Who We Are – Khayree Bey

Lao Tzu, an ancient Chinese philosopher and writer once said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” That quote describes the non-traditional career path of Khayree Bey, a Healthy Living Teacher at McCullough Middle School.  Bey spent his early years in the  US Marine Corps, where he served in Operation Desert Storm. During a year in Okinawa, Japan, Bey was first introduced to “Mindfulness, yoga, and meditation.” Today, he teaches those techniques to students, staff and the community, but first, Bey had to take that single step that changed the course of his life.  His thousand-mile journey began when Bey’s wife of 27 years invited her husband to teach African, Kemetic, Moorish history to her students at an underserved school where she teaches in South Jersey.  It was during one visit that a student approached Bey and said he didn’t know what he was talking about because he didn’t have a degree. That stinging remark, followed by encouragement from his loving wife,  prompted him to not only get a Bachelor’s Degree in Behavioral Science but also a Masters in Education degree. With mindfulness and meditation now being widely viewed as successful tools in the classroom, Bey’s years of training launched his teaching career into one that is revered and respected, all because he took a single step to become a teacher.

Khayree Bey is #WhoWEArecsd.