TEACHER OF INTEREST
The DEBATE TEACHER
BY DONNA CRARY
For Anna Hutcheson, a language arts and debate
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instructor at Clark Advanced Center, the road to her
teaching career was a winding one with a number of
twists and turns.
Daughter of Suzy Hutcheson, who heads up the nonprofit
Helping People Succeed, she grew up in Martin County and
attended Martin County High School. There she sang with
the OPUS choral group under Ron Corbin and loved acting in
plays produced by the school’s drama department. Following
graduation in 1987, she planned to pursue her dream path of
professionally performing on stage.
“I never really started off to be a teacher ...I was going to
New York and become an actress,” she said with a smile. “But
in teaching, I have a captive audience.”
So Hutcheson attended Florida State University, where she
majored in theater and studied acting. After a couple of years,
she decided to return home to Martin County. She spent the
next several years working in customer service jobs, learning
how to help people solve their problems while balancing
what a company needs.
“You apply that in teaching every day,” she said. “It’s always
negotiating between what the student wants to do and
what I want them to do.”
Hutcheson then began what she calls her second life, working
at about every level in the restaurant business. For 10
years she worked at the former upscale Helga’s Café & Bistro
in Stuart, where she took on various roles; she was a member
of the wait staff, a staff trainer, prep cook, bar manager and
catering chef.
“Those different experiences made me less fearful as a
teacher,” Hutcheson said. “I’m not afraid that things can
change or fluctuate on a daily basis or even on a minute-tominute
basis. Those jobs gave me the ability to adapt and
really be flexible in how I approach things and not freak out
when a plan goes awry. It’s grace under fire.”
While working at Helga’s, she didn’t give up pursuing
academics. She enrolled at Florida Atlantic University and
eventually received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English.
It was while she was writing her master’s thesis that she
was drawn to the teaching profession.
“This didn’t come to me as an epiphany, it came to me as
something that I can do,” she said. “Once I decided that I
wasn’t going to pursue a Ph.D., I thought, ‘What am I best
equipped to do?’ It was to teach.”
Hutcheson joined the Clark faculty in 2005 when it was an
up-and-coming charter high school on the Treasure Coast. As
a language arts instructor, she teaches writing, reading comprehension
and helps students search for deeper meaning
in literature. But she especially enjoys imparting important
lifelong concepts as part of the curriculum.
“Think before you speak; there’s a life skill,” she said. “Is
your statement accurate? Can you support it with facts? Create
thoughtful and meaningful responses. Engage the brain
before you engage the mouth.”
“Be genuine. I approach this in their writing,” Hutcheson
JOHN BIONDO PHOTOS
Homegrown Stuart resident Anna Hutcheson discovered her passion for
teaching after working in various customer service and hospitality jobs.
added. “I’m more interested in what they have to say than I
am in them getting a right or perfect answer. Sometimes, students
don’t even know that they have a voice, yet. I encourage
them to find their voices, their way of presenting an issue.”
In 2011, Clark students asked Hutcheson to start a debate
program. Today it is thriving. Students compete once a month
with other students in Martin and Palm Beach counties. Some
also compete on state and national levels. She admits that
teaching debate can sometimes be a juggling act.
“In that whole class, they’re doing eight different things, so
I’m not focused on teaching one curriculum,” she said. “I’m
working with these two people who are doing one event,
another person who’s going to 18 different competitions. Last
tournament, I had four kids doing congress — two students
doing dramatic interpretation — one student doing program
oral interpretation — another student doing Lincoln/Douglas
debate. I teach them and they teach me.”
Hutcheson feels blessed to work at a small school like
Clark, where she has the ability to form genuine relationships >>
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