Where are you from? And why did you choose to teach at BHS?
“I grew up in Highgate, Vermont. I grew up on a dairy farm. And I was the youngest of five children. My parents were much older when they had me, they’re in their 40s. So I was the last of the five. And why did I get into teaching? Well, I got a math degree at UVM. And after getting that I worked a few jobs here and there just kind of retail, worked in restaurants, worked in stores and I wanted to do something more productive, I want to do something more. Back in college, [I didn’t] want to be a teacher. But as the years went on, I thought ‘wait a minute, this seems like the most logical thing where I can use my math degree,’ but I can also feel like I’m giving back and I can feel that I’m doing something helpful. My mother, who was probably the most selfless person I’ve ever met, was at the time and was for 30 years, a teacher’s aide up at Highgate Elementary in first grade. And her being an educator was a really good example for me. So I went back to UVM to [be in the] post baccalaureate program and got my degree back in ’95. [I] got my license and then [in] ’96 got the job at BHS. So why did I get into teaching? Because I wanted to. I wanted to feel like I was doing something for the greater good, rather than just making money for a company.”
You said you grew up on a dairy farm. Did you work on this farm? What was your role?
“Growing up on the dairy farm was tough. There’s a lot of hard work, a lot of manual labor. And the fact that my dad was older, we sort of had a generation gap where we didn’t always see eye to eye, we didn’t understand each other too well. It made me have a lot of patience. I’ll say this, I’m glad I worked on the farm. But I’m glad I’m not working on the farm anymore. In retrospect, I loved my father, we got along great. But it was hard. It was hard work. It was a lot of working in the mornings, working all day, working at night, working through the summers, working when it’s hot, working when it’s cold – it didn’t matter, it had to be done. And you start to feel like ‘oh, how come other people aren’t doing this’, you know, friends of mine weren’t working on farms were able to sleep in and were able to play all these sports and do all these things. I’m like, ‘I’m not doing these things’. So the farm was tough. But again, I’m glad I did it. Because in retrospect, it really helped instill a lot of things in me about patience, about working, about understanding that there’s an end goal, things don’t always go your way and you have to be able to be flexible and adjust to that and be able to handle it. So, we don’t own the farm anymore. We kept it for years after my father left, my brother took it over. It’s helped me today to understand even when I have tough days here at school, [it’s] not as tough as some days on the farm. So I thank my mom and dad for everything.”
What mathematical skills that you develop there? Did it instill your love of math?
“The math really wasn’t from the farm, it was more just the kind of student I was. My older sister, who was 14 when I was born, helped out a lot raising me. And she really fostered in me reading, you know, doing a lot of skills work, when I was young. So I credit her a lot [for] fostering my curiosity. But as far as the math brain goes, that’s probably just genetic. That’s just how I’m wired. And I love numbers, I love puzzles, I love putting stuff together like that and figuring things out.”
What’s your relationship like with your other siblings?
“Our family was never the kind of family that really shared your emotions, shared your feelings around the dinner table, etc. there was work to do and there wasn’t a lot of touchy feely. it’s taken me a long time, becoming a teacher, kind of breaking out of that. I’m an introvert doing an extroverted job. Obviously, [my family] liked each other. A lot of your troubles you kind of deal with yourselves, you don’t really ask for help a lot. So it was much different than what I expect from my kids, which was, well, my kids need help. I want us to be able to do it all together. There was a lot less of that back then. But my family: three of my four siblings are still alive. We get along fine. But we’re not incredibly close. When my mom was alive, I talked to her maybe once a month on the phone. And one of my brothers I haven’t talked to in years, but it’s not for any reason. Every once in a while things pop up on text or something. But that’s about it. And so, we’re family, we get along, but we’re not, we’re not that kind of tight knit.”
Excuse my bluntness, but is it maybe like your lack of emotional connection with your childhood family or like family of origin, that sort of influenced how you parent your kids?
