Stephen Walsh spent decades practicing law in Kansas City before turning to a second career teaching English to adult immigrants. After moving to St. Louis in 2019, he joined the Parkway-Rockwood Adult Education & Literacy program and now teaches ESL classes at Clayton High School three nights a week. Walsh says he is continually inspired by students who arrive ready to learn after long days on the job.
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Organization: Parkway-Rockwood Adult Education & Literacy
Title: English as a Second Language Teacher
Age: 74
Hometown: Saint Louis, Missouri
Education: B.S. Accounting, University of Missouri-Columbia, B.A. Spanish, University of Missouri-Kansas City, J.D. University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, M.A. Education, Teaching English as a Second Language, Avila University
Interests / Hobbies: Reading, running, hiking, biking, travel
What motivated you to get involved in this work/community/activity? While working as a lawyer in Kansas City, Missouri, I began volunteering several evenings per week at a public school that had a program to teach English to adult immigrants. This caused me to consider teaching English to immigrants as a rewarding retirement job. Several years before my retirement, I enrolled in an evening masters degree program in teaching English as a second language. When I retired from my legal career and moved to St. Louis in 2019, I was fortunate to be hired to teach an ESL class at Clayton High School three nights per week.
What values or principles guide how you show up in this role/community? The dedication of the students inspires me to show up for every class prepared to teach and answer student questions about the English language. Many of the students who attend ESL classes at Clayton High School have exhausting full-time day jobs, yet they arrive on time three evenings each week for an English class that lasts for three hours.
What’s the most enjoyable aspect? The dedication and gratitude of the students is the most enjoyable aspect of the job, along with the peaceful setting of Clayton High School situated next to Shaw Park.
Can you briefly share a few standout memories? One standout memory was switching to online classes after the initial COVID outbreak in St. Louis in the spring of 2020. Although teaching by Zoom was difficult, it gave me an opportunity to see the students in their home settings, sometimes meeting their children and family pets who wandered into view of the camera. A second standout memory was the beautiful fall evening in 2019 when the teachers escorted our students to Shaw Park for a scavenger hunt. Another standout memory was the Thanksgiving dinner in my classroom where the students shared a food dish from their native countries with their classmates.
Can you share an insight about this role that most people don’t know? The classes are conducted entirely in English, even if the teacher is fluent in the native languages of the students. Although I am conversant in Spanish and many of my students are native Spanish speakers, I adhere to our program’s policy of speaking only English during class.
What’s one key piece of advice you’ve embraced? Keep the class moving with a variety of topics. If the students seem bored or confused with one segment of your lesson plan, don’t beat a dead horse, move on to a different topic in the lesson plan. Come back to the confusing topic another night prepared to present it using a different approach.
What’s the greatest challenge? The greatest challenge is teaching students of different proficiency levels in English. In most school years, I’ve taught an intermediate or advanced level class to students with similar English proficiency, yet sometimes I’ve been asked to substitute in a beginning level class for another teacher who was ill. Teaching beginning level English students is the most challenging assignment for me.
Where do you find inspiration? I find inspiration in hearing my students’ accounts of what motivated them to seek a better life in the United States. I’m also inspired each time I enter the English hallway at Clayton High School and stroll past the quotes of famous American authors etched in the glass wall of the corridor.
What are your future plans or ambitions? I plan to continue teaching ESL classes as long as I am able to effectively do so.
