Curley is Land Steward of the Year
by Deja Anton
Todd Soil and Water Conservation District Manager
Regarding his years in education, renowned New England poet, Robert Frost, described his teaching as “I am not a teacher but an awakener.”
Those words reverberated across my mind during a recent interview with Bruce Curley, beloved Browerville high school teacher, now retired.
Bruce’s philosophy in education parallels that of Frost’s.
“I could care less WHAT students do, I want them to become thinkers.” And for 22 years, Bruce executed that philosophy with exactitude.
Bruce Curley was an unconventional teacher whom superintendents might have found standing on his desk in a demonstration or yelling down the hall pleading for someone, anyone to answer the question he posed to his students when they appeared “ferhoodled” (Look it up!).
That is, to clarify, during times he could be found in the classroom because as often as possible, he held classes outside in the elements exposing students to the very real-life concepts that other teachers would relay from a book. He valued hands-on, performance-based instruction methods because learning becomes limited when only texts are in use. . .
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