Eastipedia: Mr. Bickers

Childhood dreams are usually comical in their extravagance. Little girls dream of being princesses, presidents and singers. Little boys dream of becoming astronauts, soccer players and businessmen. Looking back, Robert Bickers finds his childhood dream comical in its simplicity.

“Up until the beginning of middle school, I wanted to be a cab driver,” Bickers said. “My parents hated driving, so I thought hey, I could drive them around.” Though his parents did not agree with his choice of profession, they could not change his mind. In the end, it was Bickers’ seventh grade history teacher, Mr. Harter, who challenged his dream.

Mr. Harter was a character. He suffered from polio as a child and the disease left him with one leg shorter than the other.

“He knew he was a little bit different and so he just kind of let it fly,” Bickers said. “He called a spade a spade and was very honest with his students, which I found refreshing.”

Harter would jump up on his desk to emphasize a point to his students and had his AV cart taken away for pretending to be Superman on it in the hallways. Seeing how much Mr. Harter enjoyed his job, Bickers’ dream of being a cab driver began to fade.

“[Mr. Harter] had a lot of fun and I thought, I like history, I like having fun, this seems like the thing for me,” said Bickers “Really, starting in middle school, I thought, hey, I want to be a teacher. I went into college to become a teacher and I came out of college to be a teacher.”

In 2000, his new dream became a reality. Bickers taught history at the Center for New Lives Alternate High School in Fort Worth, Texas for five years. Yet at the end of his time there, Bickers felt worn down.

“After five years I was just feeling burned out and I wasn’t making the same effort that I had been,” Bickers said. He’d recently met his wife who was attending grad school so he decided to take a break and go to grad school as well. When his wife decided to move to Kansas in order to get her doctorate at KU, Bickers made the move as well.

“At that point if I wanted to stay married, I had to move to Kansas,” Bickers said. He applied to every school in the surrounding area and got a job teaching history at East. His position did not remain the same for long, though.

“Because of what I refer to as the Shawnee Mission Shuffle of 2012, as they reduced the number of teachers in the district, they told me they wanted me to stay but I had to teach English. So I said alright, I’ll teach English,” Bickers said.

As a teacher, Bickers takes cues from the inspiration for his career, Mr. Harter. He incorporates humor into his lessons to varying degrees of success.

“I work bad puns and jokes in because if you notice it, it means you’re paying attention and you’re more likely to remember it,” Bickers said.

As for his relationship with students, Bickers likes to remain a teacher-figure but also to be approachable.

“I try to be friendly but not friends,” Bickers said. “I want to be approachable and humorous but serious when needs be. I don’t want to be intimidating, but I also want to make sure I’m taken seriously.”