The Torchbearer for All Things NHD: Mr. Moore

What subject do you teach? Why did you choose to teach it?

I teach two subjects, AP European History (AP Euro) and AP United States History (APUSH), and I love teaching both of those classes. I actually started teaching both of them prior to coming to Stuy. Actually, I taught APUSH first, when I was at the High School of Economics and Finance. I taught AP Euro there as well. I actually introduced AP Euro to that school, so I have a special fondness for that. But I love both those classes because I have students who enjoy rigor, have a strong work ethic, and are creative, so they are really open to new challenges, such as the History Day program and projects that many of them engage in. 

Why did you choose to teach at Stuyvesant? What do you like (or not like) to teach here?

There’s really nothing I dislike about teaching at Stuyvesant. I’ve been teaching for 25 years. For 20 years I was teaching at other schools. The first high school I taught at was John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx, which was an underperforming high school. The next major school I taught at was at the High School of Economics and Finance, where I was [there] for about 12 or so years. I really enjoy Stuyvesant because the students are really engaged and interested in learning. A lot of learning also has to happen outside of the classroom, and they’re willing to put in the time and effort in both of those areas—at home as well as in the classroom—to achieve results that both they and I are satisfied with. 

Can you tell us a little more about your younger years? Where did you grow up? What did you love to do as a child?

I’m a native New Yorker. I was born and [raised] for the first four to five years [of my life] walking distance from Stuyvesant. I lived on Fulton Street, by the South Bridge towers that are over at the end of Fulton Street. I’ve always had a passion for history, specifically U.S. history, although I was also a huge anglophile as a kid. In fact, a number of my Halloween costumes were all history related. I was George Washington one year, and another year I was this British Colonel called Sir Banastre Tarleton. So I’ve always had a real passion for history, and that sort of carried through to my professional life. 

What did you study in college? 

I was actually a double major. I majored in History and Politics at Oberlin. I came in knowing I was going to be a history major, because I loved history and was god awful [at] math. Still am. So, I was gonna be a humanities person, but I became a double major because a number of great professors were in the politics department, and I think this is really good advice for students: Take classes where the best professors are. And after a while, I realized I accumulated enough credits for a minor. So I said, “You know what? I’ll get a major.” I became a double major in politics and history.

Did you always want to be a teacher? If not, what did you want to be beforehand? 

I would say I always knew I could be a very good teacher, especially in the area of history, partly because my parents were professors. Actually, my mother still is a professor at the University of Michigan. My grandmother was a professor. So there are a lot of educators in my family, and I always had a love of reading and a love of just learning about history. And I also knew that I had a good sense of, you know, how to engage with students. In fact, when I was taking APUSH in my junior year in high school, we were about to begin the age of Jackson and the age of reform—the 1820s to the 1840s—and I was not a big fan of that time period. So I asked my AP teacher if he would let me organize a newspaper for the class, and he said yes. So for two weeks, I was the editor of the class newspaper on the Age of Reform and the Jacksonian era. So that kind of gave me a good sense as to the fact that I could be a good teacher. Still, I actually did a lot of other things before—in retail management. I sold paper wholesale for three years. So I did a lot of other things before I became a teacher.

What is the most rewarding part of your job?

The most rewarding part of my job is definitely seeing students become engaged with history [and] hopefully also becoming passionate about it. I mean, that’s the ideal. And a lot of the times I do find that [that happens], which is why I really like and enjoy advising and mentoring students with the History Day project, because that’s really where students can both pick something that they enjoy, a topic that they are passionate about, and then find a way to express it, whether it’s performance, documentary, website, exhibit, or paper. That’s really what motivates me: seeing that students find something they connect to in history and find a good way to express it.

What strategies do you use to help students retain so much historical content? 

I actually don’t stress memorization with my students, because I find that when one is stressing memorization, information tends to go, as they say, ‘in one ear and out the other.’ So I try to have a variety of ways in which students learn, and I try to get it where it’s a student centered activity. So, and it’s not always the same thing. So sometimes I’ll have much more of a teacher-centered activity, but we have a lot of small projects that I think help the students get a better grasp of the material. For instance, when we’re doing our little unit on the African American civil rights movement of the 1960s, students make trifolds on different parts of the Civil Rights era. So I think through those types of engaging student activities, often group activities, students are able to better understand and retain.

How do you incorporate current events into either course to draw connections to the past?

I mean, I’m always talking. I think that the current political climate and situation, especially at the presidential level, allows for a lot of parallels to be drawn when one studies APUSH or U.S. history in general, and I definitely do that. I think you can make parallels with the Age of Jackson or lots of other times throughout American history. I’m definitely constantly making those connections when possible with students. And it also, I think, reminds students to get out of their silo, and make sure that they’re engaged with the outside world.

