Looking Through a Different Lens Ihad great role models in my “I think when you have a teacher who looks time here at Shaker and I kind of wanted to be like them. So when I figured out that teaching was what I wanted to do, I talked to some of them – Danny Young, who is now my boss as the principal of Woodbury, Mercer principal Lindsay Florence, and registrar Ouimet Smith. They were all really instrumental mentors for me. When I was a student at Shaker, it was not always smooth sailing. There were a lot of bumpy times. I was kind of a knucklehead – I didn’t always apply myself, sometimes I didn’t behave well. I was just following the crowd and not making good decisions. I had some very frank conversations with some of those men that kind of got me back in line. 52 SHAKERONLINE.COM | SPRING 2016 I have students in this classroom where I am their first male teacher. The fact that we have a lack of male teachers in this profession is one thing, but when you add to it the fact that we have such a lack of African-American male teachers, that’s an even bigger issue. I think when you have a teacher who looks like you, you can visualize yourself as them one day. You can look at them and believe that you can achieve all the things that they’ve done. With the makeup of our district, it’s important for our students to have that feeling. I think we have great role models for students of color – we have great role models in general. But I think we could make an even greater impact if we had more. As an IB District, we want to make sure that all of our students have exposure to different cultural Lyndon Brooks, SHHS ’03, teaches fifth grade at Woodbury Elementary. After working as a special education aide at Woodbury while pursuing a degree in engineering at Cleveland State, Lyndon made the decision to change course and enter the teaching profession. He shares his Shaker experience from several vantage points – as a student, a teacher, and now as a Shaker parent. Lyndon is also involved in a new initiative to recruit more African-American male teachers to the Shaker Schools. like you, you can visualize yourself as them one day. You can look at them and believe that you can achieve all the things that they’ve done.”
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