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by Joshua Cox
Section Editor
Again, his dad was gone. Gone on another work trip to some obscure part of a different state. That was life for him. He was well taken care of from the money and love his father sent home, and cherished the moments when they were together, but it wasn’t the same without his dad physically there. So, when he got older, he chose a different path.
“My dad did construction when I was a kid,” said NS shop teacher Brandon Olsen, “ He would take off and he’d go to Ohio for like six months. Or even Florida, for almost a year. It was a dang good paying job, but he was gone all the time. I’m not faulting him for that at all, but I didn’t want to always be away from my kids.”
Olsen thought about it. He really did. As a young college student, he had three things he wanted to do. Stay at Dixie and be a diesel mechanic, or go to college to become a construction manager or a shop teacher.
But, because of the experiences as a kid, he knew that he didn’t want to be away from his family. So, he chose to become a shop teacher.
“Yeah, I could’ve made a heck of a lot more money, like a lot more money,” Olsen said, “and yeah, I’ve only got two kids. But, I like my two kids. I love to see them on a daily basis.”
Even now he is still fulfilling his wish, and the job he has chosen allows him more freedom to be with his family. But there are other benefits to the job, of course. There are always benefits if you’re really good at something.
“Oh yeah, he’s a heck of a good teacher. I learn so much in his class. It’s not even just woodshop, it’s a lot of things,” said junior Ty Fackrell. “He teaches us a lot of problem-solving and crap like that, you also learn how to divide fractions, which is good because we all need it to make anything.”
But it isn’t just what he teaches, it’s the way he teaches.
“He really seems to care about all of his students,” junior Cael Howard said. “Whenever you need help with something, he always tries to make time for you and your projects.”
Olsen likes to say it in a different way.
“One of the reasons I originally wanted to teach is because I’ve never been a person that’s been frustrated by teaching someone to do something,” Olsen. “I’ve just never really been that way. It doesn’t bother me to show my students how to do something.”
He also takes a lot of pride in the subject he teaches.
“I think this is the most important thing that high schoolers can have,” Olsen said. “It doesn’t just teach skills, the goal of this facility is not to get them a job in a small woodshop. It lights a fire within you. Woodshop doesn’t just teach woods, it teaches self-confidence, it teaches critical thinking, it teaches problem solving, math, science, STEM, it teaches all that stuff. And I probably sound biased with it, but I think it’s honestly one of the most important classes you can take.”
This excitement, his passion for the subject that he teaches, might be a reason why the students like him, and frequently come to just talk to him.
“Olsen is a hoot-and-a-half dude, and he knows his job well,” Fackrell said. “He’s really approachable; he’s just like a guy you can go up to and start bull crapping with. There are a lot of teachers that if you walked up to them and wanted to have an adult conversation with, they would refuse. But Olsen talks to you.”
There are lines that shouldn’t be crossed though, and Olsen knows that.
“He definitely isn’t unprofessional though,” Fackrell said. “He has a teacher mode that will kick back in if you’re doing something wrong.”
That “teacher mode” is good for when students are slacking in the wood shop. But, where did this passion come from?
High school.
“I really didn’t care about it until I was in high school,” Olsen said. “When I was a kid, Gunnison had a stellar program, and that really reflects on the teachers that we had. It was kinda weird for a 2A, tiny little rural school, but it was a good program. And, you kind of teach how you’re taught.”
For the high expectations he has for himself, set within the guidelines of his own high school teachers’ performances, students of his tend to think he does very well.
“Olsen as a person and teacher is a really great guy,” Howard said. “He’s really, really nice and very good-natured and he’s helped me so much. I would literally never get anything done if Olsen didn’t help me.”
