A new school and a newborn, Michael Brown ended his summer with plenty of beginnings.
On August 8th, while most students and faculty were prepping for the new school year, Michael Brown welcomed his second child into the world. Just one week later, he stepped foot onto an unfamiliar campus, walked into a different classroom and got ready to teach a room filled with eager students who were ready to learn what he could teach them about psychology. While others might be overwhelmed by such considerable changes, Brown feels pretty good.
“I’ve done new schools before and this being our second kid, it’s not as stressful as the first,” Brown said.
An educator for 11 years, Brown has taught at a wide variety of schools, most immediately Lyman High School. At Trinity, he hopes that the smaller classes will allow for deeper and more thought-provoking discussions about topics in the curriculum.
“I’m used to the public school system, where I’ve got 30 plus students in my room, and if we derail too much, the lesson’s gone,” Brown said. “I’m excited to get off topic and explore new ideas a bit more.”
After graduating high school, Brown attended the University of Central Florida, where he quickly found two loves: teaching and psychology. Now, as students listen while he discusses the ideas of Sigmund Freud, he is able to pursue both at the same time.
“I love the changes that occur in us as humans, and it’s all about from the minute you’re born and conceived to the minute you die,” Brown said about developmental psychology, his favorite part of the curriculum. “How do your morals and ethics change as you age? It’s fascinating to study year after year, how people become different.”
When he’s not delving into various elements of the human mind, Brown often tries to get lost in his own. A sci-fi and fantasy enthusiast, he loves immersing himself in the universes of fictional worlds such as Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. And although he isn’t traveling to Tatooine or the Cracks of Doom, he is adventurous, and enjoys outdoor rock climbing and surfing. He hopes to use his experiences to not just help his students appreciate the intricacies of psychology, but also help them appreciate the simplicities of life.
“I like that I get to model to youth what life can look like,” Brown said. “I like to think I’m fairly joyful…and that’s an option for people if they want it.”
