Mr. Brack Spotlight Interview

ANNA: How long have you been teaching at Lycée?

MR. BRACK: This is my sixth year at the Lycée, although it is my fifth year as a teacher.

ANNA: What classes do you teach?

MR. BRACK: All three 9th grade classes in English, 10th1 English, 11th1 AP Lang, and 11th grade Philosophy.

ANNA: Did you always know that you were going to teach?

MR. BRACK: No, although I have many teachers in my family: my mom, my grandma, my grandpa, and my uncles were all teachers. But, I didn’t really get into teaching until after I graduated college. It was not really the original plan, but it is something I enjoy.

ANNA: Since you’re both a regular English teacher and an AP Lang teacher, what is your favorite book of all time, fiction and nonfiction? 

MR.BRACK: Nonfiction is easy– that’s Spinoza’s Ethics. I think all of my students know that, especially those who took philosophy. Fiction– I think I’ll have to go with East of Eden by John Steinbeck.

ANNA: I knew that you would say both of those.

MR. BRACK: Yup. It’s on brand.

ANNA: Moving on –do you have any hobbies?

MR. BRACK: Sure. I play guitar, a lot of sports. 

ANNA: Remind me again– are you on any football team?

MR. BRACK: Football as in soccer? Yeah. I’m on this team called the Bisou Boys. We’re reigning champions. 

ANNA: What is the best part about teaching here?

MR. BRACK: Ah. The students. The class sizes, if you want. 

ANNA: Have you always rocked a beard?

MR. BRACK: Pretty much since I was able to. There are moments where I shave it and grow it back. I had a mustache in middle school, a mustache sideburn situation in like 9th and 10th grade, and then by 11th grade, it was beard time.

ANNA: Who is your favorite class and why is it 12th1?

MR. BRACK: Heh heh heh. Well, I don’t have favorites, although I do enjoy students with curiosity.

ANNA: Lila or Lycée?

MR. BRACK: Where am I now?

ANNA: You’re at Lyéee.

MR. BRACK: There’s your answer. 

ANNA: You didn’t answer the question.

MR. BRACK: silence

ANNA: Okay moving on– Kiss marry kill Hobbes Locke Rousseau.

MR. BRACK: Oh Gosh. Let’s see…we have to kill Hobbes just because of the violence. It makes sense.

ANNA: Yeah. We don’t support that. 

MR.BRACK: Marrying Rousseau seems like a big mistake if you’ve ever read the Confessions. So, I’ll kiss Rousseau, and we’ll marry Locke. He’s big on property, on maintaining covenance, that kind of thing. I think it could be a happy marriage. 

ANNA: Okay. Yeah, that sounds healthy. 

ANNA: We all know that you’re a staunch Bob Dylanist. What do you think of Timothée Chalamet portraying him in the new biopic coming out soon and would you do it better?

MR. BRACK: I would not do a better job. I think Timothée Chalamet is gonna do great. I’m excited to see it. And, as a bilingual, English-French spoken actor, I think we should all be supporting Timmy. It should be fun. I’ve read good things about it. 

ANNA: One final question: Descartes, who you are allegedly very familiar with, once said, “Cogito ergo sum.” What language is this and how would you introduce yourself in this language?

MR. BRACK: Uh oh. So, it’s Latin. The original iteration of the phrase was not “cogito ergo sum”, but rather “res cogitans”, which translates to “thinking thing.” In later editions, he wrote it in French, and it was “je pense, je suis”, not having the “donc”, not making it a kind of syllogistic statement. And, then, he later finally used the famous “cogito ergo sum’, which is now, well, on everyone’s uniform. 

ANNA: You didn’t entirely answer the question… but, anyway, thank you for the interview!