Meet Anna Fortner, PWHS Humanities
Anna Fortner joined our faculty this fall, as a Humanities teacher in the high school. In between summers working as a whitewater river guide, Ms. Fortner earned a BA in English Literature from Mills College in Oakland, CA, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, and an MFA in Fiction from the University of Idaho.
Anna fell in love with teaching in graduate school and comes to PWS with fifteen years’ experience in secondary schools. We asked her some questions so you can get to know her better.
Q: What do you think are some of the hallmarks of a solid humanities education?
Anna Fortner: The hallmark of a solid humanities education is true inquiry - to make observations and ask questions in pursuit of understanding rather than judgement. This kind of inquiry is as valuable in the classroom as it is outside of it. True inquiry is, I think, the most important life skill we can teach students and a way to cultivate and sustain curiosity and wonder.
Q: Is there anything in particular about Waldorf education that inspires you? What do you like most about working with high school students?
AF: In Zen Buddhism, to have a beginner’s mind is an asset. It means you are open to new ideas and experiences and move through the world with curiosity and wonder. I am inspired by the similarity I see in a Waldorf education which also seeks to cultivate curiosity and wonder and sustain them over a lifetime. While high school can be a time when a young person begins to lose their beginner’s mind - often unconsciously - it can also be a time when they learn the value of this mindset and choose to embrace it. The opportunity to accompany young people through this choice - through the wide-ranging exploration, the rich discussion, the meaningful reflection - brings me great joy and is why I love working with high school students.
Q: Tell us about your desert island 5. If you could take just 5 books with you to read for the rest of your life, what would they be?
AF: My desert island 5 includes books that were influential in helping me to define the well-lived life and are books I turn to again and again: to tend goodness: My Antonia by Willa Cather, to love wholeheartedly: Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, to love open-heartedly: Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, to value what is wild: Winter by Rick Bass, to see beneath the surface of things: Consolations by David Whyte.
Q: Lastly, what do you like to do when you aren’t at school?
AF: I love to ride bikes, backpack, whitewater raft and kayak, surf, and write poetry.
You can meet Ms. Fortner and her Humanities colleagues at the High School Open House on Saturday, Nov 6, 11am. RSVP here.