Under the Monocle: The Monocle Monologues bring teachers together

The Monocle Monologues is an event organized by Mr. Johnson that was held in A294 on Friday the 20th. The purpose of this event is to bring teachers together, so they can share their personal interests and passions that they normally may not get the chance to mention while working at York.

“It was just an idea to feature staff members and their different passions and things that they care about, so we could get to know each other outside what we teach.” said Matthew Johnson. “The goal is to bring the staff together more and strengthen our community, maybe to start some relationships within our staff members, to get to know each other in different ways.”

Teachers at York usually don’t get to be open about their own interests due to the nature of their jobs as teachers, so these meetings give them the opportunity to let others learn more about them as a person since they otherwise might not have the time to. It creates a stronger bond between staff and allows them to know each other on deeper levels. Although the Monocle Monologues were originally meant for specifically teachers to spread their passions, Mr. Johnson and others are hoping to make this become a tradition for not only teachers but students as well. 

“Ideally, there would be some transformation of this to a student version at the school, where students could talk about something they’re passionate about,”  Johnson said. “The goal next year would be to do this once a quarter. Maybe even three times a year.”

 Other teachers agree that this program is beneficial to both understanding one another and teaching them about new perspectives. The program will hopefully grow the bonds of the teachers in the future.

“I’m very interested now in both topics,” An audience member said. “I didn’t really know about either of them before, so having them presented to me definitely piqued my interest and made me want to know more. I think that they’re very interesting, and I think it’s really cool that other people have these passions, even though it’s not necessarily my area of interest.”