Mr. Huie, room 13. The student and self-proclaimed Walter White of Pottsgrove High School. Mr. Huie has been in the science wing as a chemistry teacher at Pottsgrove for 20 years, and before that, he worked at Pottstown for 5 years. Growing up, he constantly moved all over the country, including Utah, Washington, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York. All of this packing and unpacking was due to his father getting promotions, prompting them to pick up their stuff and go. This pattern came to a halt when his dad decided to quit his job and buy a gas station in Utah so that they could ski. When asked how all the moving impacted his childhood, Mr. Huie said, “It’s tough moving around so much. Bullying is really rampant at that age, especially as the ‘new kid’. I had an amazing life and family growing up, and I’m glad that I got to have that experience”.
Huie attended the University of Utah for the 1st 3 years of his undergrad to earn his BS in chemistry. He finished the degree at West Chester and got his master’s in education in chemistry at DeSales. Before becoming a teacher, he worked in a lab at Carpenter, which was a car tech and specialty metals company. His job was to measure the product and ensure that it met certain requirements for orders. When asked what made him want to become a teacher, Mr. Huie said, “ I hit a point in my career where I thought to myself, ‘what am I really doing’. I felt it would be better to be more helpful as well as the fact that it was a narrow profession”. Huie really enjoys his career and the symbiotic relationship with all the students. He likes to say that his classroom is a little oasis in the school and that he likes to hide out while the chaos ensues outside his door.
Outside of school, Huie enjoys being outside and hanging out with his family and grandkids. He used to love to ski but has refrained from it for the last couple of years. His perfect day would be spent in his yard with family, hiking, or kayaking. If he wasn’t a teacher, Huie said that he would want to be a landscaper and pull weeds and plant flowers.
Lauren Houk, a junior at Pottsgrove High School, says, “Mr. Huie always makes me laugh and is a supportive and positive role model for students, I look forward to my 6th periods with him”. Haley Harner, also a junior at Pottsgrove, says, “Mr. Huie is my favorite teacher at school, I always go to his room when I have a free period, and I like that he makes me laugh and has a positive vibe in his room always”. When asked what the biggest lesson that he had learned throughout his career was, Mr. Huie said, “ Definitely patience. Each student goes at a different pace, so learning how to meet them where they are at is really important. It’s my responsibility to do the best I can”. He hopes that his former students learn to laugh and to find the good in an overwhelming world.
As the interview was coming to a close, I asked what the most memorable moment in his career was, which he sat and thought for a second before saying that he set a girl with a wheelchair on fire. He would like to make it known that she was okay, but it was definitely up in the top 5 moments in his classroom. In doing this interview, I got a deeper understanding of who Mr. Huie is as not only a teacher but as a human as well. His room is always open and welcoming for students who want to learn and be present. You might even snag a Swedish Fish or two from him.
