Daryl Anderson, known by many in the school familiarly as “D.A.,” retired on February 1 as a teacher’s aide working with special populations, a position he had held for 24 years.
During his time at Chapel Hill High School, Anderson played a large role in helping exceptional students with setting goals for their futures.
“I would ask them, ‘What do you aspire to be?’ and the most common answer I got was ‘I want to be a football player or NBA player,’” Anderson recalled. “I said, ‘That’s not good enough.’ A lot of them had no realistic vision for their lives. I spent a lot of time trying to help them see beyond a three-block radius.”
Anderson said he prioritized helping students improve their self-esteem and develop their skills in research and writing.
“What I liked most about the job was interacting with kids who were at risk, who just needed a little extra help,” he said. “I really enjoyed helping them do research, to write and to think outside their paradigm to help them see their value.”
But it isn’t just students whom Anderson impacted; he worked alongside teachers in the building who noted his outstanding service to the school.
English teacher Michael Irwin co-taught English 10 classes with Anderson for several years.
“Dr. Anderson has a lot of heart, a lot of compassion and kindness. He was able to reach students on a human level,” Irwin said. “He has the ability to talk to both adults and students about what’s really important in their lives. And he’s worn almost every hat this school has, from being a security guard to a teacher assistant to working with special populations.”
Social studies teacher Kathryn Murchison worked with Anderson for five years in her U.S. History classes.
“It is very hard to narrow down his many contributions. I think the most memorable and most impactful thing that Dr. Anderson did was the mentoring that he provided for so many young men and women. He helped students to think about and plan for their futures, to understand the potential impacts of their current choices and to recognize the realities of the world in which we live.”
Anderson said he was able to forge connections with students—especially minority students—because of their similar backgrounds.
“Growing up in New York, I never saw a lot of teachers that looked like me,” he said, “so for a lot of Black and brown kids, I became the teacher who looked like them and could sort of ‘speak their language.’ In connecting with them, the goal was to build a bridge between the students and a world bigger than themselves and help them cross over from their [previous] mindsets.”
Anderson said he hopes his career as an educator has positively impacted students in a way that resembles his own past experiences. Anderson, who grew up without a father figure, recalls how he was taught to tie a tie by a member of his community.
“I went to the street corner, where the men were gambling and smoking, but despite seeming scary, they taught me to tie my tie. At the time, I couldn’t understand my mother’s pain, that she needed to send her son into potential danger just to learn how to tie a tie,” Anderson said. “Fast forward 30 years, I’m at Chapel Hill High, and a student asks me to tie his tie. At this point, I’m fighting back tears because life had come full circle.”
