Gaylor’s golden year

 The 2018-2019 schoolyear marks the 50th year of Harry Gaylor’s time teaching. Gaylor has been at Central for 36 years, prior to his career here, he taught at Tech High School. After Tech closed, he was the first teacher placed at another school and there were many students from Tech being transferred to Central. “My favorite part about teaching at Central specifically has been the demographics and the honor, privilege and pleasure to work with some of the city’s best students,” remarks Gaylor, “I like to work with students that face great challenges in their everyday lives and to inspire students to succeed. Students motivate me to keep teaching.” 

Since he began teaching, Gaylor has noted improvements that have been made and that he believes should be made. He believes that by requiring Central students to take an economics class, the school is ahead of other public schools. In some areas, Gaylor believes that the school has become more lenient… when he first started teaching at Central, early out was only available for ninth hour for students with a very particular set of classes. While discussing the importance of economic education in schools, Gaylor states, “All students should have a course that teaches them how they contribute to the economic system and how they will fit into the system after they leave high school.” 

Because of his many years of experience in public education, Gaylor has advice for newer teachers. As a teacher, it is important to be motivated and to motivate students, each student can be reached if they have a teacher that tries to reach them. A good teacher is made with communication, ability to connect with a variety of students and having goals. Although a teacher may feel alone, Gaylor advises new teachers to look at their jobs as a team effort. Gaylor says, “All teachers start somewhere, asking for help can make the job a little easier. There are other teachers in your department who are teaching similar curriculum and working together can be greatly beneficial.” 

Gaylor has also observed student life during his time teaching high school students. Once students begin to get competitive with their grades, they begin losing sight of their interests. Gaylor thinks that students should take classes based on interests and what skills are developed from classes, rather than playing the GPA game. He concludes that, “Not enough students take time out of their lives to go to high school while they are in high school. They don’t realize that once they leave, they can’t come back to make memories.” 

Gaylor strongly supports the idea of not only teaching the curriculum, but also teaching skills in school. His opinion on the career center is that it is a positive attribute to the school’s course options. According to him, students should first consider whether their desired career requires college. He believes that at least one course a student takes should qualify him or her with some sort of skill. “High school education should focus on preparing students for what’s next, even if what’s next isn’t college,” says Gaylor, “There are lots of kids that don’t have anyone pushing them, we need to encourage students to succeed. Even if success for that student isn’t dependent on a college education.” 

After 50 years of teaching, Gaylor has experienced many different things in the school environment. Because of his connections in DECA and marketing, he has been able to work with many different students and he has been able to see what it is like to compete with different schools citywide, statewide, and even nationwide. He has met many different students, teachers, and faculty members with different perspectives on education. Gaylor shares his individual perspective claiming, “Education boils down to three questions: what do you know, what can you do and what is your attitude? When we start measuring these things, we will increase/improve our value of education.”