Two professionals leave their careers to become middle school
teachers
By Paul A. Barra
GREENVILLE — This is the story of two men who changed horses in
mid-stream. Not only that, but they switched to a nag that most
others shy away from.
Joel S. Brandon and Jay Tierney left 20-year professional careers to
become middle school teachers. Both enrolled in a one-year graduate
program at Clemson University and both interned at St. Joseph’s
Catholic School. They heard the horror stories about teaching in grades
sixth through eighth, when hormones are raging and kids are caught
between childhood and adolescence. They heard middle school called a
wasteland, the weak link between elementary school and high school.
They chose to teach those students because, they said, it is an
occasion to have a positive impact on developing personae.
“It’s a dynamic age to teach, but I cannot deny that I had some
misgivings. It was a dramatic change,” said Brandon, a former lawyer in
private practice. “But my experience here at a Catholic school
reinforced my confidence in that decision.”
Brandon is a Methodist who has a son, Dylan, in a public middle school.
For the attorney, the change was both in careers and in experiencing a
different faith environment, and that made Dylan intensely curious.
“Every day, my son asks what we did in school today. I tell him we sat
around praying in black robes,” Brandon said jokingly.
Tierney is a Catholic convert who was an executive in textiles,
reaching the level of vice-president of a multi-million dollar company.
Then the industry changed, and he started traveling more. He decided he
didn’t want to leave his young family so much, so he turned to local
sales. Tierney was selling Land Rovers when a convergence of factors
led him straight to the classroom door.
“One day, I asked myself: ‘Am I doing anything with my life that even
remotely resembles what God wants me to do?’ I was always teaching in
sales and marketing anyway, so I began to think about teaching as a
career,” Tierney said.
Some months after that, an ad appeared in The Miscellany about the new
middle school at St. Joseph. A relative and a friend both clipped the
ad and sent it to Tierney. He went to the school with his bachelor’s
degree in English from Brown and inquired about a teaching position.
The headmaster told him that 30 years out of college was too long
without some refresher training. Clemson was just beginning a new
program to train middle school teachers. He enrolled and interned at
SJCS. One year later, Tierney had a master’s degree and a certificate
in middle school education.
At that exact time, the middle school at SJCS was expanding, and there
was an opening in Tierney’s specialty. He got the job and still can’t
believe his luck.
“It was bizarre serendipity, all these things coming together like
that,” Tierney said. “It had to be some kind of divine plan.”
Brandon, who finished up his teaching practicum at SJCS in November, is
in the same program as Tierney. The businessman and the lawyer were
both among the oldest students in the first and second classes the
program has offered, respectively. Brandon found that his months
working in a Catholic school have had an impact on his life out of the
classroom.
“I go to church more now. The Catholic religion is a vital component of
this school. They make it so that you live your faith every day, all
day. I even bought a catechism,” Brandon said.
He said that teaching in a Catholic school was a positive influence on
his Protestantism.
“And I don’t mean it as a cross-cultural experience, either. Working
here has deepened my faith,” he said.
Tierney’s Catholicism has been a major part of his life for years. By
changing horses, he said, he has found his purpose in life.
“I know now that I’m doing exactly what I want to do and what God wants
me to do,” Tierney said.
Published Jan. 13, 2005
The Catholic Miscellany