Andrew McGregor is imagining change in the education space. After taking a trip to India, it was through seeing poverty alleviation framed not as simply buildings and bridges but as care for the individuals in the system. He saw the ways, specifically, education was changing lives and career arcs. Thus, a career pivot ensued and McGregor pursued teaching. Today, he works at Da Vinci Science teaching both Precalculus and Civil Engineering + Architecture. In this episode of the CFWLA Podcast, McGregor chronicles his roundabout career journey, speaks to the impact educators can have through their work, and shares about ways he’s seeking to serve his fellow educators and students.
ANDREW BIO
Andrew McGregor teaches both Precalculus and Civil Engineering + Architecture at Da Vinci Science in Los Angeles. He challenges students to create processes for solving, make connections between various representations, and understand how the mathematics is operating at a conceptual level. His hope for all his students is that they would learn to think well. In addition to mathematics he enjoys working with his hands (Civil Engineering) as well as tossing the frisbee during his seminar. Living only a couple blocks from campus, you might often see Mr. McGregor biking back home to his wonderful wife Diana, his two children, Daniel and Alina, and his Labrador Teddy.
On Navigating Student Development as a Teacher: (10:33-11:16)
“Right now a traditional notion of public education is standard-based and rat-race to get your kids in school at an earlier age to get into these schools and have this pathway. It’s actually a really narrow vision of what education is: a road to a certain place or dumping a bunch of content into a student’s head and having them regurgitate it. It’s not what do I want them know but who do I want them to be.
On Finding Identity in Changing Lives as an Educator: (23:10-23:28)
“There’s a human danger in just finding too much value in being a teacher and ‘making a difference,’ and that should not drive what we’re doing.”
On Loving Your Neighbor at Work: (29:10-29:43)
“It’s more important to be kind sometimes than to be right. Especially on a staff with a lot of people with strong convictions, myself included, and learning to compromise on some things for the benefit of the team to show I care about the person more than I care about the decision.”