Mr. Goldberg: The Big (sometimes)Friendly Giant

By Naomi

Walking into the office nestled in the G-wing, I am blasted by the unfortunately familiar odor of bleach and incubating bacteria. Mr. Goldberg is perched at his desk, diligently grading labs. Taped to his monitor are sticky notes with phrases scrawled on: “Slay Queen!” and “Princesses in STEM,” with silly little drawings to accompany them, courtesy of myself. Underneath his monitor lie neat origami flowers from another student. Papers are laid out in organized piles, and the scratch of the teacher’s red pen is loud in the silence of the building during homeroom. 

Momentarily stopping, he looks up and greets me with a quick but warm, “Hey Naomi, what’s up?” This interaction has been a constant in my school day for the better part of the past two years, and there was no exception on interview day. 

Mr. Goldberg is known for his mile-high AP Biology packets and infamous Instagram page, but there is much more to the man rarely seen outside his classroom. While some perceive him as overly-stern and maybe even annoying at times, it is impossible to overlook the dedication and passion with which he has taught for more than 25 years. 

Throughout his career, Goldberg has taught many classes including chemistry, anatomy, and living environment. The two main classes he teaches are AP Biology and a class of his own devising, Molecular Biology. Endearingly shortened to “Mole,” the class is primarily focused on getting students more comfortable in a lab setting, so that they go into college labs with confidence in themselves and their knowledge, according to Goldberg. 

“You gotta do it, nobody’s gonna do it for you,” he says about completing lab procedures.

Although he runs his classroom with frightening efficiency now, the man himself was not always so organized. His methodical planning and preparation were born out of necessity during his college years. At first, he explains how he was unprepared for the rigour that his alma mater, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, presented him with. After a rude awakening caused by a miserably failed physics test, he resolved to “lock in,” so to speak, and thus stopped slacking off, focusing on his academics. 

A less-than-rude awakening during Goldberg’s time at RPI was the realization that he loved teaching. The setting is as such: a young Mr. Goldberg is walking to baseball practice, and he comes upon a sign outside of a classroom advertising free pizza for STEM students who have an interest in teaching. 

Goldberg jumped on the opportunity, but only for the pizza, as he said he never thought he’d be a teacher. After hearing the pitch, however, he says he remembers thinking, “I can do a better job than those that taught me.” And so he took a few teaching classes. 

“Turns out, I liked it,” Goldberg explains.

While Mr. Goldberg’s college years were full of twists, he says that he envies graduating students because of the fact that they'll be introduced to that unique and novel portion of their lives and learn more about themselves. 

The fact that Mr. Goldberg cares about his students and their success is plastered on the wall – quite literally. The college wall is a collection of names of each senior in his AP Biology class every year. Next to their name are the names of the colleges they were accepted by. 

What started as one wall has grown to take over what seems to be the entirety of the classroom and evolves as each class graduates. While each student moves on to a new chapter in their life, Goldberg remains. The man admits to stealing the idea from his wife, who is also a teacher. 

“I like looking at that,” he says proudly, “and realizing some of these kids have PhDs, or are heads of their own families… and they all did something here.”

The instructor’s relationship with CCHS alumni stays strong through “Alumni Updates.” After graduation, he collects the outgoing seniors’ email addresses. He asks them for updates on their journey, whether in their undergraduate years, graduate school, or even getting their doctorates. More than once, my own AP Biology class watched as former students defended their theses and received their hard-earned degrees. Again, this illustrates the investment that he shows in his students and their lives, both during classes and beyond. 

Goldberg proves that he only wants the best for students with ambition and the intelligence to support themselves. I, personally, have always had trouble trusting my decisions and circumstances; there is always another shoe that I expected to drop, and it threatens to hold me back. However, through gentle reassurances and oftentimes blunt logic, he somehow consistently manages to dissipate my fears and insecurities. 

According to Anna Riley, a student who has taken his AP class before and is currently in his Molecular Biology class, she changed her major because of the impact his classes and teaching have had on her. Previously intending to go into law, she adjusted to pursue a pathway in the medical field because of her rekindled love for science. 

“I feel so much more prepared for college,” Anna says when asked about what she gleaned from her time in AP Bio and Mole. In addition, she explains that Goldberg’s dry wit and sarcastic humour help her retain information. “He teaches in a way that keeps things interesting, and I feel like I can actually learn because of it.”  

Another student who would like to remain anonymous explains that while he is, “a colossal pain in the ass,” he also helped them with their college decision process, as well as his understanding of biology as a whole, after taking regents biology during the 2020 through Zoom. 

Mr. Goldberg has had an impact on every student that he’s taught, whether it be in a good way or a bad one. He can be snarky, and frank at times, but he always acts out of a love for his subject and a love for teaching; the shiny bald head also helps. His hard work and wholehearted commitment to his kids’ learning is what makes him stand out as an educator. He is undoubtedly one of my favorite teachers for some inane reason, and to his chagrin, I will be bombarding him with emails after graduation.