Tara Stuart was born in Jefferson City, MO but grew up in the Florida Panhandle in the town of Marianna, where she graduated from Marianna High School. She studied at the University of West Florida because it was close to a beach and then, after coming to visit friends in Athens and falling in love with the Athens scene, did the national student exchange program allowing her to spend her senior year at UGA while earning a bachelor’s degree in English from West Florida.
Tara worked at UGA for 10 years in the Institute for Behavioral Research as a field interviewer, traveling all over the country doing interviews with directors of drug and alcohol treatment centers, eventually becoming a Research Coordinator. She loved the travel of it but wanted to do something more impactful and more personally satisfying and decided to become a teacher, earning a master’s degree from UGA and going on to teach English and Journalism at Clarke Central High School. After taking a break from teaching to travel, including taking a train across the country and blogging about it, as well as working for Disney in Shanghai, she took a job teaching at Winder-Barrow High School, where she taught for seven years.
Since 2021, Tara has taught English at Cedar Shoals High School, where she rides her bike to work. At Cedar, she teaches American literature and mythology and helped resurrect the Genders and Sexualities Alliance. She is also coordinating Cedar’s graduation this year, which will take place at the new Akins Ford Arena. Tara has been very involved in the Athens community, including serving for many years on the AthFest Music & Arts Festival Planning Committee and on the Boybutante Board of Directors.
Tara lives on the Eastside of Athens with wife, Avery, son, Theo, friend Ashley (Auntie Ashley) and their cats Nina Simone, Questlove and Beet.
What do you love most about the work you do?
The connections that I make with kids are really what is most important to me. I love building those connections. I also love to help students have a broader worldview. Especially being a literature teacher we get to talk about the characters in these books and the experiences they’ve had that my students may have never had. So, being able to open their eyes to how people live and helping them build a sense of empathy as well as building community in my classroom, that’s what I love the most. I really love the relationships I build with kids; I keep in touch with so many kids that I taught in the past. I love to see where their lives go, what they do after they finish high school. It’s so much more rewarding…you don’t get that in every job. Being a high school teacher you are a part of a person’s life during such a formative time, those teenage years, you’re developing your identity and figuring out who you are going to be in the world and it’s just a privilege to play a part in so many people’s lives at that juncture.
When you are not working what are some things you like to do in and around Athens?
If you’d asked me this pre-parenthood I’d have had a way different answer, it would include going out a lot more and being more involved in the community, but right now the thing I love to do is to ride my bike. I have a little bike seat for Theo so I take him and we’ll ride from our house to Southeast Clarke Park so he can go play on the playground. We love to go out to eat when we get a chance. We went to Pretty Boy for the first time and it’s pretty awesome. We love Puma Yu’s. I love Asian food so those are my favorites, but I also really love Preacher Green’s here on the Eastside. It’s so great for me that it is so nearby. And then Theo every Saturday has a music class so we go take him over there to The Studio for Allegro Music, and he loves that and his teacher is also a music teacher at his school. We go to the Winterville [Marigold] Farmer’s Market. And we like to go to breweries from time to time, like Athentic where we can sit outside and he can play.
If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
I love traveling. I’m taking a group of 40 Cedar students to Europe this summer, and I’m super excited about that. We’re going to Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris. I just got the schedule for that so I’m so excited. I’ve traveled a good bit…but I would love to go somewhere on the continent of Africa. It’s the motherland and where we all really came from and I just think it’s not on most people’s list of vacation spots but I think to go and experience that, that culture and that landscape, would be incredible. My dad went to Egypt last year and I saw his pictures and heard his stories and it seemed pretty incredible.
If you could see any band, or musician, anywhere, who would it be and where?
I’ve seen a lot of my favorites that are living. Like Stevie Wonder is one of my favorite musicians ever, but I’ve seen him, although it would be cool to see him at a really small venue, but I’m going to go with something different. When I think about music I’ve been hearing my whole life that I just love, that is part of my soul, I think about somebody like Cat Stevens. To hear his voice in person would be a really cool experience. If I could have like 1970s Cat Stevens play somewhere small, like Flicker or if we could go back to the Caledonia! Yes, if Cat Stevens could play the Caledonia, that would be super cool, I’d love to see that.
What advice would you give your younger self?
To not be so hard on myself; to not listen to what people around me say. It’s hard because I grew up in a place that is very conservative. And I grew up being told that I should be a different way than how I am. So, if I could go back and tell myself, you’re just fine the way you are and there are so many other places and experiences and people who will love you and see you. Because, I don’t feel any of that anymore, but when I was a kid I definitely felt like an outcast and like I wasn’t good enough, so there was a lot of rebellion in my teenage years because I just didn’t fit what I was told I was supposed to be. So my advice would be to somehow block all that out and love myself and know that there is a place for me. It’s the it gets better stuff…honestly that’s the stuff and that’s what I would tell my younger self: you don’t have to be so hard on yourself because sometimes the people who are telling you things are not right.
Do you have a favorite book?
I just got asked the same question from our school librarian because they’re doing a thing where they’re going to ask the students to match up their favorite teachers with what they think their favorite books are and I still haven’t given Megan Ogden the answer! I emailed her and said, Megan, I can’t give you an answer, and I should be able to because I’m an English teacher! It’s just that I feel like every book I read is my favorite! I love all different kinds of books. I can tell you what I’m reading right now! It’s called Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks. It’s a collection of nonfiction essays that this journalist has written about all these different sketchy people. Like I just read one about this guy who made counterfeit wine and one of the Koch brothers bought one that he thought was Thomas Jefferson’s wine and he spent like half a million dollars on it and it was fake. It’s fascinating. I just can’t pick a favorite book. It just really depends on what mood I’m in, what kind of book it is…I just like reading. I used to love fiction more but these days I find myself being drawn more to nonfiction.
Do you have a favorite movie?
When I was a kid my favorite movie was Stand By Me. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen that movie, can probably quote the whole thing, loved River Phoenix. The Classic Center used to hold these classic movie events, Robert Osborne would host it, and one year they showed Stand By Me and they had Corey Feldman come and do a Q&A session with the audience. He sat and watched the film with us and then talked about his experiences with it and that was really cool. But as an adult, probably my favorite movie is Amelie. The colors, the whimsy; I love that movie.
If you could put any message on a billboard, what would it be?
I’m wearing a shirt right now that says “Queers Take Care of Each Other” and I feel like the message of taking care of each other is a good thing to put on a billboard, that’s what we all need to do.
If you could have lunch with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and where?
The where would be The Grit, I can go ahead and say that because I miss it so much. The who would be Andre 3000. He would love The Grit!
What three words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word home?
I love my home! I would say: family; games, because we play a ton of games; and warmth.
