Every semester, scores of freshmen and sophomores fill the lecture halls of Cherry Engineering to check off their required core math courses. It is here that many Lamar students encounter an instructor named Gary Brice. To say that Mr. Brice is a popular instructor at Lamar University is an understatement when he is brought up in conversation it is guaranteed that a former student of his will be nearby to offer a sincere, glowing account of the man. The common refrain goes something along the lines of, “I am horrible at math but Brice made it seem possible and I did really well in the class”. Students of his always draw a direct connection between their success with the material and Brice’s teaching method. When asked about why this is, Brice says it is because his approach is different than what many students are used to in a math course.
“I can look at a group of sixty, seventy, even eighty students and see the ones that are hurting, lost, or frustrated,” said Brice, “I measure my approach to the class based on what I see as far as understanding among students goes. If people feel comfortable they learn better and I expect people to succeed”.
I talk with Brice while sitting in his Cherry Engineering office, a small room without an inch of wall space unclaimed by a vintage ad for the fifties or sixties. He has been teaching at Lamar full-time for thirteen years. Originally from Nacogdoches, Brice has been a teacher of some kind for his entire professional career. He taught high school mathematics after graduating with a Masters of Education from Stephen F. Austin University but was eventually called to leave his position to become a pastor. It was his work in the church that brought him to Beaumont, TX, eventually connecting him with Lamar University staff and bringing him back into the world of academia.
“This sounds bizarre but I think I have had more impact for good as a teacher than I have as a formal pastor,” said Brice, “As a pastor people are ready for you, they already know what you are going to say. When you are a regular person people are just looking for kindness, empathy, and understanding. In the academic world, there are many opportunities for that.”
To Brice, the highest responsibility of a teacher is not only to teach the academic material but to also model a positive attitude for students.
“I approach my teaching as trying to bring our discipline back to a realistic perspective. A person can live a good, full, enjoyable, and contributing life without having to solve a quadratic equation. But they cannot live a full life without being able to understand the needs of other people,” said Brice, who involves his students in toy drives and other charity work.
“We are grooming young people to be men and women who are responsible and will be valuable members of society. If I can cause people to see there are ways in which they can touch the world for good and touch other people's lives for good, then I have done my job. This year I handed out Christmas cards and asked my students to give them out to someone who needs them, someone who may be lonely over the Christmas holidays. A few hundred cards were taken, if even a fraction of them were sent out it would really make a change in some people's lives.”
When talking about his philosophy of teaching, Brice asks me to imagine a pond. Each action that we commit in our day to day interactions with others is like a pebble thrown into this pond, sending out ripples across the surface. According to Brice, we have no way of knowing how far the ripples will go or how they will affect the lives of others.
“Any time I think about doing something I think about it in terms of its far-reaching effects whether it is a kind or angry word spoken,” said Brice, “It will have impacts on people and circumstances far beyond my imagination. My first responsibility is to be a human being rather than a math teacher. That does not mean I don't prepare lessons or don’t expect my students to learn. But my first responsibility is to be a human being among other human beings.”
According to Brice, the classroom environment offers many opportunities to make a difference in a student’s life. Especially due to the fact that the subject he teaches is one that many students struggle with.
“There are students who have been faced with failure after failure in mathematics and have been told overtly, or have understood subtly, that they can't cut it in this disciple,” said Brice, “So I like to tell my students, I don't care what you have been through, this is the semester where success is possible.”
But Brice says he was not always as conscientious as he is today, that it was a skill he had to grow within himself.
“In my high school and early college years I tried to blend in with the furniture. I did not want to interact with anybody or talk to anybody. Relationships, in my mind, were painful and to be avoided if possible. I thought it took too much energy to do relationships,” said Brice, “they do take energy, but they are the lifeblood of everything I do and they are what makes getting up in the morning worthwhile. I tell my students that I never hit the snooze button. I am always glad to be getting up because I love what I do. That is what makes me enjoy coming to work every day, it seems to fit with my soul, with who I am.”
This student-focused way of framing his duties as a teacher has succeeded in giving Brice a reputation across campus. One does not have to look far to find a Lamar student who list Brice as the best professor they have encountered in their college career.
“I remember that he offered extra credit once and all you had to do was bring a toy to donate for Christmas,” said Dietetics major Angela Figueroa, “The way he talked about the kids that were receiving the toys was touching and he got emotional. The raw emotion was just so heartwarming. He made me love math.”
Figueroa's remark is the most commonly heard from students about their time in Brice’s class. His method of reaching out to students and making sure they feel seen is congruent with the perception usually attributed to mathematics professors who many students assume are as cold and abstract as the concepts they teach. Brice breaks apart this perception, and in the process opens the minds of students to a subject that many underperform in.
“When I think back over my life I do not think of it in terms of events but in the people who helped to shape it. I was blessed to have two of the most incredible math teachers in my junior high years. These were not gentlemen who simply taught me math but gave me a perspective on how a life can be well lived. I wanted to have an impact on people like they had on me. Everything I do is informed by the desire to have an impact on people,” said Brice, “When the semester is over I hope my students leave the class with the certainty they were appreciated as individuals, not just a seating arrangement. Everyone has different needs, situations, and personalities. They are individually unique and worthwhile. If they can leave knowing that, and a little math under their belt, I will have succeeded.”
