When Joe Bouchard began teaching at the Forman School in Litchfield, Conn., seven years ago, few of his students had ever heard of Blue Oyster Cult. Even fewer knew that he was the rock group’s former guitarist.
Now, he uses his experience writing songs and making videos to teach video and music classes at the private boarding school for grades 9-12. Mr. Bouchard, 46, left the now-defunct band in 1986. In 1988, he got a teaching job at the school.
The former rocker, who earned a degree in music education at Ithaca College before the band hit it big in the 1970’s, said teaching and life on the road has some similarities.
“It’s lots of work,” he said in a telephone interview last week. “People think being in a band is not really a job, but we worked hard. I put in as many hours teaching as I did in the band.”
He admits there are some things he misses, like the travel. But teaching, too, has its rewards. “I’ve learned more teaching than I would in the band,” he said, and his summers are free for travel.
Mr. Bouchard has also used his free time to pursue a master’s degree in music composition from the University of Hartford, which he will receive this month.
But he has not forgotten his past. He plans to teach a guitar workshop this summer and still keeps in touch with the Blue Oyster Cult Fan Club on the Internet computer network.
Milton Goldberg, the former director of the U.S. Education Department’s office of educational research and improvement, has joined the Washington-based National Alliance of Business. As the alliance’s senior vice president for education, he will tackle its education-reform efforts. At the Education Department, Mr. Goldberg helped draft the national education goals. He is also the former executive director of the National Commission on Excellence in Education, which in 1983 produced A Nation at Risk. Elizabeth Hicks has been named to head the Education Department’s office of student financial assistance by Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley. Ms. Hicks has been a coordinator of financial aid for Harvard University and an assistant dean of admissions and financial aid for both Harvard and Radcliffe colleges since 1983.
Teachers College, Columbia University, has received the largest bequest in its history. Elsie Wachtell, an alumna who died in April 1994 at the age of 90, left the college $1.2 million. Ms. Wachtell had a been member of the college’s alumni council for 10 years.
