Bill Haines
A retired history teacher guides students – young and old – toward good citizenship
Toolbox
Published: May 15, 2005
By Susan Youngwood
Teenagers who whine that adults never listen to them should meet the eighth-graders at Twinfield Union School in Plainfield.
In the last several years, the students there have identified national issues like tobacco advertising in magazines for students, state issues like the difficulty Vermont's foster children have financing their college educations, and local problems like the torn-up pavement in the school driveway.
They've found solutions to these problems and have met with politicians to lobby for change.
Then they watched as tobacco companies halted their advertising, a revolving scholarship fund was created for foster kids, and their road was repaved.
All thanks to Bill Haines.
So what's the connection between this 65-year-old retired history teacher and these 14-year-old students?
Haines is the state coordinator of Project Citizen, a middle school civic education program designed to develop interest in public policy. His job is to teach teachers how to integrate this hands-on program into their curriculum and to expand the number of participating schools. Twinfield is one of the Vermont schools using the Project Citizen curriculum.
Haines retired from teaching seven years ago, but he hasn't shut the door on education. After 32 years explaining history, psychology, sociology and economics to Montpelier High School students, he moved on to a statewide audience.
With a rambunctious 4-year-old Labrador retriever at his side in his living room in his Worcester home, Haines describes how he became a teacher.
After graduating from Hamilton College in New York, he worked in the insurance industry, then attended Columbia University's Teacher's College in New York City.
"Somewhere along the line I made the crucial decision of the importance of money in my life," he said. "I turned down a $13,000 job in Chicago for a $5,200 job in Montpelier. As long as I have enough to live on, I was fine."
While a teacher, he coached the tennis team and ran the debate club. He wrote his own definition of retirement when he left teaching in 1996.
"Retirement was an opportunity to dabble in a number of things I wanted to do," he said.
Project Citizen was one such effort. Conceived by a California nonprofit education organization, the program is now being used by schools in all 50 states. Eight schools in Vermont are offering the program, which got its foothold in the state when Haines became involved in 1997. Project Citizen begins when students pick a problem in their community. Three years ago in Plainfield, for example, students started by talking about the potholes in the access road to their school and decided it was both a safety issue and a public relations problem. After doing some research, they concluded that to fix the problem, some change was needed in the school district's maintenance policy.
"They had to find the pressure point: Is it the principal, the school board, the superintendent? They had to ask: How do we push the right buttons to change the public policy?" Haines said. "One key thing students learn is how change is made, (then) they become agents of change," he added. "They also learn communication skills to persuade the public officials and community to (accept) their point of view."
Once a school signs onto Project Citizen, Haines often visits the classroom to explain the program. He'll return and participate in the brainstorming process, offer encouragement and try to provide whatever material resources the students need. "I wouldn't be doing this if I weren't getting back into the classroom," he said.
Haines expanded Project Citizen's reach this year when he started working with Project Harmony, a Waitsfield-based organization that organizes exchanges of professionals, such as musicians, physicians and government officials, with the countries of the former Soviet Union. He recently taught a Project Citizen workshop to youth group leaders from Kyrgyzstan, a central Asian country, and he has another training coming up with delegates from Armenia, a country in southwest Asia. He challenged the representatives from these emerging democracies to consider these questions: What are the qualities, attitudes and beliefs of a good citizen?
"Government becomes more effective when citizens participate in a more direct way," Haines said. "We need to emphasize that."
Meanwhile, loath to see the debate program disappear in Montpelier, Haines has continued to coach the team. This year, under his guidance, Montpelier finished first and second in the state debate competition.
"Debate is the most valuable activity to participate in during the high school years because of the skills it develops," Haines said, pointing to the research, critical thinking and analysis that are associated with the extracurricular activity. "Students come out of debate and they can think. Debate forces you to do that – you have to think on your feet. You have to debate both sides of the question, and appreciate both sides of the issue."
This year, however, has been his last to work with the Montpelier team. As secretary of the Vermont Debate and Forensics League, Haines will now be working to introduce debate to other Vermont high schools.
Haines also practices what he preaches about citizen participation. He is chair of the Worcester selectboard, has been moderator for town meeting, served on the town's school board, and was president of the volunteer fire department. In the last year, he's been active raising funds to help his neighbor control a manure pit that had been polluting the North Branch of the Winooski River.
"I want to make sure that when I'm 80 and can't get out of my chair that I've done the things I've wanted to do," Haines said. "The problem is, there are so many things I want to do."
Susan Youngwood is a Times Argus editor.
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