PROFILES IN EDUCATION: Ken Brown

Nate Hulings

of the Gateway

In a classroom tucked inside a portable at Peninsula High School, civics teacher Ken Brown gave a lecture to his students last Wednesday, the final day of the semester.

Brown handed out voters’ registration forms for those who are 18, and he passed out certificates to 12 students who had taken part in “Project Citizen,” a research and problem-solving assignment.

Brown has only been at Peninsula High School since last fall, but he’s already left an indelible mark. When he left Gig Harbor High School after 13 years, he took the “We the People” program along, too.

In its first year of competition, Peninsula High School sent two teams to Olympia and placed fourth in the state.

“I think it’s a real success,” Brown said. “I’m really proud of the students. They were really nervous.”

For his hard work and dedication to teaching civics, Brown recently was nominated for and recognized as a recipient for one of the state Legislature’s Civic Educator Awards.

The accomplishment was celebrated Jan. 25 on Civic Education Day in Olympia along with state Reps. Jan Angel, R-Port Orchard, and Larry Seaquist, D-Gig Harbor, and state Sen. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor.

Brown recently sat down with The Peninsula Gateway to discuss the award and other topics.

The Peninsula Gateway: How does it feel to receive recognition with the Legislature’s Civic Educator Award?

Ken Brown: It’s flattering. I have a lot of support for this job. I really feel that civics is connecting the kids with the community. And I have a lot of support in that, both with my Superintendent Terry Bouck, who has come to all the “We the People” events, even the parent meetings he comes to all the competitions. He sent the recommendation to Rep. Jan Angel.

They (legislators) bend over backwards to do what they can for me. I was flattered to be nominated for the award, and I really feel that it shows that I’ve got a lot of people in my corner to make it happen.

PG: How has your transition been from Gig Harbor High School to Peninsula High School?

KB: It’s been a stretch; I go home pretty tired most days — not that I didn’t do that before. Everything is new for me. After teaching 13 years at Gig Harbor, I’m now in a new schedule. I have new students, a new type of student.

I have a new building, new colleagues, a new administration, so the first few months, I was really, at some times, I was second-guessing my decision because I had it so well. I had AP Government, which is easy kids to teach; I had junior English classes, which I knew the curriculum backward and forward, and then I come across town to a school that I was completely unfamiliar with, thinking, “What did I do that for?”

The last month or so, I’ve realized why: When these kids got a chance to experience Olympia; when these kids here got a chance to perform in front of these panels of judges and talk about their project.

I think the students here at PHS are special. They are different from Gig Harbor in a way that I appreciate. It’s fulfilling, and the biggest thing is that it was a challenge.

I do this job because I need to feel that I am constantly growing as a teacher, and I felt at Gig Harbor that I was done growing. Now I have a whole new opportunity to get better as a teacher.

PG: What do you think makes a good teacher?

KB: Making connections with kids is the first thing. It’s developing those relationships. It’s the age-old question: Is teaching an art or a science? And I really do think it’s both.

But I think it’s really more of an art than a science. I think people know an incredible amount, but unless you’re able to make that relationship with the kid and get the kid to buy in to what you’re doing, you might as well be talking to yourself.

I think having a really solid idea of what you want the kids to be able to do and what you want them to know by the end. Know how to motivate them to work hard to get there and to set the bar, at least at the beginning, higher than they can jump.

I think setting the expectations higher than they can reach and then telling them that you’re going to support them every step of the way in them reaching their goals. That, to me, has been a winning combination: Setting high expectations for kids, having clear goals where I want to take the kids, and then being able to develop relationships and motivate them.

The kids always come back at the end of the semester and say, “What frustrates me, I want to not like you, because you have high expectations and you push me really hard, and I spend so much time doing homework, but I can’t because you’re such a nice guy.”

I trick ’em. I trick ’em into wanting to do well for me, or for themselves.

PG: What’s the toughest part about getting students involved in making them care about what you’re teaching?

KB: I think the toughest part is the competition with the PSP (video game system) and with the Wii and with The Daily Show. I think it’s that every other part of their world is moving, and it’s got special effects, and it has levels to beat so they get the next weapon.

And we’ve got none of that. All we have is the joy of learning, as cheesy as that sounds. We have the old textbooks.

Now we have YouTube, thank God. But still, we lose that fight every day. To me, it’s the competition for their attention with this super-fast-paced technological world. And that, to me, is the biggest challenge.

Suggest a teacher

Do you know a teacher on the Gig Harbor or Key peninsulas you’d like to see profiled in The Peninsula Gateway? Suggest them for Profiles in Education, a feature on the Schools page.

Once a month, a teacher or administrator from a public or private school in the area will answer a series of questions about their experiences in education. E-mail your suggestions to nate.hulings@gateline.com.