Mr. Striz

Welcome! You've found my page which means you're either a student, parent of a student, or you're in the middle of an incredible journey through the world wide webs that unlocked this very special door. In any case, you're exactly where the universe wants you to be. You are loved. You are valuable. Prepare yourself to be included in a life changing educational experience. Or, to simply do some school work because someone, somewhere is telling you that you have to. Either way, hopefully you pick some stuff up that will help you as your life's journey continues.

 

A bit about me. I am not only a teacher at MHS, but a graduate myself (co. 1996). I have three grown children who also graduated from Melvindale. My hobbies include, reading, movies, comic books and I knock around on the piano a bit. I have a BA in History from the University of Michigan and a Master's in Bilingual/Bicultural Education from Wayne State University. Prior to becoming a teacher I spent 10 years in the automotive industry as an engineer.

 

Below are two quotes that illustrate my teaching philosophy.

 

"Now the training of men is a difficult and intricate task. Its technique is a matter for educational experts, but its object is for the vision of seers. If we make money the object of man-training, we shall develop money-makers but not necessarily men; if we make technical skill the object of education, we may possess artisans but not, in nature, men. Men we shall have only as we make manhood the object of the work of the schools–intelligence, broad sympathy, knowledge of the world that was and is, and of the relation of men to it–this is the curriculum of that Higher Education which must underlie true life. On this foundation we may build bread winning, skill of hand and quickness of brain, with never a fear lest the child and man mistake the means of living for the object of life." - W.E.B. Dubois, The Talented Tenth, 1903

 

"...survival is not an academic skill. It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths. For the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change." - Audre Lorde, 1979