Henrico's Top Teachers – Malik Brown, Wilder Middle School, physical education

Home in Henrico from college one summer, Malik Brown decided that he needed to make more money than he might earn through a retail job. So on a whim, he signed up to be an instructor in the Henrico Summer Blast program for kids through the county’s Recreation and Parks division. Almost instantly, his future became clear.

“It was the most amazing, life-changing experience,” Brown recalled of working with elementary school children. “It wasn’t even as structured as school is, but just being around them, guiding them, teaching them, it just felt so natural and so right that I went to school that fall semester and was like, ‘I’m ready to declare my major.’

After graduating from UVa.-Wise, Brown returned to Henrico (where he had completed all 13 years of his childhood education, at Highland Springs Elementary, Fairfield Middle and Highland Springs High) and accepted a job as a physical education teacher at Wilder Middle School. He’s been there ever since and has no plans to go anywhere else.

For Brown, growing up in Eastern Henrico as the child of a mother who died from gun violence and a father who wasn’t able to care for him, Brown remembers difficult times in foster care before finally his grandmother took custody of him and raised him herself. He knows that other children in the region may be struggling with similar challenges away from school, and he’s ready to help.

“If you’ve never taught in the East End of Henrico, it’s a lot of misunderstanding of our kids,” Brown said. “I didn’t have to go through that. It just was like second nature, I knew them, I understood them, a lot of the things that they think they’re the only ones going through, I’ve gone through myself. . . It doesn’t faze me.”

For Brown, school often was a chance to leave the challenges of his life behind for awhile. He’s determined to help any Wilder students who may be dealing with the same type of situation.

“I know a lot of the times when I came to school, that was my big stress reliever,” Brown said. “The friendships I made with teachers, I just had such positive experiences and I want to give that to the kids here. A lot of times, they just want to talk. A lot of times, they just want to be heard.”

Brown views his role as part P.E. teacher, part counselor – and “that’s an understatement,” he said.

He works to ensure that every student in his class – even those who may not be athletically inclined or who say they don’t want to run or play sports – is trying his or her hardest. When they do, he said, most have fun even if they might claim otherwise.

Brown himself is proof that the attention of teachers and coaches can make a difference. He didn’t begin playing sports until late in his career at Fairfield Middle School, after friends noticed his athletic abilities and prodded him. He was a blank athletic canvas at the time. He tried baseball but couldn’t hit, so he moved on to wrestling and quickly became dominant in middle school. Then he tried football with the fledgling East End Tigers organization.

“I didn’t know ins and outs of the sport, but one thing the coach said was, ‘Put your hand in the dirt and go hit whoever has the football,’” Brown recalled with a chuckle. “And I did that very well.”

He ended up playing varsity football at Highland Springs High School, where he also wrestled briefly and played two years of tennis. His favorite sport to play might be volleyball, which he didn’t pick up until college.

“I cannot believe I picked up volleyball at 5 foot 7 as quickly as I did,” he said. “It was so fun, it was constant movement, it was a chess match between me and other players.”

Now, Brown works to instill that open-minded attitude in his students, some of whom may develop a love for a sport or activity they never would have considered.

And though teaching middle-schoolers may not be without its frustrations and high levels of stress at times, he can’t imagine himself anywhere else.

“As hard as it is, I always come back to it,” Brown said. “What other job is there where every single day is something different? This is the best job in the world, and no one can tell me different.”