By Ethan Walshe
Staff Writer

How would you feel if you went to school everyday, but your parents came too?

There are a few teachers at Westford Academy that have children enrolled as students. Theater arts teacher Michael Towers is one of them. His son Patrick is a freshman here at WA.

Most students would describe school as a place where they can get away from their parents and their home life for seven or eight hours a day, a place where they can grow, develop, and realize themselves as a person without the guidance of their parents. Mr. Towers’ son is not one of them.

“…Not only is this [school] a shelter, but you build a person here. [Pat’s] building himself here. A high school student has their disposition already from their parents. What’s next for a student to develop and build a person, a character, is to leave their parents…you are here exploring with some degree of confidence away from your nest, and that’s liberating for a kid and my son doesn’t have that,” Mr. Towers said.

Mr. Towers himself is very invested and very passionate about this building in which he works, having wholly devoted himself to this building. Should his son want to come to a place where he can escape, he’d be escaping to a place that is very much a part of his father as well.

“Some people have very, very strong personalities. Some students, children of faculty are strong enough to carve their own identity and be their own person in spite of their parent being here, and I hope my son is one of those persons…but he still is perhaps doubtful of whether or not that possibility exists,” said Towers.

Mr. Towers came right out and said that if he felt that his presence at his son’s place of learning had any negative effects at all, he would leave. He also said that if his son ever asked him to leave, he would.

“It is more important to me that my son is happy and healthy and confident and knows that he can do the things he needs to do, take the risk. That’s much more important to me, and if he were ever to suggest that he were hindered by my presence, I would leave,” added Towers.

Some advantages Mr. Towers spoke of involved being able to watch his son grow outside of musical or athletic performances in that he is able to walk the same halls that his son does. He also mentioned how they go to school together and he is able to share time with his son that he had not had before.

“I am sharing things with him that I would not otherwise be able to share, and that is invaluable as a parent. Many parents would want, for purely selfish reasons, to have what I have, but they would also experience that dilemma of ‘am I hurting or am I helping?’” said Towers.

Obviously, most parents like to know how their children are doing in school, and perhaps keep in contact with their child’s teachers if it becomes necessary. Mr. Towers is among several other teachers who has the benefit of knowing some of his son’s teachers on a personal level. However, Mr. Towers feels that it is not his place to interfere with his son’s education in that way, and he would prefer if a teacher sought him out instead of him having to go to that teacher because he wants to respect his colleague’s space.

Having 17 years of experience, as well as the experience of being a student at WA for four years, Mr. Towers is very familiar with much of the school’s staff as well as their teaching and classroom techniques. His son is able to have this information relayed to him, which is seen as a definite advantage.

As we grow older, many of our relationships with people change. Most notably perhaps, is the change in a child’s relationships with his parents. Mr. Towers envisioned the day that his son would arrive at Westford Academy for many years; however his “romantic” notion of what the experience would be like has not yet been realized.

“My romantic notion has not yet been realized, and it may never and I accept that. [The] idealistic view of where my son would actually recognize me…but I don’t begrudge him that…there have been moment that have been glimpses of that romance…but more often there have been moments of ‘oh boy, here comes my dad’,” said Mr. Towers.