“Fascism is cured by reading, and racism is cured by traveling.”- Miguel de Unamuno
Mr. Clarke is one of our history teachers at Pottsgrove High School, he is located in room 2. He teaches both Academic and Honors World History. Mr. Clarke isn’t just your average boring history teacher, he makes you feel intrigued and leaves you wanting to learn more about the world we live in and what got us here, but what made him choose this profession, why does he want to teach his students about our history?
Mr. Clarke grew up in Rochester, New York. He went to high school at McQuaid Jesuit High, and then on to The State University of New York at Binghamton, majoring in business. The education field wasn’t always his first choice. After graduating he went on to music retail management, followed by some “boring” office jobs for a while -ultimately never following through with his acting [acting?!] career in college- until his ex-wife suggested he try going back to school for education, that since he had such a passion for history he would make a good teacher, and that he did. He went back to school around 2000, majoring in education at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. He has worked at Pottsgrove since 2005 and continues to pass his wise words onto his students.
As technology advances, AI has become a huge part of people’s everyday lives. It’s a controversial subject when it comes to work and school. As a teacher, Mr. Clarke is surrounded by AI almost daily. Mr. Clarke believes that AI takes away our critical thinking skills, and does our work for us instead of just helping us. He believes that AI takes away from our learning experiences.
Mr. Clarke’s interest in history came from many topics. The book “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn is a book he goes back to a lot. It tells the story of America through the eyes of marginalized groups. It gave him a clear view of the dark parts of the world. He is very much intrigued by the Holocaust and the rise of the Nazis. Hearing these things is one thing but realizing that this has happened fairly recently, and the world is capable of such aggression and hate is a whole new understanding. Mr. Clarke believes that history is such an important class because it helps you recognize patterns, helps rid society of ignorance, and can ensure that the worst parts of history won’t repeat itself. He wants his students to take away these messages when leaving high school and voting.
Mr. Clarke is very keen on travelling. As a history teacher, he has many historical sights he’d love to see and likes to incorporate history in his travel destinations. He always wanted to travel to Poland, see the death camps from the Holocaust, or go to Normandy, where D-Day took place. If he were to go off the grid and travel anywhere, though, he would go to Donegal in Ireland, or the Canadian Rockies.
Mr. Clarke’s class is very informative and makes learning more interesting. He is an outstanding storyteller and makes your learning experience fun while informing you with our world’s history.
