A curious junior passes by E269 during Period 3. From the slightest glimpses they get into the classroom, they see not students reading and studying, but doing jumping jacks, cherry pickers, and push-ups. The teacher’s words can vaguely be made out, “In English class, we stretch our bodies, we stretch our minds, we stretch our comfort zones.”
In English class, students are doing PE.
This is the unpredictable, whimsical–and sometimes bemoaned–genius of Scott Facher’s AP Literature classes, which inspires students to embrace creativity, practice silliness, and take risks in their learning. Facher describes it as a “purposeful chaos” where he lets go of the control to see what direction his classes may go in.
Facher teaches AP Literature and English 3 at Gabrielino High School, where he has been teaching for over 22 years. However, that encapsulates only one part of his varied and multifaceted life. Many students have guessed about Facher’s previous career as an actor before he became a teacher, a fact that might be gleaned from the way he teaches.
Equally apparent is Facher’s proud embrace of his home state, New Jersey. Born and raised in Jersey, he was enamored with the stage from an early age.
“My mom was a stay-at-home mom, but when I was in sixth grade she was the musical director for a play at my elementary school. I got a little taste of what it was like to be on stage and I loved it,” Facher reminisced. “What do I want to be when I grew up? I said, ‘I want to be a Broadway actor.’”
Unfortunately, Facher’s “first love” in theatre was left dormant throughout middle and high school. Attending Dartmouth College, he would be cast in a main stage production in his sophomore year, finally returning to the stage. He once again longed to act.
Putting aside his previous focus on sports and music, he would experience multiple “transformative experiences” as he switched his studies to theatre. The first was in the summer of his junior year which he spent with the theater company Shakespeare and Company based in Lenox, Massachusetts.
“They had their resident professional company members who that summer were putting on ‘The Tempest’ with a few sort of guest stars. Keanu Reeves was playing Triculo, and Andrew Gregory was playing Prospero,” Facher explained. “To say it as succinctly as possible, I found my voice that summer.”
So began in earnest Facher’s acting career. After taking an apprenticeship at an acting company in Louisville, Kentucky based on a friend’s advice, Facher would find himself in the bright lights of New York City. He would spend 5 years acting in the city, but despite his full-fledged career as an actor, he was forced to supplement his income by also working part-time as a waiter.
“If you want to be a starving artist, live in New York. If you want to be a star, go to LA,” Facher stated.
When Facher took this advice and moved to Southern California in 1998, he would find not stardom, but a new calling: teaching. Facher’s acting career in Southern California started similarly to his time in New York, taking on odd jobs to supplement his income until he became a long-term substitute teacher for a 3rd-grade class at Wildwood School.
One thing led to another, and Facher soon found himself hired as a performing arts teacher. He continued to teach at Wildwood for 3 years.
“I actually taught PE there for a year but I realized I liked teaching, and I liked working with young people,” commented Facher.
He would go on to get a teaching credential and Master’s degree in English from California State University Los Angeles, definitively deciding to teach at public schools. Facher, however, wouldn’t teach full-time, preferring to keep time open for potential acting jobs.
“I felt like, maybe I could continue to do [teaching and acting], but I think it became clear that it meant I just wasn’t available to do both,” Facher explained. “I guess I sometimes think of myself as the most passionate of reluctant English teachers. I feel like it wasn’t my dream, but my dream got redefined and I realized there was a new dream within the dream.”
The easiest place to spot Facher as an actor today would be in Episode 6, Season 4 of “The West Wing” where he played a minor role as a stage manager, the last role Facher would take on with his agent and before he started at Gabrielino.
So began Facher’s new career, this time as a teacher. His experiences in teaching were just as robust, having a love for language and literature, in both English and Spanish. He had been a TA for the Spanish department at Dartmouth, but it was one particular French professor that inspired him.
“He also had a penchant for performing and he brought that performative part of himself into the classroom. I mean, you know, it was fun and exciting,” Facher explained. “He’d be cracking eggs on his head and ripping a shirt and like doing very sort of crazy stuff.”
Students of his class may see the resemblance, but Facher “hasn’t taken it that far.” Yet. When asked about the “controlled chaos” of his classroom, Facher related a scene from the 1980 movie “Ordinary People” where a character demanded control.
“I feel like one of the sort of traps […] is the rigidity of what is a very controlled environment,” Facher explained. “I think that I made a choice rather early that I’m going to take some risks at the beginning of every school year.”
As for what risks, those remain a surprise for his future students.
As Facher often quotes, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift, that’s why they call it present,” from “Kung-Fu Panda.”
Today, Facher is happy teaching at Gabrielino and has two sons who have just started college. As for tomorrow, he can only guess.
“I mean, ironically, I got this awesome little reward after my first year here in 2002-3, and I then applied for this summer program […] for educators and there were like 20 teachers from all over the county who went to Smith College and it was under the auspicious of Shakespeare and Company,” Facher reflected. “I went back as a teacher and it was this wonderful little thing, a full circle moment where I got to sort of see these 2 passions meet and I was very grateful that I had discovered a new passion for teaching.”
Facher’s theatrics and unique approach to teaching has captivated his students. He will leave a profound impact on his students that goes far beyond the classroom, just as he already has. Every day in Facher’s class is a precious gift to his students.
