A Heart of Gold

Gordon Bryson, Upper School English

When Gordon Bryson came to HPA in 1978, he planned to stay for a year. Now, almost three decades later, it’s hard to imagine HPA without him. Bryson has endeared himself to generations of students with his booming laugh, a boyish, almost kolohe sense of humor, his love of reading, but most of all, his heart of gold and the genuine affection he has for all of his students, who he refers to as “my kids.”

“I’m not a traditional principal or traditional head coach, or a traditional teacher. I’m sort of…me,” says the two-time Ellbogen Award winner (see page 9) and self-described “navy brat.”

Bryson was born in Moline, Illinois and grew up in Connecticut. He and his wife, Liz, met in high school when they ran against each other for a position in church state government. Bryson got the position and caught Liz’s eye. They married in 1969 after Bryson graduated from college and they have three sons. Even after 42 years, Bryson melts when he speaks of Liz. “I’m a real romantic, I hate to admit it,” he says.

He went to Williams College to be a minister, but found a different calling—teaching. He earned his bachelor’s degree in English and went on to obtain a master’s degree from Southern Connecticut State in secondary English education. He worked for nine years at East Coast boarding schools in various teaching, coaching, and administrative positions, including acting headmaster at the Tome School in Maryland, before he received a serendipitous call from then HPA Headmaster Edson Sheppard.

Bryson had never heard of Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy, but when he arrived on campus—sight unseen—with his young family, he immediately fit in as a “triple threat,” teaching, coaching football, and living in the dorm.

“It was a very intense experience; it was a lot of work,” he recalls.

In 1985, Bryson took over as head football coach, in addition to being English department chair. That same year, he was named Hawai‘i’s Outstanding High School Teacher by the Hawai‘i Council of Teachers of English. He served as a judge for the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Writing Contest and the NCTE Literary Magazine Contest. He was project coordinator for the Hawai‘i Writing Project on the Big Island, presented numerous papers, and served as a guest teacher at Hawai‘i Council of Teacher of English conventions.

Despite all the recognition he has received for his outstanding work teaching English, Bryson believes people associate him more with his role as head football coach. “Waitresses still ask me about passing in the end zone against Kona. People love football on this island.”

He served as head coach until 1989 and returned for a second stint from 1991 to 1998, when he stepped down to take the reins as Upper School principal. Bryson led his team to a BIIF championship in 1993, with his teams placing near the top for three straight years. “It was a tremendous run,” he says. By the time he left in 1999, he had been named Coach of the Year four times.

When he wasn’t coaching at the school, Bryson was active in the community. He coached Pop Warner football and was an active judo supporter while his sons competed. Bryson is adamant about the need for HPA to continue to be involved in the community.

“I think the biggest misconception is that privilege makes our kids snotty or stuck up or less real than other kids,” he says. “Once people meet our students and spend time chatting with them after games or working with them in community service, which we need to do more of, I think then they’re going to come out and say, ‘Wow, these are great people and I hope my kid can be part of that.’”

While heading the Upper School, Bryson also served as vice president and as president of the Big Island Interscholastic Federation. In October 2000, the Big Island Football Officials Association honored him for his positive influence on the league and his commitment and involvement in the community. Mark Haggerty, then-president of the 28-member association, said at the time, “The referees had a lot of respect for him and his departure is a big loss to the league. His voice from the sidelines will never be forgotten. We definitely miss his presence at the games. He has earned the respect of his competitors on and off the field. He is an inspiration to all, especially to Ka Makani.”

Last school year, Bryson took his first sabbatical to pursue a doctoral degree in curriculum and instruction at the University of Hawai‘i—Manoa College of Education, where he completed all his doctoral courses in one year. He describes the experience as both a watershed moment and one of the worst moments in his life. “My wife and I cried for weeks,” he explains. “We’d never been apart. That was very hard. I was very scared. I didn’t know anybody and for the first time in 25 years, I wasn’t anybody to anybody and I went over there thinking, ‘Oh, my God.’

“And it became just wonderful. I loved every second of it. I met new people and it was amazing how it opened my life up.”

He notes that one of the great things about the College of Education is that students range in age from 20 to 40. “I was the oldest, except for two people. I became friends with the entire department because the professors were overjoyed to have somebody their age to teach,” he jokes.

His dissertation subject is Ralph Stueber, who worked with several others to launch the Center for Adult and Community Education at the University of Hawai‘i and delineated the MET (a hands-on master’s degree in instruction) and EDD (the original doctoral program at the College of Education) degrees for the College of Education. This summer, Bryson is busy writing his dissertation, Ralph Stueber: A Lifetime of Democracy and Community in Education. “God willing, I will be done with the final draft in December 2007.”

Never one to shy away from offering an opinion—popular or not—Bryson has strong ideas about education today and what HPA needs to do to stay at the forefront of education.

“We must make a transition from the homogeneous 20th century world I grew up in to the 21st century and a world that celebrates diversity,” he states. “We’re still wrapped up in this binary world: You either write well or you don’t; you either like English or you don’t. That world is so passé.

