Ryan Drenth on Teaching: Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts

Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Mr. Ryan Drenth, 6th grade math teacher at Momence Junior High School. But Ryan is a man who devotes time and energy in several other important ways to the development of our young people, as you’ll learn from our conversation. The work of teachers at Momence like Ryan is critical to the opening of doors our children experience and to the positive outcomes to which those doors lead not only while still in school but for the years that will follow. Teaching is a bit like academic gymnastics because, in large part, we see the highly orchestrated and disciplined conduit through which subject matter must be channeled, much as a gymnast must know the precise arc of a routine before it is performed, but we also see the fluidity in transference, metaphorically, between one set of muscles and the next of a gymnast in the academic improv theater that a classroom must, by necessity, occasionally become, as it conforms in pace or complexity to the needs of its occupants. In the end, the teachers of Momence are extraordinary and absolutely critical to the making of a better world through the education of our youth. And Ryan Drenth is certainly no exception in his commitment to the role and his dedication to his students.