Interview with Mr. Clarke

By Katelyn Nguyen

Just this year,  Stratford Preparatory Blackford welcomed a new High School Dean of Students: Mr. David Clarke! 

Q: What inspired you to become an educator?

A: Hollywood. I was looking for something that was the right match for my skillset, and I was starting to think that “teacher” would be a right fit for my communication style. And when I thought about popular culture heroes of mine, one was Indiana Jones, and he was a college professor. I always really liked that character. And I really liked Harry Potter, especially Severus Snape as a teacher. And so, I probably modeled my PE Teacher persona after Severus Snape, not as extreme, but I would say that was the combination.

One other thing: my very last semester of my undergraduate, I took a general-ed course, and it was a course on creativity. The whole gist of that course was to find a way to make what you love doing into your work. “Find a job that you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” 

Q: What has been one of your greatest driving forces whilst working in education?

A: I like character-building. I liked games, anything that involves a blank slate and building them and making them better. Like, personal enhancement and development; that’s probably what drives me. Two things: I’m something of a stickler for the rules, so creating order out of chaos. So, they said we need to build more structure here, and also to help enhance and make our students better than they already are. Life skills can mean anything from leadership, career development, things like community outreach, a big part of it is mental proficiency. 

AP Psychology is all about disease-related psychology, it’s finding a disease, diagnosing it, and treating it. But psychology has shifted, it’s not good enough just to diagnose and treat disease. It’s about taking healthy people and enhancing them for society as a whole. That’s what motivates me. 

Since I got here, I've been mostly working on creating structures and procedures; I didn't make most of the rules but they want me to enforce them; I’ve been mostly getting everyone on the same page, and hopefully I can get personal enhancement. 

Q: What advice would you give to high school students who are unsure of what to pursue in the future?

A: Oh boy, don’t rush it. If you’re a senior and you don’t know what to go into, that just means you're a normal human being. People change. Start with identifying: a personal SWOT analysis, identify your strengths and weaknesses, where there are opportunities and threats. Identify what you’re passionate about, because if you can both pursue that and have a career that is lucrative, then that is awesome.

Second best, is just pursue something that makes you money, because then when you find out what you’re passionate about later, you can pursue your passions outside of work and being successful also gives you the opportunity to give back to your community, and improve your community

There’s absolutely no need to know what your major is, you can start off taking general education classes, and start feeling around what you like, what makes you money, and maybe pursue one of the five careers that are most likely to make you a millionaire based on the largest research study we know. 

Q: What’s your greatest joy when it comes to working in education?

A: I like getting cards from students, who have told me that I helped them grow as individuals. I like seeing character development. As a middle school teacher, I liked starting off with a kid who maybe had challenges to overcome on a personal level, and maybe help them overcome those challenges and help them grow. I’d like to be able to, with high schoolers, one-on-one conversations that aren’t because someone did something wrong. 

I’d like to have people just drop in for advice or just to teach them, because I do have a wealth of knowledge, and most of the knowledge I have is for personal growth and career development.