He's the man
< h 2 class = " overhead " >Male elementary school teacher a rarity in Ithaca City School District< / h 2 >Written by Sarah Hofius
Posted March 24, 2005
His class roster says 14, but two students are sick that day. It’s the middle of winter in Ithaca, so absences are common.
Brown has had classes as big as 25, but with more farms starting to shut down in the rural area, class sizes have gotten smaller in the 15 years he’s been teaching.
Caroline could have managed with two first grade classes instead of three this year, but the students in this year’s first grade were slower than usual with skills and academics.
Brown doesn’t mind.
“I can get to the quiet kids who usually fall down the cracks,” Brown says.
Plenty of the first graders come from families with very low socioeconomic status, Brown says.
Brown realized what kind of conditions many of his students come from soon after he began teaching. As he took a boy home after school, Brown says he saw that the boy lived in a house that looked like a shack, across from his grandmother, who Brown describes as the “matriarch of the family.” When Brown pulled into the grandmother’s driveway, male family members surrounded the car in suspicion until the student called them off.
It’s kids like that that Brown hopes he can reach out to.
“I really feel like I’m making a difference in the kids’ lives,” he says.
Brown also says that just being a male has helped to make a difference.
“Single moms say their kids need a male influence,” Brown says. “Usually for that reason they want their kids to be in my class.”
He’s influenced plenty of students at Caroline during his teaching career.
Many of the first kids he taught are now in college. When his three high-school and college-aged daughters’ friends visit his house for the first time, he says he often hears, “I didn’t know your dad was that Mr. Brown.”
His current students love this Mr. Brown.
“I like first grade,” Destiny says, looking down on the ground and wiggling her feet. “He’s a really good teacherâI like him a lot.”
Christine nods when asked if she’s learned a lot from Brown.
“First grade is good,” she says.
And first grade is good for Brown too.
“Just working with kids, you never know,” he says. “It’s always a surprise. Year after year I’m doing the same thing, but it’s a different group of kids each yearâI love it.”
Brown picks up the chalk and writes neatly on the blackboard.
didnt they go to mr smiths house on tuesday
Hands shoot in the air.
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