Day in and day out they represent to countless students the drudgery of humdrum high school life. According to most students, high school teachers are people who scrutinize their every move. However, these often unjustly resented individuals carry out extracurricular lives as?human beings.
Many high school students would be taken aback to know that the same teachers who assign those outrageous deadlines for term papers and dreaded finals actually have lives outside of school doors.
For instance, it is surprising to know that Marc Ferguson is an avid world traveler.
“I love to travel and do musical activities,” Ferguson, choir director and French teacher, said. “I recently traveled to Cyprus to direct an international choir and I went to England over Christmas break to tour and visit friends.”
Some teachers fill after school hours and weekends with their favorite hobbies. Tom McEntee, enjoys playing in hockey games with journalism and fellow English teacher, Greg Stobbe, on Saturdays and weekday afternoons.
He also spends lots of time with his wife, Julie, as he creates his own quirky hobbies. McEntee has been know to dive into extinct volcanic craters with goggles and flippers in the hopes of finding fish for Julie.
“I don’t have a television so I feed my obsession of hockey,” McEntee said, who also teaches drama. “Playing hockey with Stobbe on Saturday mornings is a highlight of my week. There is no more exciting game.”
Other teachers, such as Scott Falk, prefer a more tranquil extracurricular lifestyle and say that they are not all that different from their scholastic personas. However, even he has his own fixation with certain Canadian traditions.
“I work in the yard with my wife, participate in lots of church related activities, and satiate my hunger for hockey with the English teachers,” Falk, Bible teacher, said. “Other than that I’m seamless. I’m the same guy.” Falk, McEntee and Stobbe take in an annual NHL hockey game in San Jose.
While many students know that coaches often play sports with their athletes, it is most often the academic teachers who are not looked upon as athletic.
Personal activities and lifestyles outside of the classroom continuously and pleasantly surprise campus students.
“Normally we do not think of teachers having a life outside of school,” Krystal Kitahara, ?04, said. “I am surprised that many teachers actually play competitive sports.”
While teachers seem alien to the ways of adolescence, they may be more normal than commonly thought. They have personas and lives beyond school hours that may mirror what some students do in their extracurricular activities.
