THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 1, 1994 TAG: 9411290105
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Education
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 110 lines
MONTGOMERY BROWN and his energetic class of 20 first-graders at Little Creek Elementary School are engaged in one of their favorite activities, a vocabulary word game.
Brown, dressed sharply in a black double-breasted coat, checked pants, a white dress shirt and a tie, moves briskly around the room, a set of flash cards in hand.
``Dog!'' one girl cries when Brown shows her a card. She eagerly accepts a red ``credit'' ticket for reward. The tickets are valuable: They can be exchanged later for candy and other goodies.
``Who doesn't have a credit?'' Brown asks. A girl raises her hand.
``We can't have that,'' he said, flashing a card for her.
In the background, almost unnoticeable, classical music plays softly from a radio tucked away on a counter beside a computer used by the students to write stories.
An electric synthesizer keyboard rests on a nearby table, waiting for the time Brown gets the urge to lead his students in a rap song he made up to teach them vowel sounds. Next to the keyboard is a huge hourglass. When he hides math cards around the room, Brown uses it to track the time it takes his charges to find and solve the problems.
Taped to the wall in the office at Little Creek is a slogan that reads:
Try a different way to teach,
So children can find a different way to learn.
Nobody needs to tell that to Mont Brown. For him, learning is a game - or rather a multitude of them.
``When I was in school, I thought it was boring,'' Brown said. ``I was a lousy student, I sat in the back of the class, all that. But I think that's what makes me a good teacher, because I can see how to make it fun.
``You won't find kids quietly taking notes from the bulletin board or using work sheets - that's not my style. A lot of teachers do these traditional types of things and kids seem to drift away.''
Brown, who has been teaching first grade in Norfolk schools since 1988, is a rarity. As an elementary teacher, Brown is a man in what traditionally has been a woman's field of schoolwork.
In Norfolk, only 43 of the system's 845 elementary teachers are men. And as a black male, Brown is rarer still. He's one of only 20 locally.
His principal, Sharon Margulies, appreciates his influence as a positive role model in a school where about 45 percent of the students are black.
``We, as principals, recognize that school shouldn't be a female-dominated institution,'' Margulies said. ``It's important that our children see males as important role models in the classroom and see that males can be nurturing, too.''
Brown, 42, did not follow a traditional career path. A Norfolk native and a 1970 graduate of Maury High, Brown once dreamed of hitting the big time in music.
``I just knew that was my destiny,'' Brown said.
For more than two years after graduation, he followed that dream, singing in a band. But it proved to be a rough road with an uncertain future. He heeded his parents' advice and concluded, reluctantly, that stardom wasn't in his voice.
In 1973, he heard about an opening at Norfolk's Southeastern Tidewater Opportunity Project, the local administrator of Head Start, a federal program for disadvantaged pre-school children. The thought of teaching youngsters rekindled memories of the fun he'd had playing school as a kid.
``When I was a child - I'm from a family of 10 - we always played school at home, and I was the teacher,'' Brown said.
After learning he didn't need a college degree, he applied and landed a job teaching 4- and 5-year-olds.
But he was determined to earn a college degree. Over the span of a decade, one course at a time, Brown enrolled in evening classes at Norfolk State University. While maintaining his Head Start job, Brown finally earned a bachelor's degree in early childhood education in 1988.
That's when he applied for and got a job with Norfolk public schools at Willard Model School. He's been at Little Creek four years.
He has gained notice for his teaching, including winning the prestigious School Bell award three times for outstanding work.
``He is a team player,'' Margulies said. ``What he brings to the team is his artistic interests. He's a real innovator.''
Brown has written seven children's book, so far unpublished, and developed a series of audio tapes to teach children the phonic sounds of the alphabet.
A few weeks ago, Brown learned of the latest honor: His class from last year won first-place awards for two videos they produced and entered in the International Student Media Festival contest.
The 30-second videos - a public service announcement titled ``I'll Never Try Drugs'' and an instructional message called ``Four Ways to Get Into a Good Book'' - bring to six the number of awards that his classes have won over the past five years.
Brown's students - his most important critics - give him high marks.
``We've got to do work in here, because if we don't, we don't learn,'' said Jessica Thomas, 6. ``It's fun. He lets us play on the computer.''
``When we read three books, we get a free-pizza ticket,'' said Bobby Dane, 7.
While Brown tries to make school fun, he recognizes that ensuring that children learn is serious business.
``First and foremost are the three R's,'' Brown said. ``I want to make sure that's learned, but I also want to make sure they have a good sense of pride and that they're happy kids. If I had to choose between an educated child and a happy child I would choose a happy one, because I believe a happy child is going to learn.
``I want them to be happy, productive kids when they leave for second grade.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by RICHARD L. DUNSTON
Montgomery Brown teaches first grade at Little Creek Elementary
School.
by CNB