Mr. Stephen Allen is a history teacher here at RE who is very popular among the students. He is known for his classes that are always interesting and enjoyable. As someone who was in Mr. Allen’s class as a Freshman, I always looked forward to going to history class. He inspired me to always try my best and ask questions, even if I didn’t fully understand the current topic.  

I recently spoke to Mr. Allen for about 20 minutes. We discussed his childhood in Jamaica, along with his current teaching methods, and his passions in and outside of RE. He shared details with me about what shaped his passion of history and how he applies his knowledge from growing up to his teaching now.  

What’s your most treasured memory? 

My most treasured memory…. perhaps travelling with my mom. My mom always made it a point to expose me to the finer things in life. So we would go touring in Europe, she took me on a cruise with the family in the Caribbean, and whenever we could, we would travel business class. Traveling with my family and my mom especially was really a wonderful experience, not just to be with family, but to be exposed to the wider world and to have those treasured memories. That really informed who we are today.  

Can you tell me a little bit about your life growing up? 

Growing up in Jamaica was quite something.  We have people of different ethnicities and backgrounds, but we’re all Jamaicans first and foremost. We have a culture of hard work and ingenuity. It’s different from America, where things are much easier going. Jamaica can be a bit more challenging and, you know, rough around the edges. But growing up in Jamaica gives you a great time, you can almost say that your steel is forged in fire. There were challenges, but my mom always made life  somewhat manageable and reasonable and a place where you could see comfort; it will always be home to me. I’ve always grown up with dogs, and that has given me a nurturing nature, and I really like that. I really like having the personal space of my backyard, being able to go into the trees, climb the trees and things like that. My fruit trees. The peace and comfort of my own space in the backyard has been a wonderful thing that I always go back to. It has really shaped who I am today.  

What was school like for you? Did it inspire you to become a history teacher? 

For me, it would be the stories. My mom would tell us bedtime stories often off the top of her head, stories like the Russian Revolution, the Russian Civil War and Jamaica’s independence, and she would bring those stories to life. They were so vivid, and I love that passion that was cultivated in me, and that’s what I try to bring into the classroom: sharing the human experiences of what makes society and the world and we as people creative. The individuals that shape the course of events. The course of events don’t just shape us; we shape them.  

As a kid going to school in Jamaica, it was much more academic, so I’m so much more impressed with you guys here, how you have your clubs and your swimming. You’re here from 6:00 in the morning, and then you go back and swim in the afternoon. No, Jamaica is more straightforward. You might have class from 8:00 to 3:00, but then you go home and you just chill, watch cartoons. Where you might have seven subjects or classes here, in Jamaica you have 13. We have woodwork, agricultural science, clothes and textiles, math, science, computer, biology, physics—all of these different subjects. When I was in grade seven, I did 13 subjects in one year. I grew chickens—and yeah, we killed them. You learn how to make stuff in woodwork, you make stuff like crafts and art. The girls did home economics, so they learned how to cook and sew. We did metal work, so we learned how to shape metal and create stuff with metal and electrical technology. We were exposed to a wider variety of subjects that made us well-rounded academically, but you guys are far more well-rounded in terms of the whole person.  

Is there a specific topic that you look forward to teaching every year?  

I love European history. That’s my area of expertise. I love world history too, but I love being able to teach contemporary history, especially political history that shapes the dynamics of wars and revolutions. I love the phrase that “history is much like an endless waltz: the three beats of war, peace, and revolution continue on forever.” Being able to express it in the classroom is my joy and passion. That’s why I’m here from 6:30 in the morning, and sometimes I don’t leave here until after 5:00 or 6:00, because I’m really passionate about what I do. I love having those great discussions with my students and seeing the lightbulb going off in their heads, seeing them make the connection between what happened in the past and the events of the present. Everything is connected.  

Do you have specific techniques you use to make class fun and engaging? How do you incorporate your own life experiences into your lessons that you teach daily?  

I love being charismatic, so I love being able to bring the history to life by using modern day examples, like what’s happening in the news, what happens on social media, what happens in popular TV shows that people watch. I love to draw examples from that and to make it relatable so that students can see that these popular culture references are drawn on actual historical events. I love using media in my classroom to show videos that bring those historical events to life.  

Do you have any passions that aren’t teaching history? 

I’m a passionate gamer, a first-person shooter gamer, so I love my games, playing Battlefield and Call of Duty. I love playing online with my friends; we all sign into the servers and play those games, and it’s competitive. It’s just awesome. When I’m in Jamaica, I love to go walking, so going up into the hills, going to the river, one of my favorite places to go was Reach Falls, or Reggae Falls, where you would hike up the river. You would have the waterfalls along different parts of the river, so you’re not just swimming in the river, you can actually go underneath the waterfalls, and the water beats down on your neck and your back, and it’s almost like a massage. I love being outdoors in nature. I don’t do that as much in Florida as I do in Jamaica, but I love being able to be outdoors and have a wonderful experience just getting to breathe, glow.  

Do you have a specific place you like to travel to besides Jamaica?  

I like to see my family in Maryland, but if I’m not going to see family, then I like to travel to Europe. When I was studying for my master’s, I went from England to the Netherlands, and that was a wonderful experience. I love seeing historical sites and being able to walk in historical cities, like Amsterdam and Rotterdam. My experience in Paris was beautiful. I love seeing where the history took place, and Europe is a great place to go. I’d love to see Asia more. I have been to China, Singapore and Hong Kong, that was 2015, but I love taking tours. I love to travel to a new place and have a wonderful experience just seeing the historical sites and being where history happened. 

Is there something that you dreamed of doing for a long time, and why haven’t you done it? 

I did accomplish one of the things on my bucket list, which was the trip to Dubai and China. That was a three-week trip; that was wonderful. So that was great in terms of something I wanted to do, but I wish I had invested in Nvidia before the stock price went up, or gotten into Bitcoin before the price went up. I’m not really into finance and economics, but I would love to have been able to see around the corner and put a lot of money in Nvidia before the stock took off. So those were the things that I wish I had done that I missed out on.  

What is your greatest accomplishment in life? 

Well, I’m only in my third decade, so I wouldn’t say that book is written just yet, but I think in terms of accomplishments, definitely being an accomplished teacher. I judge myself by the accomplishments of my students, so when my students get great results and go on to great things—when my students graduate and go on to John Hopkins, Harvard, Stanford and Yale, and they’re doing engineering programs, and all of these nice internships—that is what makes me feel wonderful and accomplished. That I have a hand in getting them to where they want to be and accomplishing the dreams that they saw for themselves. That’s how I judge my accomplishments.  

What’s something that people might be surprised to hear about you? 

Well, I wouldn’t say I’m a completely open book, but I don’t think I have that many secrets. People know I love to chill and relax, but I can’t think of anything, really. Maybe people think that “Mr. Allen is so quiet. He’s not an avid gamer.” As much as I am an academic and a scholar, I’m still very much a gamer at heart: a PC person, a PC gamer. Not so much console.  

Do you have a message that you want to leave with your students about history or just about life in general?  

The message I would want to leave is that what we do here right now reverberates long after we are gone. And in terms of history, we cannot allow ourselves to be a victim of history or a victim of circumstance. We must use our own will to create history. It is by being aware of the world around us and the experiences of others that we get to shape and create history. A smart person learns from his mistakes, but a wise man learns from the mistakes of others. That is the purpose of studying history. We get to learn about what others have done, what worked and what didn’t work, so that we know to navigate circumstances when we come across it ourselves. We are not just here to play the game. We’re here to beat the game.