Brian Switzer, The Teacher Who Made It Cool To Be Smart And Motivated

FALMOUTH – It wasn’t until years later that Jessie Edgar, now 20 and a student at Columbia University, realized how it all happened in Brian Switzer’s sixth grade class.

“When you are a sixth grader in his classroom, you don’t really notice his talent,” said Jessie.

She was on the staff of the school newspaper, the Inside Scoop, and the school television show, Catapult. “You think you did it all yourself, and that gives you confidence,” said Jessie. “But it was mostly Mr. Switzer.”

Brian Switzer, at his recent retirement party.

Switzer, 56, is retiring at the end of this school year after 30 years of teaching fifth and sixth graders at Morse Pond School. The last 15 years were spent running the Language Arts portion of the Talented Eager And Motivated (TEAM) program.

“I try to make it interesting. A teacher’s job is to make things interesting and creative. That wakes minds up.” – Brian Switzer

He made it cool for kids to be smart. And he made it especially cool for kids to be motivated to work hard.

While Switzer, in fact, did a lot of the work, the kids also worked hard. That was the whole point.

Jessie also remembered Switzer as a technical wizard, a guiding force of confidence, and a mentor who allowed her to be herself. “Whenever I was in the TEAM room, I felt safe and I could express my nerdiness in a way I couldn’t in other classrooms,” she said.

“We had kids who were dying to get in the program,” said Switzer, “because it was so creative and so cool.”

It was so much more than that.

He gave them an audience of their peers.

A Teaching Philosophy

“I don’t call it work,” said Switzer. “I call it going to school.”

Switzer has always loved learning. And each school day for the past 30 years when he went, mostly by bicycle, to school, not work, Switzer tried to instill that love of learning into each of his students.