Sargent
Sargent Spirit
“ I Just Am So Attuned to the Love of Sargent” Mary Elizabeth “Betty” Arnold (Sargent’45, SED’49) stands maybe five feet tall in her white Easy Spirit sneakers and turquoise socks accented with orange kittens. But her Sargent Spirit soars, filling the large, airy living room of her home in Newton, Massachusetts.
“ At Sargent you got the best rounded education, not only in sports, but in living,” says Betty, 95, describing the unforgettable five months she and her classmates spent living in cabins at Sargent Camp, on New Hampshire’s Half Moon Lake. There they engaged in sports from tennis and lacrosse to archery and boating, learning the training techniques they would carry with them into their careers as teachers dedicated to strengthening the physical abilities of all people.
With her BS in physical education from Sargent and her EdM from the School of Education, Betty went on to teach phys ed at Weymouth North High School, in Massachusetts, for 36 years. She also coached girls’ varsity tennis and, in 1974, led the girls’ varsity basketball team to a Suburban League championship. When Title IX passed, in 1972, Betty swung with the times, teaching ballroom and square dancing to the school’s boys and girls together. “I so enjoyed seeing students advance—to be able to accomplish more with their bodies than they thought possible,” she says. But Sargent, she says, prepared her for success on more than just the court or the field. “Sargent taught me how to succeed in the classroom,” she says. “Courses in subjects ranging from kinesiology to chemistry prepared us physically and mentally for the challenges that we would face when we went out to teach. We could go into any situation and feel competent.”
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