Ty Brack: The Real Life John Keating

Looking back on my experience in writing, I would say that the person that influenced me the most was my sophomore English teacher, Mr. Brack, who also went by his first name, Ty. Unlike the many other English/Humanities teachers I had in the past, he was the one who was the most inspirational. I remember the first day in his class vividly. The desks were arranged in a semi circle form and after his introduction, we watched a clip from The Dead Poets Society. It was the scene where Robin Williams, playing Mr. Keating, is explaining poetry to the class and says,

“We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, 'O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless--of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life? Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.' That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?”

That scene gave me chills. I used the Whitman quote for my senior spotlight in the yearbook. After watching that scene, Ty told us to stand on our desks like in the movie. I had never experienced a class like that before. I immediately knew it was going to be my favorite. After watching the full movie of Dead Poet Society at home, I dedicated a lot of time to that class. From working on my papers, reading more about the articles we were given in class, and going the extra mile. One thing that I took away from Mr. Brack is never lose your voice. Unlike my other teachers he not only allowed freewriting but encouraged it. It helped our flow and we loved it.

Something that Ty taught me was how to embrace poetry. Growing up, I had just used the structures that teachers gave me and I thought that was the only thing that we could do with poetry. Watching videos of poets, and of course Robin Williams, I really wanted to try. Ty taught me how to express my emotions into my work and it helped me a lot with my struggle with anxiety. Towards the end of the school year, Ty took my whole Honors English class to the Portland Poetry Slam where we saw live performers. It was amazing. For his birthday, my friend group knew that we needed to do something special. This was actually Ty’s first time teaching an actual English class. So we got some money together and ordered an engraved gavel that had a quote from To Kill A Mockingbird, a book that we not only read with Ty but learned so much about voice and movement. He loved the gavel and I’m pretty sure he still has it on his desk.

Because we had loved his teaching of poetry so much, we pushed him and our principal to allow him to teach an actual poetry class. It worked. My Junior year I had been able to take his poetry class and learn so much more about modern poets along with meeting a lot of guest poets which he knew from competing against them in Portland. I absolutely loved the poet, Bella. We were able to hold our own Poetry Jams at school where I was able to perform and become creative. One time, I even painted my whole body to go with my poem, My Painters Palette. I learned so much from Ty and because of him I have a love of using my own emotion and being authentic in my writing. He helped me overcome a lot of fear of performing or writing anything real. While my dream of becoming a English teacher has switched to ministries, I know that everything he taught me can be applied to my new path. And that quote from Robin Williams will always ring in my ears, What will your verse be?