What’s your name and what do you teach? Troy Anderson Bennett, I teach Social Studies, largely U.S. History.
If you could go back to any decade, which one would it be? That’s a really tough question for a history teacher. In some ways it would be nice to start all over, I was born in 1964 so a do-over on my entire life would be interesting. I would really like to be around the Revolutionary War time, I thought that would be really really cool, but like I said, as a history teacher, I’d like to see Napoleon, Genghis Khan, Einstein, the discoveries and the scientists would be really cool to see. I don’t know if I could really choose one, I think the modern conveniences are really nice but in some ways maybe life would be simpler if I was raised in [Ancient] Egypt. So I guess my answer is a non-answer.
What’s a lesson you think everyone should learn/experience? Well, as a high school teacher, I would have to say courage. It would be really nice if my students could somehow gain a sense of courage, and on top of that, resiliency. In other words, I want them to have courage and stand up in front of people and give me their ideas and explain themselves, even if they do it poorly.
What is the most interesting thing a student has done in class? I had a kid, years ago, come into my class. He was not one of my students and it was during passing period, but he very politely said ‘Could I just take 30 seconds of your class time?’ And I looked at him and he was very respectable and nice. I said ‘“sure,’” and he goes over to a girl in the class and pulled out a piece of paper, reads a poem on the paper and asks her to homecoming, and the response was really weird because the guys were like ‘Uhh what an idiot’, and all the girls were like, ‘Awww,’ and they all melted. She said yes and the guy was like ‘Man I can’t believe that worked’, and just thought it was courage that made him successful. It was just a really cool little thing.
Who is your favorite historical figure and why? I really like Teddy Roosevelt. I liked his idea of a strenuous life. He just kind of embraced a huge amount of difficulties, and he was good at overcoming them. He played a lot of games which I thought was kind of fun. I have, in my office and at home, 3 pictures; I’ve got Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln. Those are probably my 3 favorite presidents and I think they were pretty incredible people.
If you could have a free day to do whatever you wanted, what would you do? It turns to proximity. If it were here, I’d probably go walk around Lake Geneva. It’s really beautiful up there, especially in the Fall. If I could go anywhere, I’d probably be hiking in the woods someplace or up some mountain, that’s kind of my retirement plan. I’m not much of a lay on the beach type of person, so some adventure. There’d probably be some sports involved somewhere, I used to do a lot of sports.
What’s your biggest fear? Losing my voice. But when I say that it’s more along the lines of becoming obsolete. This is my last year of teaching, I will no longer have a voice to talk to students and teach, and no one will care about my opinions and views anymore. That’s gonna be a little surreal.
What’s your biggest pet peeve? Students’ phones. I know that sounds ‘great’ but students’ phones and excuses, which I get a lot. If you have any idea of how many people turn in their outlines late and give me a sob story… and it’s gotten worse since the pandemic. I could show you 10 emails right now of kids who wanted an extension on their outline.
What’s something you miss from the past? I had a dog when I was growing up, and I miss the dog. My mom passed away 4-5 years ago, it’d be nice to have her back. Family’s kind of always a given. My health as well. I used to be stronger and played a lot of sports and I can not do it the way I used to, and that’s a little frustrating.
If you could have dinner with anyone, alive or dead, who would it be? What would you talk about? [Jesus] Christ. Probably more of a religious sense than anything else, if he was the son of God why wouldn’t I want to talk to him. I’d talk about eternities, in other words, is there life after death, if so, what does it look like? It’s weird because he would be my first choice. I’d have a bunch of others. Einstein, Teddy Roosevelt, Napoleon, Genghis Khan, all the people that I would really like to sit down and have a conversation with. Introspective people, discoverers would be interesting as long as they weren’t creepy.
If you were given 3 wishes, what would you wish for? Give me back my youth, give me back my mom, and provide happiness for my kids.
