Mr. Taylor Knight’s life changing moment happened at St. Christophers in Mr. Frank Kiefer’s classroom. Mr. Kiefer’s relaxed approach to teaching math greatly inspired Mr. Knight in his youth. Instead of belittling them when they did not have the answer, Mr. Kiefer gave the students confidence and uplifted them for doing well. At first Mr. Knight didn’t enjoy math but as he learned and gained confidence he started to realize that “it was [his] niche.” The appreciation and love for the subject all came from a positive and uplifting learning environment.
Mr. Knight went to Duke for economics, using his degree in private equity. He “followed the crowd” and did what everyone else was doing. All of Mr. Knight’s economic “buddies” were shooting for big corporate CEO jobs. Mr. Knight quickly realized staring at a screen crunching numbers in a cubicle was not for him. Mr. Knight said, “I was in a cube. I felt like I was stuck.”
As a result, he quit his job in private equity and applied to the Peace Corp. The Peace Corp sends people everywhere around the world. These people specialize in either medicine, education, or agriculture. Mr. Knight was placed in education and he spent his time teaching math in an African village in Lesotho. Soon after, Mr. Knight “fell in love with…teaching math.” Kids from the village would walk miles to learn from him. He said, “if they have so much enthusiasm to learn, I might as well raise my enthusiasm to teach. And that’s…where the fire got lit for teaching.”
During his time at St. Christopher’s, Mr. Knight hopes to address growing concern with artificial intelligence and its applications within math classes.He wants kids to stop relying on technology not because technology is bad but rather because it removes a critical lesson. Learning math, especially at a higher level, teaches more about solving problems and the process it takes rather than the subject itself. Mr. Knight wants more math teachers to answer the question of “why am I learning this math?”
At St. Christopher’s, Mr. Knight wants to be a coach in life and always be someone you can rely on and someone who can give a boost in morale.