Junior Wesley Parker sits in his English classroom, doing work and talking quietly with his group. This class differs from other English classes though. It’s Men of Tomorrow, an all-male group designed to teach students both their English curriculum and other skills they will use after their educational career ends.
“It prepares young men for the real world and betters our abilities to be successful men in the future,” Parker said.
Mr. Ashley Brown created and teaches the class. While it follows the curriculum provided by the district, it is aimed toward boys specifically targeting their interests and way of learning through the lessons, projects, and even the reading selection. Mr. Brown aims to make the boys within the program better people and better men when they enter society.
“To be perfectly honest, I’m really fed up with the direction that males are headed in, and I can’t just acknowledge the problem without offering some type of solution,” Mr. Brown said. “Being a high school teacher, [I thought] ‘What better place to be part of the solution?’”
One way they try to achieve this goal is through volunteer work. As a class, the boys decide on what they would like to do as their next volunteer activity. They set up times and dates and as many of the boys as possible show up to help out. Most recently, the boys did bell ringing for the Salvation Army.
“Doing that, we actually got to meet former Texas Rangers Baseball player Michael Choice,” junior Garrett Glover said. “It was really cool. He came two weekends in a row.”
They have also done other projects to help out around the community. Junior Kristopher Gutierrez’s favorite of these projects was Adopt-a-Child, where they raised over $400 to buy gifts for the two boys they adopted, and even gave their leftover money to help out with the Pet Drive the school was having.
“Adopt-a-Child was probably my favorite,” Gutierrez said. “We gave those two kids an awesome Christmas, and it was fun to go shopping for them.”
While the main goal with the club is to better society, the boys join this group for a variety of other reasons. Junior Conor Smith enjoys the more in-depth curriculum and learning skills that carry out of class.
“I thought regular English classes were too easy,” Smith said. “When I saw things about MOT and I saw that it was more than just an English class, it intrigued me.”
Parker has different reasoning. He knew that the program would open him up to new opportunities throughout the course of his life.
“I knew it would help me for the future,” Parker said. “I knew it would would help me be successful later on in life.”
The students in the program truly love being a part of it. They love the the work, and they love the responsibilities that come with it.
“I enjoy it because I see the reasons behind what we do, and [the program] makes me feel like I always have a family no matter where I go in the school,” Parker said.
