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2008: Brain POP Science Citation

A Teacher Who's also a Student
Physics instructor David Deutsch never stops learning

In mid-year, David Deutsch left his first teaching position as an 8th grade earth science teacher in the Bronx.

“Both the system and I could have done a better job,” he said.

Yet failure, as any wise teacher knows, is opportunity. And setbacks, at least in Deutsch’s case, have only fed his determination to succeed.

Eighteen years later, he is a highly regarded high school physics teacher at Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics, in East Harlem.

“I’ve never considered myself a really gifted teacher,” he said, “but figured I could make up for it with lots of time, by bone-headedly pounding away at it.”

For Deutsch, that has meant pursuing summer enrichment opportunities, of which, he explained, there are many, especially for science teachers. He has assisted in research on red quasars at Columbia University, received training in robotics and applications at Polytechnic in Brooklyn and attended seminars in math-science integration at Wesleyan University.

Colleague Paul Winston calls Deutsch “tireless, devoted” to his craft.

“His passing rates are routinely above 80 percent, and at times, as high as 90 percent on the physics Regents Exam, one of the most challenging exams there is,” Winston said.

“In physics, I have a good subject,” said Deutsch, who graduated from Cornell University and got started in the Teach for America Program.

He considers himself “sort of a traditional teacher” who believes the curriculum is out there for a reason.
“The things we try to teach in high school probably are the things we want students to know if we aim it right,” he said.

That means if kids are bored, he’ll adjust.

“When you’re going too fast or too slow,” Deutsch said, “kids will drop off.”

Within the construct of the Regents curriculum, he makes the labs as interesting as he can. The one he designed about hydrogen spectrum lines succeeded in “not underestimating what they can do, while not throwing things at them so quickly they can’t absorb it.”

Five years ago, Deutsch applied to NASA’s Educator Astronaut Program (formerly called Teacher in Space). Instead of doing it on the side, he opened the process up to his students, keeping them posted on his progress. He had to collect letters of recommendation from them, an exercise he found valuable and illuminating, given that he writes so many letters of recommendation for them each year. His application allowed him to visit the Johnson, Goddard and Kennedy space centers.

“We have some amazing space facilities,” he said. “I wish everyone could see what I’ve seen.”
Although Deutsch did not make the final cut, he became part of the Network of Educator Astronaut Teachers and was invited to space shuttle launches in 2006 and 2007. Most of all, he embodied for his students his “never give up” philosophy.

“Regardless of whether you get in,” he said. “Why not apply? Fascinating doors can be opened.”

— Lydie Raschka