Charlotte took ten years away from teaching to be with her children and returned to her
profession in 1971. She was offered a job at the new Manchester School in Windham
which was built as an open concept school. Charlotte taught Guitar, Chorus, 3 - 5
General Music AND Art, learning a lot along the way. William Diamond was the
principal. She had a chorus of 224 kids, meeting in small groups and putting it all
together in the gym before the concert. She also accompanied the Middle School Chorus.
She moved to the Junior High in 1978. During her tenure in Windham, she mentored
Joseph Henry, UMPG ’76, and Nancy Cash-Cobb, UMPG ’79. It was Joe and Nancy who
urged Charlotte to get more involved with MMEA having already served in various
capacities. She took their advice and was elected President Elect in 1982, serving as
President 1984-1986. As president, she was a consensus builder, creating a rapport with
the members to get more of them involved. People felt they had input.
Once again, change was in
the air and Charlotte left
Windham to take a job
at Waynflete. All Middle
School students, 200,
were required to take
Chorus and the classroom
teachers were required to
stay with the kids during
rehearsal. At first,
the students were rather
hostile as Charlotte was
an unknown. During her
second year she had 12
out of 50 chorus students
accepted to All State. The
administration
was very supportive and, seeing that a separate space was needed, the next year
a music room was built on to the school. Since Charlotte saw all the students, K-12, it
soon became apparent that the job was too much for one person and another music
teacher was hired, demonstrating that the kids came first. Charlotte was fascinated by
how kids were not put into molds but were allowed to become their own person with
support and guidance from their teachers. The upper school chorus had to have small
group lessons since they only met once a week and the administration supported the
need for more time but it was impossible to schedule the entire group several times a
week . After school began, the chorus students submitted their free periods to her and