA, Mr. Palmgren taught for twenty years as a teacher and then ten years as a principal, showing his varied experience. When asked why he became a teacher, Mr. Palmgren explained, “It’s a really long story, basically I think it was fate, and I have educators in my family.” Although he normally teaches history (specifically AP/CP European History and AP/CP Human Geography), he decided to teach psychology at SHA because it falls within social studies and he joked, “My wife’s a therapist so I get ‘psychologied’ a lot at home.”
At first he stated he’s not sure what he likes about teaching just that he does, but then mentioned, “I like watching you guys enjoy learning things and working hard and growing academically. I like teaching because it’s like coaching too, especially history, you can use subjects you’re covering to teach life lessons as well.” When prompted on what he hates about teaching, Mr. Palmgren immediately said grading because it’s required. “It’s the worst and I don’t like it when kids don’t do well and that generally happens.”
When prompted on what he likes about high schoolers Mr. Palmgren contrasted them with his experience as a principal of both a middle school and a high school, “You guys are becoming young adults; you’re thoughtful and really smart and independent; you’re interesting and fun,” whereas, “middle schoolers are just messy and all over the place.” He enjoys his two classes at SHA and thinks his students are great kids, but he was a little concerned about how quickly they investigated his life.
On being a principal Mr. Palmgren remarked, “It was fun, I really liked it a lot; I just got burnt out with covid. That was hard.” After being a principal during the pandemic, he didn’t want to go back to the classroom but still wanted to contribute to education, leading to him starting a business. At the moment, he teaches for fun and dedicates most of his time as a self-employed educational consultant. He specializes in boarding schools in New England, “In the same way someone helps kids with college applications, I help kids with independent and boarding school applications.”
The teachers at our school all have interesting backgrounds, but Mr. Palmgren’s is especially neat, considering he used to live in Brazil, “These are the fun stories. Before and after my wife, also an educator, and I got married, we went to an international job fair because we wanted to move overseas. We were young, we didn’t have any kids, we didn’t have any responsibilities so we could basically go anywhere we wanted to. It was awesome.” They explored the teaching market and accepted offers in Brazil but denied deals in Kyiv, Ukraine which they are glad they never took. He has many fascinating stories about Brazil if you are curious!
For his favorite teaching moment Mr. Palmgren shared, “I don’t know, every day, there’s little things that happen every day that are really fun. I love when someone asks a question that gets us sort of off topic, or someone gets something wrong, and it leads to a more interesting discussion.” Leaving us with his most important principle Mr. Palmgren wisely said, “I always tell my kids before they leave school that I don’t care about grades, but rather that they apply themselves and are good friends.” He focuses on effort rather than results and is fine with them working hard and getting D’s. About being a good friend he expressed, “Being a supportive friend isn’t easy-it might mean telling your friend they’re doing something wrong.”
Mr. Palmgren is witty, nice, and wise so it’s no wonder his students love him! Thank you to Mr. Palmgren for letting me interview you!
