By Radhika Akhil

Staff Writer

A very cordial and amiable teacher, Ron Koehler loves to hike, cross-country ski, travel, and, of course, read history. He has traveled all around US, all the way from the mountains of New England to the canyons of the west, Mexico and has even traveled to Europe.

He teaches World History II, both Honors and CP, as well as Current Affairs. He has been an educator for about 34 years, and an administrator for a very long time. Koehler was inspired to teach by his high school teacher, and he enjoyed working with people. He also enjoys the subject of history.

Koehler attended a very small high school in Piasa, Illinois. In fact, it was so small that his graduating class consisted of only 76 students. He explained the good thing about having a small class was that the teacher could give the students more personal attention. When comparing to Westford Academy, he stated the class sizes are slightly bigger, but they are much smaller than other classes he has taught in the past, and therefore still receive personal attention. Koehler has taught in elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and college. He enjoys teaching all four levels for various reasons.

“Students are different, of course, at each stage in their lives,” Koehler stated.

High school and college teaching is enjoyable because he sees the students as being more mature than middle and elementary school students. He is able to have more intelligent discussions with them, and they are much more open to new ideas he said.

Yet Koehler enjoys how open elementary students are to learning, and how they are ready for new adventures.

“Middle school students are going though many changes–more changes than at any other time in the human life span with the exception of infancy.” When there is a teacher to guide them during this time, “… there is a wonderful sense of accomplishment,” said Koehler.

Teaching in various schools has allowed Koehler to compare Westford Academy students to students of other schools. Similarities he sees include the fact that students truly want to learn and have certain subjects they are interested in. He added that students responded to “good teaching”.

However, there were a few differences, one of the main ones being that the students themselves are different because their society is different comparatively. For example, some students are more able to use technology and are able therefore to communicate more easily with others, as well as bettering their abilities to multitask.

“We understand who we are because of influence from our past,” said Koehler. He compared teaching history to traveling globally.

Explaining his view, Koehler said history was like travel because one could “see new people do different things, and form different ideas” about society and its influence on those people. Adding to that, he believes he could teach subjects such as psychology and sociology, basically anything related to social studies, but he much prefers teaching history.

Koehler enjoys moments when students become interested.

“You feel like you [as the teacher] and the students are interested in what you like talking about.”

“In the few weeks I have taught at WA I have been very impressed by the willingness to learn and abilities of students at this school. I have worked with teachers from many different high schools across the state and the nation and I know that WA is a special place. It would not be special if not for the students,” said Koehler.