Ever wondered why a teacher chooses their profession? Mr. Weyler shares his unconventional path into teaching and the experiences that shaped his career. From considering ministry as a teenager to struggling through a challenging first year in the classroom, he candidly discusses the ups and downs of his 15 years at Galileo.
Why did you choose to be a teacher?
Insurance. The deeper reason is that I had a period in my 20s where I was kind of aimless and I remembered how bad a bunch of my teachers had been. Middle school and high school, I had a great elementary school. But after, it was all downhill after 6th grade and I kind of decided, well, if I need to do something that’s going to matter in the world. I would like to give kids a better experience than I had.
Why do you teach your subject?
I already had a degree in this subject. That’s the straight up answer. But if the goal is, you know, elementary school. If you teach elementary school they’re assuming anyone who teaches elementary school can do basic division and stuff. Those basic facts. I mean you still have to get a major in it. At the high school and middle school level, you have to be able to talk about the world through your subject. You have to be able to make it relevant to the human condition through your subject. And the only way I know to reach people well is through theater, through the arts. Well, that and martial arts, but don’t tell me to do that.
If you had to take a class at this school, other than your own, whose class would you take?
If I had to take a class as a student? I got to think on that. Previously I would have said when we had a previous physics teacher here, and she would do things like have them use remote control cars to measure velocity and do like actually, you know, the way science class should be. If I had to pick people here now, this is gonna sound weird, but I’m terrible at math. So I’ve heard Miss Guzman’s good at explaining math. It seems like math teachers can often be very dry. So I’d be interested in seeing whether or not my math got any better. If I took a teacher who was a little more bubbly.
What’s something about you that you don’t think your students would expect?
God, they probably know too much already. I considered being a minister for a while as a teenager. A lot of people wouldn’t guess that.
Out of all your time teaching, what do you think your best decision was?
Out of all my time teaching, my best decision, honestly, was to keep doing it. Because, it’s going to sound super cheesy. You learn from your students, and that you learn what works, what doesn’t work. your first year as a teacher stinks. No one has a really great first year. You don’t know what you’re doing. So that’s why I hear doctors are like the first year they go to a hospital. What I was taught was during your fifth year of teaching, you start getting your sea legs. I’m now in my 15th year. And by now there’s a bunch of stuff I still don’t know, but I now have a pretty good handle on 90 percent of what I do. I wouldn’t have gotten there if I’d quit.
If you had to switch classes with another teacher (you teach their class and they teach yours, not just people but subjects as well) who would it be?
Oh, man. You know what? I’m going to say Satterfield, but only because I really want to see Satterfield have to try and teach things like mine. It’s more about punishing him than me. But I could teach history. History was my favorite subject in high school.
If you could speak to yourself when it was your first day teaching what would you say?
Eat a snack. I was so, the first day of teaching, I was so tired. Like low blood, it did not occur to me how wiped out I was going to be after just one class. Then it was like three more hours until lunch. Oh my god. you’re conditioned right now since kindergarten to like, eat a certain time at a certain time. That conditioning wears off so quickly. And you come back into this as an adult and you go, how did I do it the first time?
What is one important thing you want all your students to know?
How can I phrase this right? Particularly to kids who are afraid to speak up. While there is merit in being quiet and sort of being like, conservative socially and that kind of thing. Just being mannered. If you take away your own voice, they say all the time in history that a group that believes itself inferior will never rebel. They’ve already done the work for you. They’ve already taken away their own sense of power. But I would add to that, if you don’t believe you have anything worth saying, it’s going to become true. The world’s not going to knock you down. You’ve done it to yourself already. There’s a poem out there called What is your greatest fear and it goes something like our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate but that we are great And when we shine we give others permission to do the same thing along those lines. Don’t be afraid to actually be you. I mean still wear pants in public and that kind of thing but don’t put yourself in a box.
What is something you love about Galileo?
Honestly, students won’t understand this, but it matters so much that even though I don’t like get along with every teacher, we’re not all buddies, it’s a job. This school is so much more functional as a faculty than other schools I’ve been in, as a student, taught at, even ones I went to as a child. I can go to most other teachers here if I’ve got a problem, they’ll help out. If they have a problem, they can come to me within reason. We actually do have each other’s backs here to a point. You wouldn’t think that matters until you’ve seen what happens when you don’t.
After they graduated, what was the best or craziest interaction you’ve had with a past student?
I have one student who graduated a few years back who emails me once a semester, letting me know what they’re up to. They’ve actually just had a play produced by a theater recently that’s got commissioned by another company to write one. It makes me feel good, I can’t take credit for her ability but I will credit myself for, and she will give me credit for, introducing her to creative writing from playwriting and getting her kind of started on that path and letting her know she had it. She could do it. So it makes me feel good to see that someone is doing it and on occasion will go. Hey, Mr. Weyler, thanks for that. I don’t want a ribbon or anything, but whenever I hear from her, I go, okay, life feels a little better for a minute.
How long have you been at Galileo?
At the end of this year, it will have been 15 years, enough that my freshmen were born or not alive when I started. And that hurts so much. It was August 2010.
Out of all the staff members at Galileo, who would you like to have in your class?
As a student? Oh dear lord. That’s tough. So you gotta think this one out, right? Cause you assume Larking would be the kid that brings you an apple or something obnoxious. Right? Murphy would be useful too. Murphy would be that kid who tells the other kids to shut up for you. That’s rough. Smith would be the kid who knows where the line is. He’d be a class clown, but knows when to back off and still do his homework and stuff. This is more out of morbid curiosity. I wanna know what Medlin was like as a teenager. So I’m gonna say that.
If you could talk to anyone throughout history who would it be and why?
This is split, and I apologize this is a cheat, but I really can’t make a split. So the cliche answer is Jesus or something, right? And while I am curious about that, presuming I can understand ancient Aramaic, because I’m reasonably confident that the actual person was very unlike most depictions of how he’s like visually, but like behavior and everything that fascinates me. But I also would have liked to have met Malcolm X in his last year of life when he had kind of converted to traditional Islam and was about to take the U S to court in the UN world court. I would have loved to have a chance to talk to him.
How would you react if a student started calling you by your first name?
They have, and I tell them no, I just feel like it should be formal. That’s weird. I didn’t grow up calling teachers their first names. I thought it would come with some of y’all your first names. Like, I should be, oh, Mr. Robertson. It feels more formal. But I guess age makes it okay. I don’t know.
Out of all the staff at Galileo, who would you be interested in reading an interview like this on? Who do you think the student body should get to know better?
Oh, man. I haven’t had enough chances to talk to Mr. Johnson. We talked a little bit when he was a P. E. teacher here. And what little I know of his life, and then other jobs he’s had. I’d be very curious to hear his answers about education.
