So Kurt is the first person you can search on google by his breakfast number and his name. Breakfasts 1-35 better get going with their page views. Do not be afraid to spend an evening clicking on your own link to enhance page views. It actually turns out that Kurt wore the number 36 when playing Volleyball at Princeton University. There are a lot of good Kurt stories about his intellect, my two favorite are he asked his mom what U N available meant on a Target ad. He could read the word available, but was not understanding the UN prefix. This was before they knew he could read. The second one is that he once posted on Facebook that he could help you with your homework even if he had never taken the course.
When asked he might say something like, "Why wouldn't I offer to help them? If I can" he goes right away to the pragmatic in his thoughts and in his conversations. It was an interesting breakfast in that I had spent a couple of hours on an X Ray table and it was almost 10:30 before I picked up Kurt. Luckily, he was available and the streak is still alive. Kurt is a wonderful person to talk to as he has a couple of stories or issues of the day already queued up in his head, and he will launch into them whenever there is a conversational lull. He also draws you into his own knowledge which is a wonderful characteristic for a teacher. We could have a conversation about Japanese Anime or Graphic Novels and it would feel like a real conversation between 2 people. On these topics, Kurt will have supplied 98.4 % of the relative content and I will be just along for the ride.
For some reason in 2018, we ignore scientists, ignore critical thinking and reasoned debate and just shout louder. Into this broken world, where the educated man is sometimes scorned and the dullard who is just "keeping it real" or "telling you exactly what is on his mind" is lifted on the shoulders of idiots and praised, Kurt Thiemann strides into his first professional high school teaching role. I think in his easy going way, he might be able to change that mindset at least to a small subset of young men in Connecticut. Today I watched Rod Rosenstein, a good man, a smart man, and a Trump appointee, defend himself from the wild attacks of a congressman. I wonder what percentage of people watching this saw what I saw?
Into the halls of a Jesuit school in Connecticut steps Kurt who stood up at a Science award evening and told the crowd he was probably going to teach English. Kurt is also the same boy who giggled for 10 minutes when we were watching his sister in the state volleyball after I told him that farting would be legal in the bed we were sharing. He also loves the spit take and can analyze comedy with the best minds in the country.
We are a better place when our English teachers know Organic Chemistry, and our Math Teachers understand Faulkner, we are a better place when the tight end misses the half time talk to play the trombone in the marching band and the girl who has one of the leads in Aida understands Social Justice and how to stand with the invisible.
Last year, I made plans to go to Colorado to see Kurt in his classroom. Somehow, I missed all 4 years of him playing volleyball at Princeton. Shame on me.
For the last 10 years I have teased Kurt about growing taller than me. I would shake his hand hard with an old man hand shake and pull him close to show him I was still taller. He is now 6'7" and out of college This year something great will happen. Kurt will show his students his passion for Shakespeare or maybe unlock their curiosity by sharing a poem he has read since he was 8. I will not be there to see this day, and it will pass without trumpets or confetti, but Kurt Thiemann will be taller than me on that day.
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