By Anne Ruisi
When former Vestavia Hills High math and psychology teacher Brian Cain was inducted into the Vestavia City Schools Hall of Fame on Jan. 30, one of his former students at the ceremony told him how much he learned and how much fun he had in the educator’s class.
“That is my bonus right there. The fact that a kid said your class was interesting and fun, and I just love that,” said Cain, whose 13-year tenure at the high school began in 1989.
Another bonus? That former student was Scott Brown, now a member of the Vestavia Hills Board of Education.
Cain called his job at Vestavia High the most enjoyable he’s ever had.
“It was great every day, every single day was so much fun and interesting,” Cain said.
It’s almost ironic that Cain’s most enjoyable job was in the classroom, because initially he didn’t want to be there. He planned to be a school counselor, but at that time, in the late 1980s, Alabama required two years of classroom teaching experience to get there.
Cain was adamant that he didn’t want to work in the classroom, but one of his professors at Birmingham-Southern College encouraged him to try it. He did and landed a job teaching math at Vestavia High. Eventually he also taught a psychology class.
“My job was to make them better as math students, psychology students, but most importantly, as kids who are dealing with life issues. I probably spent two hours a day counseling kids after school, which of course I loved,” Cain said.
Cain’s former principal, Michael Gross, said he was a popular and effective teacher.
“The kids loved him,” Gross said.
As a high school teacher, he not only taught but also sponsored the Student Government Association. Cain said working with these young leaders was a blessing.
“It really was never a popularity contest,” he said of the students who ran for office. If elected, a student would be making a strong commitment because they were going to serve their fellow students, he added.
“And so, you’ve got these kids that were just so selfless, so amazingly selfless and it was just such a wonderful thing to see that,” Cain added.
After leaving Vestavia High, Cain worked in Hoover City Schools in administrative positions, including as principal of Simmons Middle School, before retiring from the system. But his educational career wasn’t quite finished.
Last school year, he was asked to work as interim head of school at the N.E. Miles Jewish Day School in Birmingham. He joked he wanted to make sure that as a retiree, the job was worth “getting out of my pajamas.”
It was, and he was asked to return as interim for a second year. In January, Cain, now 57, signed a contract to stay as head of school for three more years.
The school is small, with 42 students in grades K-8 who he described as “precious.”
“I get to work with them, I get to talk to them. I get to work with these incredible teachers and staff members,” he said.
Cain, who is married and the father of two children, lives in Vestavia Hills. His older child is in graduate school and the younger is a junior at Auburn University.
