Clarke Central High School math department teacher Dr. Elijah Swift works out a math problem for his algebra class. Swift showed an interest in teaching and math from a young age. “I have always enjoyed helping students learn math and in school I always found myself trying to explain how to do math,” Swift said. Photo by Julie Alpaugh.
Update: The ODYSSEY Media Group will provide viewers with weekly stylized profiles that center on people in the Athens community telling their own stories.
By JULIE ALPAUGH – Senior Visuals Coordinator
Clarke Central High School math department teacher Dr. Elijah Swift has found himself taking the role of teacher his whole life.
Swift has always been a teacher. When he was young, he would make his older siblings and others kids from the neighborhood listen to him as he wrote on his mom’s old chalkboard.
“OK. I am going to teach y’all today. Here we go, boys and girls,” he would say, mimicking his school teachers.
In class, he was drawn to helping fellow students. If a peer was struggling with a math problem, he was by his or her side.
He attended school at Auburn University at Montgomery and studied math education, knowing he wanted to be a teacher. He was told by others he could make more money in engineering, but he turned his head. He wanted to make a difference and for him, that meant seeing the impact he could make on students’ lives.
“The idea, in the end, is to motivate them to want to learn, and be successful, not just in the math classroom, but in life in general,” Swift said.
While teaching, he continued to further his education and earned his doctorate. His work has moved him around the country, from teaching at his home high school in Selma, Alabama to working as a math professor in Arizona.
Throughout his life of teaching, music has been essential. He has played the piano from a young age and later began composing music and even teaching music lessons.
He brings a lively spirit into the classroom and community. In class, he claps his hands and sings chants for students join in.
He believes “music breaks that barrier between the anxieties many students have when it comes to math.”
In the future, he has hopes to build his own school where he can teach fundamental skills lost in the current education standards.
