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Issue: Spring 2017 | Posted: June 1, 2017

Robert Briley

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Distinguished Achievement in Education

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Studying at Union University taught Robert Briley a simple truth that carried through 33 years in the education field: he does not teach history. He teaches students.

While Briley’s passion for history started young, he says he views his 30 years teaching at North Side High School in Jackson, Tennessee, as an evangelistic calling.

“You’re very limited in the public school with what you can and cannot say,” Briley says. “I would try to historically weave Christian stories, Christian themes and Christian ideas into my lessons. History has a fabric of theology all the way through it, and sometimes we overlook it.”

Growing up with parents telling stories of living through the Great Depression and World War II, Briley quickly immersed himself in the importance of the past.

“God uses history as a tool to teach lessons,” Briley says. “He says, ‘Write this down.’ What does that mean? Keep a record. Not only do I want you to know this, I want the subsequent generations to know about this.”

For the last three years, Briley has taught at Trinity Christian Academy in Jackson after retiring from the public school system. He says his calling is discipleship now.

But whether the calling is evangelism or discipleship, the joy Briley receives from teaching students is told through a simple story: “I recently had a knee surgery, and right before I got put under anesthesia, a nurse comes up to me and says, ‘Mr. Briley, I’m gonna take care of you.’ And it was one of my students from 25 years ago. That’s what I’m proud of, the success of my students when I see them out in the community making the world around them a better place.”