Dear World's Most Unlikely Teacher,
In terms of class rank, he graduated second to last in his senior class...SECOND TO LAST...and only then because his mother caved and wrote his senior research paper. When he turned his tassel, she cried. For many months leading up to graduation, she thought it might never happen.
After high school, he joined the United States Air Force. It could be said his Momma's prayers and a pair of BDU's saved him from a fate of small-town mediocrity and perhaps even death.
As a military man, he married, raised three admirable sons, and traveled the world- Guam, Korea, and the desert sands of Iraq. His favorite post was as the youngest drill sergeant at Lackland Air Force Base. At 22 years old, most of his hometown buddies were abandoning marriages or colleges while he was busy piling up stripes on his dress blues.
None of the teachers who begged him to pick his head up in class or start coming to school would have recognized him marching in formation and having new recruits respond, "Sir, yes, sir" when he politely asked if they might enjoy a midnight, five mile run in the San Antonio heat.
After a long and fulfilling career, he retired at a young 38 years old. As a retired Chief Master Sergeant with a college degree, there were many second career options available, but he opted for one nobody saw coming.
It's not everyday a retired drill sergeant starts teaching seventh grade math in a small town in northwest Louisiana. Needless to say, classroom management wasn't a huge learning curve. He soon discovered 18 year old boys in barracks weren't much different from 17 year old boys on football fields. Both groups were looking for the same thing he had been looking for when he boarded a Greyhound bus headed for basic training. He longed for a place to belong and become the best version of himself.
In the classroom, he daily encounters wayward boys who are mirror reflections of his scrawny self at thirteen. He begs them to pick up their heads and start coming to school. When they don't, he mails military recruitment brochures to their homes and prays for them the way his Momma prayed for him.
He draws the line at writing their research papers, but he still tells them about the stripes he earned. He makes them believe they can earn them too, and one day they will because the real difference maker in anyone's life is having someone believe you're a star before you even believe it about yourself.
There are many things that make me proud of my older brother, but I think the thing that makes me the proudest is knowing he never writes a kid off. He, of anyone, knows the kid who seems to be the biggest loser today can be an astronaut tomorrow with the right support. Because of him, I've spent my entire career rooting for the underdog.
Too many times I have seen how unpredictable students can be. The ones who seem like they will be successful in the future, aren't always, and conversely, the ones who seem destined for failure might surprise you and end up teaching seventh grade math making triple your salary.
Isn't the mystery of it all enough to keep you investing each day?
-CDB