Neela Ravi

Larry Trout teaching his 5th period Calculus AB class

Larry Trout became a teacher so he wouldn’t have to milk cows for the rest of his life. But that wasn’t the only reason.

Trout grew up on a dairy farm in rural Minnesota, milking cows and throwing hay bales, day in and day out, every single day of the week, with no holidays or weekends off. An old-fashioned farm with all horses, no tractors. Amidst this rural life, the people he found himself looking up to most were his teachers, and that was the spark of his passion for teaching.

However his journey to becoming the Mr. Trout that we all know and love at Carnegie was not as clear-cut as you may think. Trout initially started working as an elementary teacher in Watertown, South Dakota, which he found to be immensely unfulfilling. No, seriously.

“I’d rather pump gas than come back to do this again. So I quit the job [and] moved back to Minnesota,” Mr. Trout said.

Despite all this, Trout’s passion for teaching remained. He recognized that, at the time, schools were looking for science and math teachers. Thus, he decided to go back to college to get a degree in mathematics.

“I’m smart, I can do anything. And after I started taking up [math] classes and going, Oh, I really like this. So it was a love found later in life,” said Trout.

Mr. Trout began working for Houston Independent School District after catching sight of an advertisement in the newspaper needing teachers in Houston. Because there were more certified teachers than teacher positions available in Minnesota, Trout interviewed for the position and moved to Houston in the next two weeks. In Houston, he worked at HSPVA, subbed local schools around Houston, and even trained teachers at Rice.

“My title at Rice was Master Teacher. I think it’s a stupid title,” Trout said, “but that was what they called it. They have a summer education program for middle school kids, and their student teachers taught in that program. So, I was a supervising teacher for the student teachers.”

Over the course of his teaching journey, Trout has been able to impact students and keep up with their accomplishments on social media. At HSPVA, Trout has had the opportunity to teach countless artists and celebrities, playing a role in shaping these artists and watching them take over music charts.

“I can put the name Beyonce behind my name,” Trout said. “Oh, also if you’ve noticed the art of jazz artist Robert Glasper. He’s got a whole bunch R&B albums out. Or if you know this producer Bryan Michael Cox. Songwriter, producer for people, like a show. So the cool part… is now the people that I have taught are now out in the world doing really cool things… It’s really kind of nice to be able to put my hands on people that I’ve that are out in the world making really big changes.”

As a teacher, Mr. Trout values honesty and hard work and incorporates these ideas into any classroom that he is in. He hopes that his efforts to empower his students will help them become successful leaders in the real world.

”What motivates me to teach is… to leave the world a better place than the one I found. So making or helping today’s youth to grow and get into places and get their dreams and then they can change the world,” Trout said. ”I don’t change the world. I change the people who can change the world.”

Mr. Trout believes academic success varies for each student and should be tailored to their individual goals. He hopes to support students in achieving their unique academic objectives by establishing multiple methods of learning.

“There are different learning styles, but I strongly believe that the more ways of input to the brain, the better,” Trout said. “I say you have to hear it, say it, think it and write it.”

In addition to Trout’s attention to detail to students’ different learning styles, Trout is an advocate for an all-rounded education, believing that the key to finding out what you’re passionate about is by trying everything you can. He looks for a learned lesson in every experience he has.

“Did I ever know that I was really interested in math? [No.] But I gave things a chance and decided to go into a [new] direction. You don’t always know what you’re interested in. You never know where something might be useful.”

As well as learning everything Trout also believes that you should learn with everyone.

“So, but I make the point I’ve I’ve always believed in studying together and working together and nobody learns in a vacuum,” Trout said.

Trout would mandate study groups for his students, often finding ways to check up on his study groups to ensure that studying together, like calling locations where his students claimed to be studying at to check up on their progress.

“I literally would call your mother to verify that there were people studying,” Trout said.

Despite his old-fashioned style of teaching, there’s a reason he still voluntarily chooses to continue teaching students even when he’s already retired.

“There [are] times when my teaching or my personality is a bit gruff, but I hope that you find that through that you can find a way that I’m really trying to reach you and find you.“