Tom Brownell This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. fresnobee.com | Lifestyle

   www.fresnobee.com/lifestyle/st - [Cached]

   Published on: 5/6/2002   Last Visited: 5/6/2002

   MARIPOSA -- Tom Brownell comes to work with a song in his heart. So it's no surprise that students at Spring Hill High School have fallen under the spell of this inspirational music man.
   
   Every day at 8:45 a.m., Spring Hill's teachers and 54 students begin their day by raising the American flag.
   
   As Old Glory is run up the flagpole, Principal Brownell sings "The Star Spangled Banner" or another patriotic song.
   
   ...
   Before Brownell, 55, came to Spring Hill last fall, the administration always played a tape of the national anthem to open each school day.
   
   ...
   All that changed when Brownell moved over from Mariposa County High School, where he had been vice principal for seven years.
   
   "Live music is so much better than canned music," says Brownell. "What they had here before sounded like an old Thomas Edison phonograph."
   
   With the encouragement of other faculty members who had heard him sing the anthem at Mariposa County High football games, Brownell became a singing principal.
   
   Spring Hill High School offers an alternative learning environment for students who do better in a small school setting. Brownell encourages positive teacher-student relationships as a way of helping students reach their potential.
   
   Brownell says teachers who lead by example have the greatest impact, which is one reason he never tires of singing for the students each morning.
   
   "We don't pressure the kids to be patriotic," he says. "Our staff models appropriate behavior."
   
   At the top of Brownell's list of qualities to model is being interested in the lives of young people.
   
   "The thing about Tom is that he's a really great guy," says Waylon Coats, a 17-year-old junior.
   ...
   Brownell encourages Spring Hill students to call him by his first name. In many respects, he says, the school is like a family with him as the father figure. Before school starts every morning, he usually can be found in the gym playing volleyball or basketball with students.
   
   ...
   "Sometimes I feel like a dad with 60 kids," says Brownell.
   
   Although teen-agers don't always think it's "cool" to sing "The Star Spangled Banner," Brownell's irrepressible spirit has rubbed off on many at Spring Hill.
   
   ...
   Brownell has never had any formal music training, but has been singing for as long as he can remember. The first time he sang in public was at a Christmas program when he was in third grade.
   
   He was active in choral music programs as a junior high and high school student but stopped singing when he left home to major in education at the University of Central Oklahoma.
   
   "I didn't do any singing for 15 years," he says. "Then I started singing at weddings and got involved in community theater."
   
   Brownell taught special education classes in Denver and worked as an educational consultant before moving to California. He was vice principal and a teacher at the Hanford adult school prior to joining the Mariposa County School District eight years ago.
   
   Brownell's wife, Mary, who is principal at Lake Don Pedro Elementary School in La Grange, remembers well the first time she heard her husband sing.
   
   "It was at our wedding in Denver," she says.
   
   "I knew he sang for others, but I had no idea he sang that well. When he told me he wanted to sing at our wedding I said, 'Fine, just don't expect me to do the same.'
   
   "I was standing beside my dad at the wedding when Tom sang."
   
   He sang, "In a Simple Way I Love You." Says his wife, "It was an emotional moment."
   
   She adds that it's a blessing to be married to a man who loves music.
   
   "Tom doesn't walk around the house singing all the time, But it's wonderful to have music in your home because your children grow up to be singers."
   
   Tom Brownell says singing opens up the heart.
   
   "When I was growing up in Oklahoma City, I used to sing softly to myself while I was delivering newspapers.
   
   "You just can't stay in a bad mood when you're singing."
   
   Hearing Brownell sing a patriotic song before school each morning also has opened the hearts of Spring Hill students, especially since the events of Sept. 11.