Dr. Burt Saxon

Plainfield High School – Class of 1965

Education and Humanities

Dr. Burt Saxon attended Plainfield Schools from 1952 until his graduation from Plainfield High School in 1965. Following high school graduation Burt majored in economics at Carleton College in Minnesota. He pitched for the baseball team and did volunteer work. He decided to become an inner city high school teacher, hoping to do for his students what his Plainfield teachers had done for him. At graduation, he received Carleton’s Second Century Award for service and leadership.

Burt received his Master of Arts in Teaching degree from Wesleyan University in 1971. He taught social studies at Lee high School in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1975, he began doctoral study at Teachers College, Columbia University, receiving his educational doctorate in 1977. From 1980 until 2006 Burt was the facilitator of the Talented and Gifted Program at Hillhouse High School. He also served as varsity tennis coach.

Burt is a five-time Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute Fellow. In what Burt calls his “part-time jobs” he is a freelance writer.  He has co-authored eight textbooks and taught seminars on educational policy at Yale University from 1976 until 2009.  He still teaches Educational Psychology at Southern Connecticut State University.

During the 2004-05 school year, Burt was named New Haven Teacher of the Year and was selected from more than 48,000 public school teachers to be named Connecticut Teacher of the Year. Dr. Saxon is known for his interactive teaching style, in which he uses debates, films, small group discussions and role playing to keep his teaching informative and stimulating. Even more so, he is known for going the extra mile with students and encouraging them to go on to college.