Loving and Living by Stefan Cook
As I walked down the crowded, noisy pathways
of Mountain View High school, I was somewhat nervous. I knew next to nothing about Jared Darby. He was relatively new, he helped out with Camp Everytown. Camp Everytown is an overnight camp in which people learn to be more open about themselves and how to be more tolerant of one another. That was it. I was walking with my friend Alex, who told me that he would be a great interviewee. As I step into his room, the first thing I notice was the color. This room is colorful and interesting. He is already rejecting the stereotype of an average teacher, I thought. I glanced at his whiteboard, and my eyes met what I could only call a cacophony of personality. Right at the top of the board, he wrote down his favorite quote by Bob Marley. The whiteboard was graced with a class poll. It read “which is more classy, a t-shirt, or a collared bro tank?” Right over the question, he drew a picture of each. From this, I could infer his youthfulness, as well as his unconventionality. In this day and age, it is imperative that students receive a great education. However, classroom education only covers a small sliver of the “curriculum”. There is a world outside the classroom that students must be prepared for. Mr. Darby, or Jared, as he preferred me to call him, helps blur the lines between teaching a simple subject, and teaching important life skills. To him, life is a journey, and he genuinely and passionately wants teenagers to successfully get by in life. Going along with this, Mr. Darby keeps a list of positive phrases right next to his workspace, or famous quotes that can provide inspiration. He encourages kids to come in at lunch and before school to receive math help from him.
To him, life is a journey, and he genuinely and passionately wants teenagers to successfully get by in life. Going along with this, Mr. Darby keeps a list of positive phrases right next to his workspace, or famous quotes that can provide inspiration. He encourages kids to come in at lunch and before school to receive math help from him.“I think I would just like to be known as a very positive, kinda crazy, but kinda accepting, a very trustworthy person”, he told me. “If they had a problem or a great moment, they can come to me.” In high school, many students struggle to find a place in which to belong, or a group to connect with. Jared is a person that seeks to create a positive environment, and act as not just a mentor, but a friend to his students. Along with his full time teaching job at Mountain View High School, he has an unbridled passion for the outdoors, such as sports and camping. Some of his favorite activities include sailing, wakeboarding, camping, running, and cooking, just to name a few. Therefore, I can do many other things. In addition, I’ve done Camp Everytown for this school, so I’ve also seen students. The true details, the buildings of who students are, what comes in their family, why they are the way they are. I’ve seen tears of sadness, tears of joy during that trip as well. Just seeing a student for someone other than a little pawn that you’re trying to push information into their brain, It’s amazing.”
From his statement, I can gather that his philisophy is strongly shaped by perspective. For him, it is essential that he doesn’t just play the role of a teacher, he lives it. He sees diversity, and he embraces it. After he graduated from Monterey Bay State University, Jared worked as an actuary for an insurance firm. While he was able to utilize his love for math, he felt like his life was not being fulfilled. He knew at a young age that he wanted to become a teacher, so he decided to give up his desk job. Teaching felt much more at home to him. He reflects on his decision, “The satisfaction you get from helping a student, not just with math, but with anything... I actually learn something from students everyday and I think I help students learn something everyday”. When I asked him why he chose high school, he told me that he preferred an environment in which he could communicate more with the students. He enjoys a deeper level of communication, and he strives to educate the students about a world besides their own.
He asserts himself with a sense of confidence, “What we’re doing in school is trying to produce a person thats gonna be positive and successful in their everyday life”. To reiterate, Jared strive to heighten the “whole person”. “I think the most valuable thing that I’ve learned about being a teacher is to be open,” he states. He looks comfortable on his black leather desk chair. Describing himself as a visual learner, he leaves yellow sticky notes all over his desk, with objectives he has for the day. He looks over at the kids sitting in his room, who are casually talking and eating lunch. Two girls are sitting across from his desk eating their pb&j sandwiches, looking at his list of positive phrases. “And it’s ‘cause everythings gonna be different every single day. You could have one day where it’s a phenomenal day in class, the next day could be completely opposite. But if you’re open to that, you see there’s gonna be a difference, you adjust. You’re gonna learn something new from a student, a student’s gonna learn something new from you every day... If you expect something to be the same way all the time, you’re gonna have a lot of letdowns. If you are open, you can adjust, you can make the best of more situations.” In creating a positive classroom environment, Jared completes the three most important features (Teachervision). First, he fosters teacher-student relationships, in which the students can feel appreciated. Second, he emphasizes the personal developments of his students. Third, Jared runs a smoothly operating classroom in which the lines between school and the real world are blurred. This is important because it shows that he can very successfully manage his classroom while advocating an open, engaging environment. His strategy works.
...If you are open, you can adjust, you can make the best of more situations.
Teaching isn’t an easy job. According to Greatschools.com, a teacher needs to include a strong knowledge of the curriculum, a display of enthusiasm, and legitimately caring about the job. How does he balance these requirements while being involved in many other outside activities? “The best thing for me is combining it all. Being in class every day, I talk about cooking, I talk about running, I talk about the cross country team, I talk about tutoring. And when I’m outside work, out doing my own things, I talk about school too because I love it so much. I have a passion for it”. A study by the University of Queensland(3) noted that students tend to generally see math as boring, uninteresting, and irrelevant. Tying in his past job working at an insurance company, Jared aims to combat this, and make math more relevant: “If you don’t have a savings account that can back you up, maybe you lose your job and such, then you are gonna have trouble surviving. So using that experience, basically makes math more tangible for students.” Tying in his many interests, Jared cultivates a learning environment that helps kids leave his classroom with something to think about. He doesn’t want to just teach his students theories, he strives to “paint a picture for them where the math is in the real world and that they can touch it”. When I was meeting with him, we discussing the benefits of math. I, not being a huge math fan, asked him why he enjoyed it so much. “Math is great because math can truly explain the world. From all the way to the smallest of atoms to the largest of technologies that we have, everything can be mapped.”
He faced fully and explained this, without any hesitations or breaks. “We look back at the evolution of the earth, and everything started with a single organism, and everything grew in accordance with science. Math is created to map, to show, to detail what everything on earth is. Everything on growth is with the expansion of mathematics, and mathematics is used for all technologies. It’s everything.” He stopped to take a deep breath for a second. “And that’s basically why I like math,” he explained. In the future, Jared wants to continue teaching and educating kids. He asserts, “I’m gonna teach basically as long as I have the love for it”. After all, what other profession can allow him to get so close with such a diverse group of teenagers? Few people embody this quote in the way Jared Darby does. While teaching kids and dealing with their problems can become very stressful and irritating, Jared tackles the problems head on and interacts with his students in a way that fosters a culture of acceptance and openness. This openness is what society needs. At the end of one of my interviews, I asked him what quote defined his life. Not even hesitating, he promptly responded, “I think one of my favorites, Bob Marley actually says it, is ‘Live the life you love, and love the life you live’. And that’s truly what it is, like we’re here, we gotta live, why not love it? And if you love something, why not live it? It’s just amazing, the phrase just makes me have tingles every time.”
...Math is created to map, to show, to detail what everything on earth is