This is a contribution from a Swampscott High School student, as part of the Swampscott Tides Big Blue Student News selection.
Article by Joseph Blood, Photo Sasha Shadari
Peter Franklin has been a beloved at the Swampscott High School for 20 years, but he plans to retire at the end of the 2025-26 school year.
“I can’t think of a single day that I didn’t look forward to coming to school,” Franklin said. “I’m grateful for the people I’ve met. I’m grateful for the thousands of students I’ve had an opportunity to work with and learn from. Most importantly I learn a lot when I teach, for me it’s not just a one way street when I do the teaching, I also do the learning.”
Franklin joined the Swampscott High School in 2006, focusing on mindfulness as well as college-level language and writing courses. Franklin served as the chair to the English Department in the 2009-10 school year as well as the chair for the senior project committee from 2009 to 2013. He now teaches AP language arts as well as public speaking, speech and debate.
“When I first came to this school Mrs Green and I used to teach a course called American Studies which was a blend of US History and American Literature,” Franklin said. “I’ve also taught creative writing, and mindfulness. I can’t forget mindfulness, we did at one point have a mindfulness course.”
Franklin has been a teacher for almost 30 years.
After graduating with a masters in education from the University of California, Davis and with a law degree from Purdue Global Law School, Franklin served as an adjunct professor at Endicott College for a freshman writing seminar and speech and debate class for a year. He was also an adjunct professor at Salem State College for four years, teaching in the theater and speech department as well as covering similar classes to his time at Endicott.
Franklin said he may return to adjunct teaching in retirement.
Since joining the Swampscott School District, Franklin also has taken part in supporting students with their college essays. Franklin is the founder and president of The Essay Project, which started in 2012. He teaches creative nonfiction writing techniques while working with the students to design effective college essays.
Franklin said his career has taught him about resilience, energy, and how to stay young. He says he’s also learned how to do some “silly dances” for social media that students want him to participate in.
Franklin is known to refer to his classes as “comedy clubs.”
“Normally when you go to a comedy club you have to pay to get in, and here I get paid to get entertained everyday,” Franklin said. “This is the most difficult piece for me moving into my next chapter.”
Looking ahead, Franklin said he hasn’t “really thought about what’s next.”
“I will at some point, but I don’t have a job waiting for me,” Franklin said. “Certainly I’m going to travel in non-school vacation times, which I’m looking forward to because everybody else is traveling at the same time.”
Franklin also noted his concern with who will teach AP language arts next year, as a summer teachers course is required to do so.
But Franklin said he knew it was the right time to retire. A few years ago he would say he was only going to teach for “one more year.” While that never became a reality, in the fall, Franklin said he randomly woke up one day and decided it was appropriate.
He noted that this last school year at Swampscott High School is “far more emotional” than he expected it to be.
“I’m going to miss the students a lot,” Franklin said.
