Teacher of the Week: Maurice Hartlove

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — For 25 years Maurice Hartlove has been in the classroom. For 10 years he has been at Williston Middle School. But Hartlove wasn’t always a teacher.

“It was a second career for me. I had worked another job for 20 something years and my wife and I have five children and I was watching the children go through school and watching them struggle a little bit with the way they were being educated and what they were doing in school. So I decided to go and get a degree in education,” Hartlove said.

But now this seventh grade math teacher is at the top of the class, because he helps his students realize math doesn’t have to be scary.

“A lot of students think that they come in and do something in math class and it’s the only time they’re ever going to do it. I mean math is accepted to say you can’t do. People will never say ‘I can’t read.’ but people always say ‘I can’t do math.’ I think Barbie at one point even had a shirt that you could buy for your Barbie doll that says ‘I don’t do math,'” Hartlove said.

He makes learning practical.

“Trying to get them over that fear by showing them that they’re going to need to do it every day in their lives,” Hartlove said.

As for what he loves about seventh graders?

“They think they’re all grown up but they want a lot of special attention. They want help. They need someone to care for them,” Hartlove said.