History can be found in many places, but very few people choose to find out about the history of the person teaching it. Jeffrey Harris is a History and Government teacher at South. He teaches AP government to seniors, AP American history to junior, and Social Studies IIII. 

“[My favorite thing about history is] pop culture, especially sports and movies,” Harris said. “ One of my favorite memories is being able to see Star Wars the day it came out with my grandma.”

Harris originally planned on being a Journalist or a lawyer before deciding to be a history teacher in order to help raise his family.

“Journalism high in interest but would have had me move quite a lot,” Harris said. “ A lot of people in my family are teachers and I enjoy the learning process and I like to share learning with others, so it was just a natural fit.”

His teaching career has allowed him to raise a family with his wife of 33 years. Harris said that during his wedding that he was extremely nervous. So nervous that his brother even told him to stop locking his legs.

Outside of school, Harris enjoys playing DND, normally being the Game master but also chooses to be a wizard from time to time. Harris also has exotic pets, including his aquarium fish and a few boas and pythons that he was able to obtain because he used to manage a pet store.

Harris also enjoys a large variety of sports including basketball, football, and baseball. Most recently Harris has gotten into tennis because of his son who was a tennis player here at South High. His love of sports also goes as far back to his middle school days, where in a basketball game he scored 19 points over McPherson.

“When I was in High School, I was showing off, and I was trying to dunk a volleyball in the lower gym,” Harris said. “ But instead of dunking I rammed the front of the room, taking my feet out underneath me and falling on my back, that happened in 1987 and I haven’t tried it since.”

Throughout his life, Harris has also traveled. One of his favorite trips was going to Paris to visit one of his high school friends who works at a law firm in the city.

“My Wife and I went to visit, which only took a nine hours from Atlanta to Paris, it was like a time machine, like boom your in Paris.”