Do you have a favorite unit/topic in either course?

The Civil War, I find, is a fascinating unit because of all the different ways it has still affected American life today. It’s a war that started off as a fight for nationalism and then evolved into a fight for freedom. The newfound status for African Americans makes it probably the most important and probably my most interesting topic that I teach as part of the APUSH curriculum. 

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced as a teacher?

When I was teaching an Information and Communication Technology class at my prior school, at the High School of Economics and Finance, I would have a real range of students: I had students who were at grade level all the way down to a student who could barely function. And that was probably my greatest challenge: having to manage a classroom with that range of educational differences.

What’s your biggest teaching pet peeve?

I would say my pet peeve is when I have a student teacher that I’m mentoring who doesn’t have the same passion that I have about teaching, because I think to be a teacher, you need to believe that it’s not just a job, right? There are lots of jobs one can get. One can get a job at the postal office. There are lots of jobs, especially in the city, that one can get. But I think because of the important responsibilities that teachers have—we’re not just teaching content, we’re also mentoring and being role models for students, we tend to also sometimes have to be psychologists and to be social workers as well—that you really have to be passionate about it.

What’s the most surprising thing a student has ever said to you? 

The most surprising thing students have ever said to me is that after coming into my class saying they were going to be a STEM student, that they wanted to be a humanities person. I think that was pretty eye opening to me.

What are the most fascinating NHD projects you’ve seen?

I’ve seen a lot of great projects. I mean, this year we have actually four projects that are going to Nationals. We have a documentary on Daniel Ellsberg. We have two performances, one on the Miss America protest of ‘68 and one on the 1982 Chinatown strike, and a book: How The Other Half Lives. But I’ve also had some projects that I thought, even though they didn’t necessarily win, were really interesting. For instance, several years ago, a student made a project on Falling Water as an exhibit and actually carved into the exhibit a physical representation of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water. And I thought that was a really interesting take on that event. I also thought the exhibit on the Brooklyn Bridge three years ago was really interesting, where they actually built the Brooklyn Bridge out of balsa wood and wire. So I’ve seen a lot of great projects come along, and you know, we’re going to encourage students to continue next year. So hopefully there’ll be many more coming along the way. 

If you could change one thing about the AP Euro curriculum, what would it be?  

I think if I was to change one thing about that curriculum, I’d like to see it become a bit more inclusive, specifically with regard to two groups. I think it could be more inclusive of women, and I think it could be more inclusive of European Jewry.

What do you like to do outside of school? 

I definitely like to travel some every summer. My family, we go on several trips. We go see my parents in Michigan and get to explore the Midwest a little bit. Then I go in the early part of the summer with my mother-in-law and the family, and we go to different places whether it’s Poconos or the Berkshire. So I like being able to go to those areas and relax a little bit. Additionally, I definitely love listening to music. I listen to lots of different types of music, although I do have certain favorite bands or performers, such as Bruce Springsteen and AC/DC.

Dream vacation?

My daughter just had a Bat Mitzvah, and a Bat Mitzvah present that one of the family members gave is to go to London. I’ve been there three times, and would love to go back. Plus, I actually really like British food.

Favorite historical movie?

I definitely love the movie Glory, which is also about the 54th Massachusetts Regiment during the Civil War. It has some really great acting performances, from Morgan Freeman to a very young Denzel Washington. So I definitely would say that it would be a top movie to watch. 

What’s your favorite food?

I love a great Sirloin steak. So my favorite restaurant would be a steakhouse like Ruth’s Chris or one of those. 

What’s your favorite book? 

My favorite book, or series of books, of all time is Grant’s memoirs from the Civil War. They are easy reads and fascinating, especially considering that he was not literate, which I think is really interesting. 

If you could time travel to any point in history, where are you going?

I think if I could travel back to anywhere, it definitely would be New York City. I would travel back to New York of the 1940s and 50s; that was the Golden Age for New York City And, you know, I’d love to be able to actually meet some of my relatives. I had lots of relatives on my mother’s side who were living at that time in New York City. 

Which historical figure would you definitely be friends with? 

I’d love to be friends with Ulysses S. Grant. I think he’s a fascinating guy who, you know, failed as much as he succeeded, but was also very plain-spoken. As an individual, he really was a great friend. Unfortunately, part of his undoing when he was president was that he placed his friends in positions that they really shouldn’t have been in, and they took advantage of it. But he had a good moral compass. I believe he had an enslaved African American and gave that individual his freedom, even at a time when Grant was basically in poverty. So I would love to be his friend.