By Beau Hurst

What has been a familiar face in the Upper School is now also a familiar face in the Middle School. Upper School history teacher Brent Miller (‘98) has taken on a new role as a Middle and Upper School woodworking teacher, along with his usual Upper School history classes. 

At a very young age, Miller would spend countless hours with his father and grandfather on woodworking projects, watching and repeating every move with their tools. Over time, it became something he always knew how to do, but he didn’t quite have the opportunity to do everyday when he was older. From 2005 to 2009, Miller taught history and English at the Fork Union Military Academy (FUMA), and he dug up his father’s old tools in order to bring back his own skills and use them to build something he truly needed. He spent hours building a shed to store his outdoor items at his house near Fork Union. Miller then taught at the Carmel School in Fredericksburg for seven years before moving to Richmond to return to his alma mater. After four years in Collegiate’s Admissions Office, he joined the Upper School history department. 

A student hard at work in the woodworking shop.

Miller is well-respected in the Collegiate’s community for his genuine and amiable personality in the classroom, on the track as a coach, and as a counselor at Camp River’s Bend. His approachable nature and passion for history create an environment where students are willing to learn. While currently teaching 10th Grade Comparative World Religion classes, and an intensive Honors Cold War elective, Miller has added woodworking to his day, which makes his schedule more challenging than it ever has been before. With the retirement of woodworking teacher Stephen Hart last year, Miller’s previous expertise on woodworking was perfect for picking up where Hart left off. Before Hart’s retirement, Miller communicated with him, watched how he taught his classes, and put himself under Hart’s wing to one day lead his own classes. Miller stated that he truly “learned from him.”

Miller imparting his knowledge.

When asked about the hardest part of his multi-divisional experience, he stated that it was the difference in schedule. He has to be at school at 8:10 a.m. for Middle School classes. Miller is often teaching Middle School woodworking classes during times of the day where the Upper School gets breaks. He is almost always in a class, whether with Middle or Upper Schoolers, which displays his honorable commitment to his students, his job, and the Collegiate community. 

Miller has found positivity with his commitment to teaching both Middle and Upper School woodworking because he gets to see the creativity of younger generations’ minds. With their different levels of maturity and imagination, it is satisfying to see how students come up with an idea to make something that might be ridiculous at first, and then have to ultimately figure out how to scale it down, or create realistic changes to their original ideas, in the short amount of time that they have in class.

Along with many of my peers, I have gotten the opportunity to take one of Miller’s Contemporary World History classes. It is without a doubt that he truly cares and loves what he is teaching to his students, as I have seen his vast devotion and effort to create the best learning environment for his students. 

All photos by Brent Miller.