Longtime Flathead teacher Sue Brown says goodbye

Flathead High School English teacher Sue Brown has taught thousands of students over the past 40 years.

“Forty short years,” Brown said, reflecting on her career and pending retirement at the year’s end.

Brown, 63, has spent her entire career at Flathead.

During a recent interview in her classroom, a student stopped by to pick up a college recommendation letter.

“I can tell you that we’ve never been in better shape than with [this] generation — an outstanding generation of young people who are going to solve a lot of the problems my generation created — and will do so with wisdom, and grace and knowledge,” Brown said with a smile.

Sitting down, Brown straightened a pin-covered lanyard around her neck. Each pin denotes five years of teaching at Flathead. Among the cluster of identical pins one stands out.

“This one is from one of my students at the Naval Academy and he [graduate Andrew Obst] gave that to me,” Brown said. “He’s such a good kid.”

The appreciation and respect Brown has for her students and colleagues is the driving force of why she teaches.

“I’m a person who loves young people and loves ideas, and the two of those don’t marry together anywhere better than they do in education,” she said.

The high school level is the perfect time to cultivate independent thinkers who can “dig deep” into topics and ideas — a philosophy of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Programme. This is why, Brown humorously put it, she is “the zealot for IB.”

“The role of education at this level is to teach people how to think. Not necessarily what to think,” Brown said. “I have loved teaching the Theory of Knowledge [IB] course because it’s all about how we know what we know, and what are the strengths and limitations of each of our ways of knowing.”

Brown was instrumental in bringing the International Baccalaureate program to Flathead at a time when modern globalization was not on everyone’s radar.

It took a concerted effort over 14 years after Brown first presented the idea to educate the community on what the program was about and how it would be worth the cost to “raise the bar” for all students.

“When I’m teaching a class that’s not an IB class, I bring that training into the classroom no matter what the class is,” Brown said.

In 2004, Flathead became the first high school in the state to become an authorized International Baccalaureate World School after completing a two-year candidate process.

Her passion for the rigorous program extends to the philosophy of giving students “more opportunities to show what they know,” surpassing the limitations of a typical multiple choice and short answer test.

In International Baccalaureate English, for example, a student will give an oral presentation, interviews with a teacher on a piece of literature, writes an essay and sits for two, two-hour exams.

“Their work I think is so much better represented,” Brown said.

In the classroom, Brown is always up for an engaging discussion or debate, which may have to do with her time spent as a Flathead speech and debate head coach from 1977-84.

She got into debate in high school, which earned her a scholarship to Eastern Montana College, now Montana State University-Billings. She went on to become an assistant debate coach for the University of Utah where she started graduate school.

In 1975, she married Bob Brown and the couple moved back to Montana to finish a master’s in interpersonal communications at the University of Montana.

In 1977 she was hired at Flathead and put down roots.

“This is a district that has traditionally empowered teachers,” said Brown, who became the English department head in 1990. “We were never a district that believed that curriculum came from a textbook. We were a district that believed that teachers, together, developed curriculum. The textbook became tools to achieve curriculum.”

When Brown talked about why she went into teaching, a wave of emotion slipped through her calm countenance.

“I thought about lots of other careers. I’m going to get emotional here,” Brown said, pushing her glasses up to wipe an eye. “I thought about law. I thought about political consulting. I thought about all kinds of things and something always drew me back to teaching. I can’t tell you how lucky I was to have the opportunity to work day in, day out with these kids. And to have the colleagues I’ve had over the years here at Flathead High. I can’t think of any better place to be.

“And you know the sad part is I don’t know that everybody in life gets to say that.”

Brown prefers to show her gratitude of others over highlighting her own accomplishments and listed off names of colleagues who shaped her early career up to the current Flathead administration team that continues to inspire her.

Flathead Principal Peter Fusaro noted Brown as an inspirational, gifted and dedicated educator not only within the school, but also throughout the community.

“I am a better administrator, educator and person because of Sue Brown,” Fusaro said. “We will most likely never see someone of her caliber again in our lifetime. What we will see is a lifetime of impact on those she touched.”

Flathead International Baccalaureate coordinator and teacher Kelli Higgins submitted a quote on behalf of some English department staff:

“Sue sees strengths in other people that they don’t see in themselves. She helps us become our best selves. Sue is more than just a department leader. She is a mentor, a friend, an advocate. She is passionate about her students and her staff and always places people first. We feel valued and heard.

“The whole school and many in the district rely on Sue’s wise insight and leadership. It would be impossible to overstate the impact that she has had on our school community over that last 40 years. She is a legend, and we will miss her terribly.”

The public is invited to attend a retirement celebration from 2 to 4 p.m. June 10 in the school commons. There will be presentations from colleagues and students and refreshments will be served.

Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.