More than 50 members of the faculty of Trinity High School have given more than 10 years of service to the school. Many of these teachers are easily recognized and known by most students. But some teachers are more in the background of the school, unseen by most eyes. We students often take teachers for granted, thinking they do not exist outside of their classrooms, thinking that they do not have lives outside of school. Mr. John Kahl, a graduate of Trinity’s Class of 1969, is one of those teachers. Teaching at Trinity since 1976, a total of 36 years, Kahl remains to himself much of the time. With the curiosity of what makes Kahl, Kahl, and the stereotype that teachers don’t step out of their classrooms still in the back of my head, I went to work finding out who the true John Kahl was. After receiving a degree from the University of Kentucky, Kahl moved to San Jaun, Puerto Rico, where he taught subjects English as a second language and sociology. “Teaching there was a unique opportunity,” Kahl said. “I actually got to live the life of a minority and face discrimination on a daily basis.” There was an immediate culture shock he had to get over. He knew little Spanish–enough to function but so little that at times it could become problematic–and had to learn how to deal with things such as Hurricane days, the equivalent of our snow days. At the time when Kahl was living in San Juan, there was a water and electricity ration, so one had to learn to do without in many cases. Kahl said that teaching English in San Juan is how he gained his creativity. “I had to be creative to make English alive for (students),” he said. Kahl is very lively while teaching, which makes it hard to believe that he gained his creativity and wasn’t just born with it. At any time while teaching, Kahl will bounce around the room, dance and often yell, showing genuine enthusiasm about what he is teaching. Kahl believes that a teacher should not just teach content, but teach the student and find a way to make the content applicable to the life of the student. Who is John Kahl? For one, he holds the record for state rings as a coach at Trinity High School, with seven in cross country and five in golf. Kahl is a most influential teacher at Trinity while remaining fairly invisible. Many teachers wear green and white to represent school pride on Fridays, a tradition Kahl helped start. English teacher Mr. Matt Manning, who was a graduate of the Class of ’86 and is now Kahl’s colleague, starts out every class by reading a passage from a novel, much like Kahl reads a Bible passage to his class at the beginning of every day. “I am not a very smart person–have learning disabilities–but have learned ways around my deficiencies,” Kahl said. Once told by a college professor that he didn’t have enough in him to teach and probably wouldn’t be very good at it, Kahl has been teaching at Trinity for nearly 40 years. He attributes his success in teaching to his hard work and says he is very dedicated to his students, whether they believe it or not. Kahl is an admirable man and a man who wants to be a role model to those students who may not have one. That is the definition of who John Kahl is, a man who works for others, a man dedicated to his profession, and a man dedicated to his religion. Kahl is a teacher in a world of instructors.