Davis settles to teach after years in engineering, business

In his first year of teaching, physics teacher Kirk Davis watches with apprehension as a student demonstrates a project, a homemade Rubens’ tube (which uses flammable gas.) Minutes later, Davis rushes every student out of his room—the contraption had caught fire.

“[It] almost burned the building down,” Davis jokes. In reality, it did not even set off the smoke system and presented no serious hazard for the building.

Now in his fifth year as a teacher and tackling AP Physics in addition to the regular course, Davis blames this early episode on his inexperience.

“My first year, I knew absolutely nothing,” Davis said.

However, although he could boast of nearly no classroom experience, Davis had plenty of knowledge about industries in the real world.

“I always try to relate [concepts] to what’s going on out there,” Davis said, “so you can translate what you’re learning on paper into how it’s used in the real world.”

Davis had worked in chemical engineering for three years and in health care for roughly 20. As an engineer, Davis helped a now defunct company with projects such as designing a corn ethanol plant during the energy crisis of the late ‘70s.

However, he found himself “more interested in the business side of things.” He attended business school and found work one summer in the health care industry.

“I was enthralled. There was no business cycle really,” Davis said. “You’re doing good stuff. You help people. Nice profit margins.”

Thus, after graduating in 1984 from business school, Davis spent two decades in health care, working in sales, marketing and general management. But he grew dissatisfied when, in his later years, he began to deal with “a very political environment” and “a lot of really big egos.”
Then, after settling down in the Bay Area with his wife, Davis started to consider teaching.

“Each of [my three children] had a crummy math or science teacher at some point, and it put them off of science and math,” Davis said. “I thought that was a shame, so I felt there was a need for more math and science teachers.”

Though he had not dealt with academic subjects for many years, Davis was willing to give “this teaching thing a bit of a try.” He volunteered at the tutorial center at Saratoga High and tried substituting, which he enjoyed.

Soon afterwards, the then-assistant principal Gail Wasserman informed Davis that the school needed an additional physics teacher.

“Wow, physics. I hadn’t looked at a physics book in 30 years,” Davis said. “Didn’t really recall enjoying it either. But [I thought,] ‘Yeah OK, I’ll give it a try.’”

In his first year, he taught an introduction to business course in addition to physics at Saratoga. He also attended Jenny Garcia’s physics class “probably 75 percent of the time.”

“I was really fortunate [to have] a planning period when Mrs. Garcia was teaching,” Davis said. “It was nice to get the explanations, but it was more just how she taught. I didn’t know anything about teaching.”

According to Davis, at the end of the year, if he “missed a class, the kids would say ‘Where’s Mr. Davis, did you mark him absent?’”

Davis then decided to obtain a teaching credential and has now taught for five years. For him, making sure labs work presents one of the greatest challenges.

“I occasionally screw things up,” Davis said. “All the labs we’re doing in AP are new ones. So that’s been a real struggle.”

Nonetheless, Davis enjoys teaching, especially when he succeeds in helping students understand difficult concepts.

“The thing I really enjoy is when some kid finally says, ‘Oh, now I get it.’ You feel like you helped them get it,” Davis said. “A lot of kids can read the book and understand it. But there are other kids who benefit from instruction.”

Like his students, Davis continues to learn.

“[Students] have more difficulty with some of the units than others. Same with me,” Davis said. “Some of it’s been more difficult than others. I still think electricity is magic.”