Lyndon Brooks:
Shaker’s in His DNA
One day recently, three kids from Woodbury ran up to their teacher, Lyndon Brooks,
clamoring to tell him about the food they tasted in Chinese Club.
“They were so excited because the food was so good,” says Brooks (SHHS ‘03),
“and they wanted to learn Chinese and all about China.” He suggested they befriend two
native Chinese students who are new to the country.
That, in a nutshell, is why he loves his new job teaching fifth grade at Woodbury:
Sometimes kids need that push to explore the unfamiliar, and as a teacher you have to
find the opening. That’s when the magic happens.
“At Shaker, you have many kids who don’t realize they have talent and ability,” he says.
“I might be the one teacher over 13 years who brings it out and gives them the opportunity to
realize what they’re good at.”
He wouldn’t be where he is if not for that kind of encouragement from his own
Shaker teachers.
“I was a knucklehead,” he admits. His fifth grade teacher, Dorothy Grim, told him,
‘You’re gonna get some payback for what you put me through,’ ” he says with a chuckle.
“I might be the one teacher who gives them the
opportunity to realize what they’re good at.”
54 SHAKERONLINE.COM | WINTER 2014
Lyndon Brooks took the long way home,
switching from engineering to education
and teaching in Charlotte, NC, before
coming back to teach at Woodbury.
Photo by Kevin G. Reeves
His turning point came in eighth
grade. Brooks recalls that every one of his
core teachers that year made a difference in
some way: Angela Harrell, David Strauch,
Erin Herbruck, and particularly Laurie
Rodney, who insisted he memorize Robert
Frost’s poem “The Road Less Travelled.”
Young Lyndon started to ask himself:
Which road are you going to take? When
he started high school, he says, he found
new friends and stopped hanging out with
people who were getting in trouble. He
joined the basketball team.
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