By Christopher Loring
Mr. Joshua Moulton is a History teacher at Lansing School District’s J.W. Sexton High School.
LORING: Why did you become a teacher?”
MOULTON: I became a teacher because I had a good History teacher that changed my life for the better, he hit me across the back of the head, and it was the best thing that ever happened to me.
LORING: Like, he really hit you?
MOULTON: Yeah, with an opened hand.
LORING: Throughout your years as a teacher, do you think that you have impacted any students and in what way?
MOULTON: I hope I have impacted them to have a clear view of the world around them and not conform to the ideas that are just accepted. I want students to search themselves to understand true reality vs. what you're shown in front of you.
Students impact me all the time, nearly every day. I can always think of a new way that someone has made my life better.
LORING: Do you think that students really appreciate you as a teacher?”
MOULTON: I would like to think that. I believe that for the most part I probably received more praise than most but I don't necessarily know if I deserve it.
LORING: If you could go back in time, would you still become a teacher?
MOULTON: I honestly don't see myself doing anything else, I have been offered other positions and I still to this day can't figure out what else I would do. The only thing I can see is maybe being a professor.
LORING: What is your biggest fear as a teacher?
MOULTON: That I’m not making an impact. I am afraid on a daily basis that I let people down. I think sometimes I’m not pushing myself hard enough to be good enough for all kids and not just certain kids. Another thing that I’m afraid of is that I like to leave things better than the way I found them. It feels like sometimes when I’m here, even though I’m trying to make this school a better place, I’m not doing enough and it scares me because that's a reflection on myself.
LORING: What did you want to be growing up?
MOULTON: For a while I wanted to dig up dinosaur bones, then I wanted to be a carpenter and build things and I accomplished that. I wanted to be an Egyptologist for a while. I wanted to be a U.S. Navy Seal more than anything but then that was taken away so I couldn't do that anymore. Then I began to look back and I saw that I had compassion and understanding and teaching fell in line, so that's what I became.
Christopher Loring is a 10th grader at Lansing School District’s J.W. Sexton High School where he is a member of the band. He is also in the Upward Bound program at Michigan State University. He is an intern at The New Citizens Press.