“I really think the years of having set classes like English, history, science—those days are gone. Ultimately, we want to be seen as cross-disciplinary, where the departments work together. We’re looking much more now at projects instead of examinations, where kids get together and generate new ideas.”

Bryson believes this shift in education is critical, particularly because of the many distractions competing for students’ attention.

“The problem we’re up against now is that most of the education kids get is done by a very sophisticated empire of entertainment and celebrity that teaches them values that none of us want them to have,” he explains. “So whenever we do our job badly, when we make books boring, or when we make math incredibly hard to do, we’re going to lose. We can’t be as dictatorial as the entertainment empire is. We have to beat it with humanity. If this school isn’t humane, if it isn’t about humans getting to know each other—and not in prescribed ways, but in informal ways—we’ll lose.”

In Bryson’s opinion, “the humane values” of HPA is the school’s best-kept secret—something that has not changed since he arrived on campus—faculty members willing to work with kids in their spare time, or coaching sports that they sometimes don’t really know very well, or working in dorms. “People are going outside their comfort zone, but doing it willingly because they see that as part of what everybody needs. I think that’s a big message because we all have to leave our comfort zone to make society successful.”

He continues, “HPA needs to put its students in the center of its institution and from that center, look out through the community to the world. We have to make the kids important, which requires brilliant people. The irony is only very able people can call forth the very best from others by creating an environment that is conducive to growth.

I read about 40 books a year. My wife says, “I married a boring boy.”

“We need to teach by the way we behave. Then our students become productive, courageous people who are able to put the world and the community in front of their own needs. We have kids from all over the world. The message we send should be a message that makes the world a better place.

“One thing I’ve tried to do my whole career as a teacher is to raise everyone’s children as if they’re my own. Many of us here do that and that’s what’s good about HPA; that’s why people love this place.”

Bryson offers these thoughts to those considering a career teaching high school English. “It’s an art to teach,” he states. “It’s as much an art as Rembrandt painting a portrait. Going into that classroom, making my classroom work, requires not just a knowledge of how to do things and what to do, but it requires an ability to change and to use all your media and to make it into something beautiful in concert with your students.

“You have to enjoy kids. If you don’t enjoy kids, if you don’t believe that every kid is valuable, you shouldn’t go into teaching.”

After almost 30 years at HPA, Bryson has no regrets about extending his year-long stay. “When you’re put together the way I am, you are always happy where you are,” he reflects. “I really have been proudest of having my three kids come through this school and being part of the community.

“When you’re part of Waimea, that’s enough. All of us who have been here a long time are in love with the place. There’s something about working in these hills, this town, with the people. It’s bigger than anything and I’ve always been proud of that.”

What’s next for the master educator?

“I’ve always been interested in teaching teachers. I want to retire from here, travel, and probably move to the mainland—to be near my children—and teach teachers.

“I’ve been a blessed man. I married lucky. I had good parents. I had great kids and I have wonderful friends and acquaintances. Not everybody can say that. You look at my students — George White ‘79, Theresa Ellbogen ‘82, Chad Kamrow ‘89, Stephanie Rutgers ‘89—what more can a man ask for in this life? I’m lucky. I’m very, very lucky.”

Fun Facts

• First job: Sweeping up a hot dog stand by the dock I lived at in New London, Connecticut. It’s still there. I didn’t ruin it.

• Favorite author: That’s tough. Probably Jane Austen.

• Favorite book: Pride and Prejudice.

• Favorite year and why: 1969. I married my wife.

• Favorite color: Blue.

• Favorite food: Oh, golly, I eat everything. Might be kidney pie. I actually like kidney pie better than lobster.

• Hobbies: Oddly enough, reading.

UPDATE:Dr. Bryson, I Presume?

Congratulations to Gordon Bryson, Upper School English Department Chairman, who earned his Ph.D. in Education from the University of Hawai‘i—Manoa College of Education on May 15, 2010. Bryson’s thesis, Foundations of Education: A Literal Correspondence Between Two Viewpoints, dealt with the unique correspondence between Ralph K. Stueber Ph.D. and Bryson. Dr. Stueber, professor emeritus from the College of Education, Danforth Scholar, department chairman, and policy writer for the Democratic Party, and Bryson, former principal, headmaster, and teacher in private boarding schools, carried on their communication by letters and e-mail for more than five years. The topics of discussion included philosophy, history, and practice in private and public education, making use of the extensive experience of both men. The letters chosen for publication in the dissertation frequently dealt with the philosophy of Parker Palmer, writer of the seminal work, Courage to Teach. In the discussion, Bryson and Stueber attempt to make sense of current practice in the state and the nation.

Bryson did his course work in curriculum and instruction during his 2005-2006 sabbatical year at the University of Hawai‘i—Manoa. He passed his comprehensive exams in 2006 after returning to HPA as department chairman. He defended his dissertation in early March 2010.