Mike Girvin's Long Strange Trip

The sounds of the Grateful Dead were playing over the speakers on a recent spring day inside the Nantucket High School wood shop, quarterboards were under construction by students, and instructor Mike Girvin was in his element.

After nearly three decades in education on Nantucket, “Girv”, as he is known around the campus, has carved out a special sanctuary for his students, and leads what is perhaps the most popular class at the high school.

“It's a safe haven for a lot of kids that don’t do well in mainstream ed,” Girvin said. “They’re not all academic students. I wasn’t. But you start to see that kids need this outlet. It’s something creative. It’s a place where they can kind of relax. And kids with behavioral issues, they come in here and it’s like a sedative. That’s the way the electives should be.”

Most of his career was spent as a fifth grade teacher and science instructor at the Nantucket Elementary School. But eight years ago, Girvin had the opportunity to take the torch from former wood shop teacher Chuck Colley. Feeling somewhat burned out and disillusioned with trends in education in general, he reluctantly took the job.

“That’s why I wanted to come up here, the bureaucracy of education,” Girvin said. “I started in 1995 at the elementary school, and you could still close your door and be you. You could teach the way you wanted to teach. That’s what I get to do here.”

But going from teaching fifth grade students and science classes to the wood shop was not an easy transition, Girvin said, at least not initially.

“It was hard in the beginning trying to figure out how to do this, and I questioned the value of it,” he said. “When I was first here, I was calling (elementary school principal) Kim Kubisch every other afternoon saying ‘I got to go back!’ I thought math and reading and social studies was what education was all about. And then you start to find a couple of kids who buy into this.”

After putting his personal touches on the wood shop, that first trickle of kids who bought in to what Girvin was doing has turned into a flood. Today it’s among the most popular classes at Nantucket High School, with five sections of students who make quarterboards, cutting boards, furniture, sheds and do general repair of areas around the school. And Girvin hasn’t looked back.

“The best move I made,” Girvin said this week. “No regrets at all. This is a riot.”

The large wood shop Girvin runs is adorned with the creations of his students - both new and old - as well as a smattering of posters and knick knacks of The Grateful Dead, Girvin’s favorite band. The musical influence has started to rub off on some of the teenagers, who have incorporated the Dead’s “Steal Your Face” sign and lyrics into their quarterboards.

“That’s because I was always a Dead-head,” Girvin said. “There will be days when they say ‘can’t we listen to something other than the Grateful Dead?’ And I say yeah, the Jerry Garcia Band.”

Girvin has given the community a window into the NHS wood shop with the class’s Instagram account, which his daughter encouraged him to start. He regularly posts photos of his student’s work, along with some of their hijinks. But it’s also more than just a way to showcase their creations.

“My daughter said, ‘you’ve got to do an Instagram account’ but I had nothing to do with social media at all, it’s not my generation,” Girvin said. “But they (the students) buy into it. The guys out on the shed say ‘why don’t you put me on Instagram?’ and I said ‘because you never wear goggles.’ Then they go put goggles on. It’s a tool.”

The quarterboards made by the students not only show off their personal tastes, but also the growing diversity of Nantucket High School. Many students choose to incorporate aspects of their cultures and traditions, such as Jamaican or El Salvador flags. Others make signs for the parents’ businesses.

The atmosphere in the wood shop is informal but the work being done speaks for itself.

Girvin, who was born in Canada and spent summers on Nantucket as a child, moved to the island full-time in 1987. He picked up carpentry by joining Twig Perkins and Allan LaFrance’s crew, giving him the skills to eventually build his own home on Nantucket. But he went back to school in 1993 at the University of Maine where he earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education before landing the job at the Nantucket Elementary School.

Today he uses both those disciplines - construction and education - to pass on carpentry skills and life lessons at the NHS wood shop.

One of his current students, Girvin said, has “got the bug.” Lana Bresette was making a quarterboard for her father Tom on Monday morning, one of many pieces she has created with Girvin’s guidance.

“Lana had never touched a tool in her life,” Girvin said. “She comes in here now and she just kills it.”

For Bresette, the feeling is mutual.

“Mr. Girvin just makes my day better and with a stressful schedule it is so nice to have woodshop in it because it is a time to de-stress and work on fun projects,” Bresette said. “Mr. Girvin makes school better. He doesn’t treat you like you’re a little kid. He treats you with respect and everyone equally. He will always joke around with you and just make you comfortable.”