Revamping English curriculum

Brad Flis has no problem making a dry subject juicy. His socially-aware English classes encourage students to be perceptive of the world around them.

Intense and highly debatable issues like the Colin Kaepernick and Nike controversy, the #MeToo movement and the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh are some recent real-life events Flis explored during his lessons.

“What I then like to do with my textbooks is try to find ways of addressing issues of gender or race, racism and sexism through these longer historical lenses,” Flis said. “If we just turn our attention to the past and think about a longer history of such issues, I feel people are more interested in them and don’t feel the need to take an immediate side. We are simply just studying the past.”

Flis has taught at Southwestern College for five years and said he did not plan on becoming a teacher but gradually grew to love the job. He realized it allowed people to connect and learn about themselves and the world around them.

“There is just a lot of pleasure in talking to people in a classroom,” Flis said. “I love the classroom as a space to think about writing, the world, talk about each other.”

Flis has taught at SWC since 2012, when he moved to San Diego from Detroit. He said students are more likely to speak, learn and be more involved in the classroom when they can relate to the weekly news.

“It didn’t take too long to realize that English is kind of a dry subject if it is just like ‘let’s pick up a textbook about grammar or rhetoric,’” Flis said. “It’s interesting, but also it feels too formal and dry.”

For Flis, the subject matter is less important than teaching students to think about themselves in the world and utilize elements of writing and argument to further their understanding and articulation of themselves.

Andrea Rodriguez, a psychology major, said Flis’s class is different.

“He definitely challenges our perception of gender and feminism, other cultures, our interaction with one another,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez also said she was appreciative of how Flis includes social and political issues that affect her and the people around her.

Gracie Camacho, a physical therapy major, said she was not expecting Flis to be so open and comfortable with his teaching when she first took the class. As a 29 year-old veteran, Camacho found it interesting to learn about social issues.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been involved with like ‘normal news,” Camacho said. “I was in the military so my news is very different then from what civilians get. It was very cool being in his class and seeing what the majority of the people around here had opinions about the current issues going on.”

Flis said he does not consider his class unique or special.

“Other than it being a source of interest, I think that as a teacher you got a responsibility to educate your students about the world that their entering as young adults beginning a career,” he said. “For me, trying to address these larger structural problems that we face everyday like racism or sexism, income inequality and homophobia, things like this, we’re aware that they exist and they should be talked about.”