The Student News Site of Malvern Preparatory School

Friar's Lantern

The Student News Site of Malvern Preparatory School

Friar's Lantern

The Student News Site of Malvern Preparatory School

Friar's Lantern

Teacher of the Issue: Mr. James Kirchner

Teacher+of+the+Issue%3A+Mr.+James+Kirchner

Spanish IV teacher Mr. James Kirchner has been teaching at Malvern for 23 years.

Over his time here, Kirchner has been a regular teacher, department head, and the Delco van driver.

Starting at the beginning of this school year, Kirchner started to drive the Delco van.

“I go to Drexeline shopping center every morning around 6:45. Five families meet me there, five middle schoolers jump on the van, I bring them to school, we do our thing. Little after 3 o’clock, I drive them home. Their parents are waiting for them at Drexeline. I say adios until tomorrow morning, and the van stays with me,” Kirchner said.

Kirchner grew up in Pittsburgh and went to Central Catholic High School in 1978. At home, he had nine siblings, six sisters and three brothers. He was the eighth child.

After high school, Kirchner attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Universidad de Valladolid, and Millersville University for his Masters degree.  

Kirchner also lived in Spain for about a year over two different spans of time.

“The first one was official. I got 21 credits towards my bachelors degree at IUP. The second one I told my parents I was going over there to visit my friends for a month and I would come back and start the job search, but one month turned into seven months. I taught English, hung out with my friends, and solidified my love of the language and language skill,” Kirchner said.

Teaching Spanish was not Kirchner’s first job.

“It’s the only thing I am good at, professionally. When I came back from Spain, my first full time job with benefits and everything was as a live in counselor for juvenile delinquents. I did that for two different institutions for about a year and a half. I realized that, one, I like helping adolescents, and number two, I realized the person inside of me who speaks Spanish was dying and I desperately needed to do something about that. So I went back to school to get certified to teach Spanish,” Kirchner said.

Kirchner went through different stages during his time here.

“Malvern is the perfect place to teach. My 23 years at Malvern have not been the same. I feel like I am in my fourth stage of teaching overall. The first being public school overall, and then at Malvern I am in my third stage,” Kirchner said.

“The first stage was working with giants like Jim Stewart, Fran Kenney, Al Tomaszewski

Lida Rosle, learning from them. Second one was I was department chair for six or seven years. So I experienced the campus and the students and my colleagues in a different way. And now with the elimination of departments, I am no longer a department chair anymore so I have reached what I consider to be a very good place,” Kirchner said.

“Every student I encounter, whether it’s in the classroom or outside, I want to help him to become a better young man than he was yesterday and the 50 or 60 guys who come into my classroom on a regular basis, I want to help them speak spanish better than they did yesterday. Simple. I don’t know fancy language, I don’t know fancy labels, very simple,” Kirchner said.

Kirchner takes a pride in his students’ success.

“As a young man, as a professional, if you’re using Spanish out there and you can more than just defend yourself in a conversation, if you can make nice contributions in a conversation, in Spanish, at the college level and beyond as a professional. My goal, even though I never get to hear much about it, I want other people to say, that guy knows what he’s doing, that guy can handle himself in a Spanish conversation. That guy can write a paragraph or report in Spanish,” Kirchner said.

 

Leave a Comment
More to Discover

Comments (0)

All Friar's Lantern Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *