Students have likely run into Mr. Cooksey as he pushes his cart from classroom to classroom in between class periods. Chances are he is on his way to teach Film Studies, the class that he teaches this year. However, throughout his twelve years here at Atherton he has also taught classes such as English, Theory of Knowledge, and Philosophy.
It wasn’t until his junior year of college that Mr. Cooksey knew he wanted to become a
teacher.
“I remember asking myself, more or less, ‘What is something I could do with my life that wouldn’t require me to leave a lot of myself behind, particularly those things I love, and that would allow me to do some good for others?’ Almost instantly, to the point that it felt like an epiphany, teaching came to my mind,” Cooksey says.
Ironically, his goal when he first started college was to avoid teaching. Both of his parents had been teachers, and at the time he wanted to “break the mold”. Now, he is very glad that he chose to follow his parents’ footsteps.
Cooksey began teaching in 1997 at Seneca High School, which is just a short drive from Atherton. While he loved both the students and teachers at Seneca, after fourteen and a half years there he needed a change. In 2011 he happily transferred to Atherton.
“Atherton’s administration at that time had a reputation for valuing and protecting teachers’ professional judgment, which, along with the school’s reputation for great students and teachers, made it an appealing place to go,” he says.
Not only does Mr. Cooksey love teaching, he also loves learning more about all the subjects he has and continues to teach. He hopes he can share this love with all of his students, and that his students will continue loving those subjects even after they finish taking his class.
When asked if he wanted anything else to be included about him in this article, Mr. Cooksey only had one thing to say: “I haven’t always been balding. I used to have better hair than what you see now.”
