David Lock’s winding road has led him to Central High School, where he now teaches computers and intro to engineering.

By Miles Foster

From a clown to the head of an outreach program at the YMCA to a lab tech in a gold mine, David Lock has done many things but is now settling as a teacher here at Central. This is his first complete semester at Central since starting in November 2023, and he said, “I feel like I’m on vacation every day.”

 In an interview with Lock, he said his favorite class to teach is his Graphic Design Two class, and he does not like teaching web development because of the coursework. He explained that the class is likely a lot easier to do with step-by-step videos like the ones provided by a program called Brain Buffet. However, this program’s videos often confuse students, and many don’t find them helpful. He said he would like to fix this one day, but it would require him to completely redo every video in the course.

Mr. Lock has said he really enjoys teaching more than any of the other jobs he has held. Lock said he became a teacher because he likes the amount of free time he has. He feels he has much more time to spend with his family and kids. This is one of his favorite things about teaching alongside helping the youth. He said he enjoys working with teenagers who get his humor and being helpful to teenagers in general. Mr. Lock also said, “ I like Hawaiian shirts. Put that in there.” 

Along with teaching five classes, Mr. Lock is responsible for producing the morning announcement videos that appear in the school bulletin. As of now, Mr. Lock records the announcements during 5th period in class D102 and has a student edit them. He said anyone can make these announcements and is looking for more student interest. He would love a club or a class where students can participate in the announcements and record new episodes.

Mr. Lock originally became an engineer because half of his family are circus folk, and the other half are engineers. Not long after graduating college, he became a lab tech at a gold mine. In this job, he was in charge of gold analysis. He looked at gold samples and ran them through a machine to see if the area where it was mined was abundant with gold or if mining should continue elsewhere. He quickly realized this job was not for him and returned to working at the Y only 3 months after becoming a lab technician. During his two years at the YMCA, he did many things, like creating the current teen center and supervising summer camps. Mr. Lock said he was like a manager there and wanted to be more involved with the youth outside of just supervising. This is what led him to be a teacher.

“Find a job you enjoy. Don’t follow money or what other people tell you.” Mr. Lock said as his final piece of advice.