About...
...Still Teaching
I’ve been to Shangri-La. Seriously, it’s in China, on the border of Tibet. And I’ve spent plenty of time living a life of deprivation in the mountains (except for that time when I ate a dozen donuts in one day). Somehow, I didn’t find ever-lasting peace either time. But more on that later.
I’m Brett, the guy behind Still Teaching. I’ve been doing this for about twenty years. By “this,” I mean working with high school students in a range of roles, from History teacher to Dean of Students. Along the way, I’ve noticed what you probably already know: being a teenager is one of the hardest jobs in the world. Let’s just say that the red couch in my office is well-used. And whether they’re venting, crying, or just sitting there while I’m tapping away at my keyboard, my primary role (no matter my title) has been to give them a space to think, to regret, to worry, to unwind, to trust, or just to be.
And the great thing is that they can be taught to do this outside of my office (or your office). There are skills they can learn through practice and guidance, and then apply on their own: ways to help them manage their emotions, ways to help them be kind to themselves. There are ways, basically, to help them grow into this wonderfully muddy self they're discovering.
Several years ago, I became a certified mindfulness teacher through the Mindfulness in Schools Project. And then three years ago, I created a mindfulness curriculum that all of our 9th graders take for 10 weeks. 88% of kids who take the course say they’d recommend it to other teenagers. And they say things like this:
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"This course helped me take a step back, and become aware of my thoughts and emotions. Also, I became more mindful of other people’s emotions. This helped me talk to people easier."
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"I liked the simplicity along with the ability to just exist for a few minutes and let my mind go."
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"It helped me sleep better, and concentrate, which I think, resulted in better grades."
Which got me thinking: what if more kids could be exposed to this? What if I could help teachers bring these skills to their students all around the world? It’s some of the most purposeful work I’ve done in my career, so it feels a little like a calling.
Then COVID hit, and like a lot of people I know, I thought about my priorities. How could I expand the work that makes me feel most useful? Suddenly, I wasn’t just thinking about helping kids, but about helping teachers help kids, and helping teachers help themselves. There’s a reason, after all, we have to put on our own oxygen masks before putting on our kids’.
If you’ve managed to read this far, maybe this kind of work makes you feel useful too. So part of my goal is to provide a community of like-minded educators where you can find the support and companionship you need to work with purpose and live with meaning.
So that’s the story. Or half of it. I’m also a husband, a dad of one compassionate boy and one… eh-hem… willful girl. They keep me humble (or try). And if I’m not with my students or my family, I’m probably on my bike. Or back in the mountains. As for the donuts, I don’t do that so much anymore. Metabolism is no longer my friend.
If you’d like to be a part of this community, especially now at the ground floor, link up to our Facebook group here, and help us spread the word!
And if you’d like to get email updates about what I’m offering and how I can help, just go to the bottom of this page.
Peace out,
Brett
Personally...
So now that you know a little about this adventure I'm on, here's a little more about some previous adventures, and what got me here. This is the real nitty gritty, so unless you've got some spare time, you can skip this part.
I started meditating in college with one of those "guru" professors who talked about how he would have teeth extracted with no anesthetic. Given my remarkably low pain threshold (I've been known to pass out while giving blood), that sounded pretty good to me.
After college, I moved to Japan for a couple of years, learning to play the chess-like game "Go" with a village elder who reminded me of Mr. Miyagi. Though I never saw him catch a fly with chopsticks, he deepened my appreciation for a slower way of living.
I came back to the U.S., where I got my Masters Degree in the History and Sociology of Science at Penn, looking into ways that holistic medicine and biomedicine were complementary. Around this time, I started to get that ivory tower feeling. I needed to get out of academe and get into my body. So I started hiking the Appalachian Trail and didn't stop until l had hiked 2000 miles through 14 states.
This experience gave me a real sense of clarity, so instead of going back for my Ph.D., I started teaching at a Quaker school, where time for silent reflection was built into the schedule. I also started hiking a lot during the summer, heading all over the world on 4-6 week treks. You can see some pictures below.
After hiking up Kilimanjaro, I flew back to the U.S. and met the woman who would become my wife at a teaching conference.
I moved out to California to be with her, we got married, moved to Bulgaria for a 2-year honeymoon (and to teach at an American school there), and then back to California. I became a Dean of Students, and later we moved to Pennsylvania so our kids could be closer to their grandparents.