“I said, when I’m going to be a dad, I’m going to do things differently. I’m going to make sure that the things that I didn’t have, I had plenty, but the things that I didn’t have, I wanted to make sure that my kids had, I want to make sure my kids felt safe, felt [a little more] cared for. I mean, I felt safe and cared for. But I also had a really tough environment. It shouldn’t be that hard. There should be a little balance of that. So that helped influence me, remembering how hard I worked, thinking, you don’t have to go through that, but it’s important to instill some values like that. But it’s also important to have some downtime to relax.”
What do your kids do now?
“My oldest child, Micah is 24. He graduated from BHS in 2017. He went to school at Ithaca College, got a degree in cinema and photography, but his specialty is film editing and audio editing. So working with software, and now living in New York City. And my other son Ethan is 21. He graduated from BHS in 2020. Unfortunately, it was during COVID, faux graduation. He still lives in Burlington, and he just got a job working for a company out in South Burlington. They’re both doing well.”
I’m gonna pivot a little bit. You run math League? How’s your experience running mathlete? Why did you decide to do that?
“There’s been a number of different teachers who have run it over the years. I took over the Math League, I want to say around 2006. I believe this will be my 18th year running math league. At the time another teacher just felt, you’d be a good fit for it. And when one of the teachers left, and it was open, I took it over. It’s fun in that it’s where we run it ourselves as teachers, it’s not through VPA sports. It’s not like a varsity thing. It’s more just a club. It’s just for fun. Yeah, there’s some prizes at the end of the year for those who do the best. But it’s just been enjoyable in that I get to meet a lot of students who I didn’t have in my class, who just want to be in math League and meet a lot of other teachers from other schools who normally I wouldn’t know. You’re just privately in a classroom, doing your own tests, so you don’t have to worry about being onstage, it’s more just kind of being yourself. We’ve had some great years and we’ve had some years where we had low numbers. It kind of ebbs and flows. But it looks like now we’re getting a really good sign up this year. So I’m looking forward to it this year.”
That’s good. The next couple questions are mostly just for fun. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?
“There’s a few bucket list places I would like to go. I would say Iceland from what I’ve heard is just phenomenal. It’s just everywhere you go, just kind of a wonder. Anywhere really that’s Scandinavian, Iceland from what I heard it would be a fun trip. And obviously everyone who talks about going to Australia, New Zealand says that’s really a trip to go on. I’ve been a bit fortunate in the last like three years to go to a lot of places that I had never been before. The bucket was slowly dwindling. My sister lived in Africa for a couple of years, in Kenya, because her husband was stationed there and I had a chance to go there, but I didn’t. I’m thinking I should have gone when I I had someone there who I knew. Also the Pacific Northwest all the way to Alaska. Because my dad did a trip to Alaska when he was older, the cruise that took the train through Alaska. So I think that would also be on my list.”
Where have you traveled in the past couple years?
“I went to Italy last summer, which was phenomenal. I was there for a week when it was super warm and super beautiful. That was a highlight. I’ve also recently been to Santa Fe, New Mexico, which is really cool. Really fun. Been to St. Simons Island in Georgia, which is just near Florida and it’s a very, very fun place as well. It’s very laid back, very cool. I go [more frequently] to places like Boston, Montreal, Toronto, I took a trip to Chicago, took my son out to go see friends. My first time there so that was very cool. I went to both LA and Las Vegas for the first time in the last couple of years to pick up Mica from an internship out there. I was out there for a weekend and then I went to Las Vegas this past April break with Ethan for his 21st birthday. Very different, but it’s just cool to finally see what they’re like.”
What’s your favorite weird food combo?
“That’s a good question. Like literally putting the two of them together? Here’s what I like. I really like putting cans of tuna fish in my pasta. tuna casserole and a lot of people hate, it so that’s one of my guilty pleasures. mac and cheese with a can of tuna fish. I’m not very adventurous food-wise. I don’t like spicy food. I’m slowly getting into it.”
