After 21 years at Boothbay Region Elementary School (BRES), middle school science and math teacher Mame Anthony is retiring.  

Unlike many who enter the profession, Anthony didn't always want to be an educator. Her path was unconventional. Fresh from the University of Delaware with a bachelor's in biology, Anthony joined the Peace Corps, a long-term goal since she first saw the commercials as a child, promising the experience would be “the toughest job you’ll ever love.”  

That’s how she found herself at 22, way over her head teaching high school biology in Belize with no textbooks. Anthony recalled the words of her recruiter, who thought time in the classroom would bring her out of her shell: "You could use a little confidence. You need to go work with kids ... You need to be in a job where people adore you.” 

She eventually switched jobs to marine research while still in the Corps, and teaching was again off her list. However, she kept getting drawn back to it. She coached, she subbed, and finally, after completing a one-year certification program, she was teaching full-time.  

For Anthony, the most rewarding aspect of the job is when students come back and reveal she had a long-term impact on them in some way. “In the moment, you have no idea.” 

While it takes patience, this is partly why Anthony believes it’s worth taking the time to listen and meet students where they’re at. There's good in everyone, you just have to find it, she said. “Sometimes it takes time and a lot of conversations, but eventually 99% of the time you can make that connection.” 

Anthony has seen former students flourish, becoming successful in their professional lives and overall just good people.  

However, all things must end, and Anthony is ready to retire and focus on herself.  

“This is the kind of job that will take everything you give it. And I'm not the kind of person that can say, ‘good enough.’ It's exhausting.” 

According to Anthony, teachers are also facing more unique challenges than they were in the past, and she credits it to a mixture of the lingering fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and the early access to technology shifting behavioral dynamics. Anthony has noticed more students seem to have less confidence in their abilities, needing to be walked through lessons one-on-one more often; middle school is an already difficult period for students as they navigate their increasingly important social lives while dealing with the “weird” mental landscape of puberty.  

As for her future plans, Anthony wants to keep her calendar open, but she does plan to help husband Kevin Anthony with his building business, Tidewater Construction (not just on the weekends), pick up the guitar again, and continue her morning swims in Knickerbocker Lake into September. But BRES hasn't seen the last of her either, as she expects she’ll be returning to substitute teach.