At UC High, he is widely known as the teacher in Room 436, or the lacrosse team’s coach. He also happens to enjoy playing basketball and recently decided to take up cooking. Although these activities seem close to the norm, Math Teacher Bernard Steinberger has an alias far from the expected.
Try calling him B$ the next time you pass him by on your way to class (B-Money, that is. Let’s keep it clean, now). That’s right. We have a rapper on our campus in the form of a math teacher.
Steinberger grew up listening to hip hop music. His favorite song was “C.R.E.A.M.” by the Wu- Tang Clan. “When I was a freshman in high school, the [older kid] I rode to school with listened to that album,” he recalled. When he went to college, Steinberger recorded a song for the first time on a computer with his friends. He later covered “C.R.E.A.M,” and other rap songs. But he knew he would write his own song one day.
He didn’t stop at just one though; he went on to write 15 of them. Steinberger used to be in a group called B$ and Stover, with his friend, a former UC High teacher named Mr. Stover, who made his own music. They inevitably paired up and recorded an album together with 15 original songs on it. Though Steinberger only raps for fun now, he was on the brink of fame when he was a part of the duo. “At one point, we had two shows lined up. But we didn’t do it because my friend didn’t want to,” Steinberger said. However, this just meant a new start was in store for B$.
Now that his professional rapping career is over and done with (or is it?), Steinberger is busy with teaching UC High students. When he was not listening to rap music in high school, he had a physics teacher who inspired him to become a teacher. “The best thing about being a teacher is helping kids succeed. Especially when they’re on the border; it feels good to help them get over the hump,” he said.
Not only is Steinberger successful at his job, he is also widely admired by students around campus. “He’s really easy to talk to so I don’t feel weird about asking questions. And he jokes around with us,” said Freshman Christine Latney, a current student of Steinberger’s. “I’ve heard about [his rapping], but he hasn’t done it for us yet.”
Someday, Steinberger hopes to be the principal of a school. Maybe, when he achieves his dream, he will entertain his students with a rap or two over the intercom.