Grant Brodrecht (Upper School History Teacher)

I suppose I am a little embarrassed to answer this question, because it is so autobiographical, but here goes. I think the short answer to the question “Why do you teach?” is because I love learning so much, and I love sharing with students what I have learned (and am learning) about life. And that desire to learn and share flows from a sense of service and charity. But to understand what I mean, you have to realize that I didn’t have much in the way of an education while growing up in the 1970s and early 1980s; I suppose you could say I was the victim of low expectations—and so I joined the Navy. But it was, perhaps ironically, during my time in the Navy that a love of both learning and teaching emerged.

Training to be an electronics technician and a nuclear reactor operator exposed me to areas of knowledge and required things of me that I had never experienced; it was during that time that my approach to learning was indelibly shaped. And subsequently, in my capacity as a work-center supervisor on board a couple of ships (thus responsible for training others), I came to experience the joy of passing along what I had learned. After six years in the Navy, it’s probably fair to say that I also developed a bit of a chip on my shoulder regarding the education that I sensed I had never received growing up, and so you could say further that I went off to college with a vengeance.

I began an electrical engineering degree, but then I became a Christian, and another new world opened up to me. My educational focus and aspirations changed to history, philosophy, and theology, and from that point, education took on even more meaning. Although the plan was to remain teaching at the college level, having five children reminded my wife and I of the crucial, fundamental importance of pre-collegiate education, especially regarding Christian formation.

And so here I am, teaching at The Geneva School rather than at a college. Although I am far more of a realist than an idealist, I nevertheless continue to learn and continue to strive to share good and important things with young men and women who are far ahead of where I was at their age.