Christopher Ishizuka-Wade is an Instructor in the English department, a house counselor in Fuess House, and a coach of Boys JV Basketball. In his free time, Ishizuka-Wade enjoys reading, spending time with his family, playing video games, and playing Dungeons & Dragons.
What was it like to return to Andover as a teacher?
Growing up, I had never heard of boarding school. I grew up in Maine, and I had a really good public school education, but I remember coming here to visit because I was connected to the school through soccer. There was a coach at the time, Bill Scott, who was also a teacher here, and he invited me to campus to check it out. I remember coming down and thinking, “What the heck is this place?” What I really appreciated in all my classes was the faith that my teachers had in me, my ideas, and my ability to learn and think. That is the type of thing I am hoping to continue as an instructor [and] cultivate with my students.
How does coaching soccer differ from teaching in the classroom?
I have had soccer described to me at some point by a former coach as a series of problems to solve. When someone passes you the ball, there are all sorts of things to think about, like checking your shoulder to see who is behind you, if there is a defender, what the correct ball to play is, or how to position yourself defensively. Ultimately, coaching is about knowing your players really well and supporting them in the ways in which they are going to best be set up for success, and also appreciating the different things they can offer a team on and off the field. I think that it is similar to teaching in this way: thinking about all the different personalities in the room and the ways in which students are approaching or interpreting a text.
How would you describe your teaching philosophy?
I majored in English in college. I’ve always really enjoyed reading. I remember that in elementary school, the best day of the school year was the Scholastic Book Fair. I would look forward to that for weeks… There’s a quote from Marcel Proust where Proust talks about how writing is an optical instrument through which the reader can read themselves. In other words, you’re reading the book, and the writing is there to help you interpret yourself. I hope kids get out of reading that it’s not just about trying to find some hidden meaning where you find the metaphor and unlock the box of the poem and then confetti shoots out. It’s about being able to see yourself in it, even if you may not fully understand it.
If you could instantly acquire a new skill, what would it be?
Playing the drums. I have played music over the course of my life, but not well. When you watch a drummer, there is just nothing like it. I wish I could gain the skill of being able to split my brain into the different abilities required to do all the different parts of the drum at the same time, and do odd time signatures. That would be really cool, but I definitely don’t have that ability.
What do you enjoy most about being a house counselor at Andover?
Working at a boarding school, it is amazing how lifelong friendships can happen right under your nose. [Scott] Hoenig, [Instructor in the Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science,] does an awesome exercise where he says in an opening dorm meeting, “Look around; you are going to see someone in this dorm right now who is going to be your best friend or a lifelong friend.” Everyone kind of shrugs their shoulders at first, but by the end of the year, everyone looks around and realizes it is true. Something really special happens in the dorm. It is cool to be a part of it.
What do you like best about teaching in the English department?
One of the most awesome things about being here is that there is so much autonomy in terms of what teachers choose to teach. I love how collaborative the department is. In the English department, we don’t have individual classrooms or offices, we just have a communal lounge. It has been the best professional development of my career, walking into that lounge every day and seeing people who are masters of the craft doing amazing things. The collaborativeness and how game people are to just keep reading and learning is endlessly exciting.
If you could design a dream elective for the English department, what would it be?
Right now I am thinking a lot about time: our relationship to it, why it exists, and how we experience it. Those are huge existential questions I have no idea how to answer, but I would love to do something with novels that have elements of time travel or do things with time that are unexpected in terms of the narrative form.
What is one piece of advice you would give to students?
Go on walks. I have never had a good answer to the “advice” question, but all the best ideas I have had, and all the times I have really needed to reset my brain or get out of the dorm or office, I have gone on a walk. If I had started taking walks earlier in my life, I think I would have had a much better time.
Is there a misconception about English or writing that you wish more students would let go of?
I inherited the idea that English is about finding the hidden meaning and understanding what the author intended. A lot of my favorite books and poems I don’t fully understand, but they make me think. A lot of the time, when an English teacher asks, “What do you think?” it is not because they are trying to guide the student to a particular answer. Generally, I don’t know the answer, and hearing other people’s cool and unexpected answers is the best part of the job. The pressure to find a “hidden meaning” is a misconception. However you approach meaning-making is good enough.
When students look back on your class years from now, what do you hope they remember?
That it didn’t suck. I hope the class felt new every day in some way, whether it was sitting in a new seat, thinking about the text in a new way, or thinking about their peers and their work in a new way. I am super introverted, and I struggled in classes that were purely discussion-based because I felt too intimidated to say something. I try to come up with lessons that vary in structure so it feels like you’re coming into class not knowing exactly what is going to happen. I hope that is a fun experience.
