Meet Your Legislators

As schools and school departments try to find what is ostensibly the best and most effective (or at least efficient) systems for educating their students, many students end up confused and lost in the shuffle of syllabi.

Fortunately, there are education-minded legislators like 4th Middlesex Senator Cindy Friedman who have felt their pain and are dedicated to doing what they can to at least mitigate it.

“Prior to attending college, I never felt fully capable or comfortable in the classroom,” Friedman recalls. “The style of learning that was prevalent when I was growing up was not the learning

<p>As the sixth of seven children, Representative Michael Day learned early when to speak up and be heard and when to remain quiet and listen."Dinners at our home were always lively events," he recalls. "Everyone competed for time to relay a story to the rest of the family or to get in a good line during someone else's story, so you tried to pick your spots."The son of a high school English teacher who became a lawyer and a nurse, Day was also raised with an understanding of the importance and literal vitality of these roles in society. He was also made to pay attention not just to what he said</p>

  Raised by working-class parents, Senator Eric P. Lesser knows well the value of hard work.

“My sisters and I were raised to value family, hard work, and helping others,” Lesser recalls, noting that these are the same value she tries to instill in his own children.

A life-long public school student, Lesser has firm memories of his educational track.

“I remember playing on the jungle gym in Blueberry Hill School in Longmeadow and then going to Williams Middle and then Longmeadow High School,” he says “It was incredible and I got a great education.”

In addition to his academics, Lesser recalls life

As the eldest of five, Attorney General Maura Healey has decades of experience taking care of people. Raised by a school nurse, a military captain and civil engineer and an educator, Healey also knows the importance of honest work and of doing all you can to serve others. These lessons and skills have served her well throughout her legal career. When asked about her earliest educational memory, Healey recalls her first day of school when she was six years old.

“I was dressed in a plaid jumper, red ribbon in my hair,” she says, revealing the profound impact this day had on her, “waiting outside

As the daughter of a retired AFT member who taught reading at the elementary level, Rep. Christine Barber knows both the vital benefits endowed by public school teachers and also the challenges they face.

When asked why she feels so strongly about supporting public education, the Representative serving Somerville and Medford recalls the many contract disputes in which her mother was involved.

“She spent a lot of time on the picket line,” Barber says.

Education was always important in the Barber home, but it was also something that Barber loved.

“I remember when I was young a friend accused me of