Who is Mr. Sweet?
When most people think of German figures, they think of Adolf Hitler, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Albert Einstein, etc. However, I think of the super cool German teacher, Stephen Sweet. When it comes to teaching, Sweet always strives to see the lightbulb pop up in his students. “When you can see you reach the student in not just the topic but the bigger picture, you know you’ve reached the goal,” claims Sweet.
The Outdoorsman
Stephen Sweet was born and raised in Germany, but he didn’t even move to the U.S. until he was 18 years old. He genuinely grew up speaking English and German, so getting a degree in a foreign language was mostly a breeze for him. He attended a wide variety of schools including Mississippi State and Liberty University, where he ended up graduating and obtained a minor in German and Theology. One of his favorite childhood memories was when he hiked the Alps with his buddies and they decided to jump off a cliff into a lake. He decided to take the leap and the next thing he knew he was shouting, “COLD,” while everyone just laughed. Although vague, it is a memory he will cherish forever. When he is not being a teacher, his favorite place to be is on a camping trip filled with long hikes and deep swims.
Sweet Strikes Back
At a young age, Sweet joined the military, and he ended up facing some brutal injuries. In this, he received a substantial amount of comments from people telling him what he could and couldn’t do, he wanted to make a change. “I went to school and got my degree in special education, so I could raise people, instead of just telling people what they couldn’t do,” says Sweet.
Present Day
He set his goal of giving people something he never received: Confidence. Although, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows in any workforce, Sweet states that “When you see a student not well or hurting, it gets to you. Being a teacher means there’s only so much you can do because even offering help or food looks weird on my part.” He still manages to attempt to cheer up his students even in the hard times because, in reality, if there were no difficulties in a job, there would be no success. Anyone who meets Mr. Sweet quickly learns he takes education very seriously. So much so that he teaches at Roosevelt in the morning and converts to Madison mid-day every day. “Teaching to me is showing the next generation their values and helping them develop a way to think.” He believes that teaching people to think critically doesn’t just give them the ability to learn German, Spanish, etc – “You have given them the ability to grow.”
