Committed to his role as a dedicated history teacher, Christopher Stahl is assisting all his AP Government classes in attaining the Civic Seal of Readiness on their high school diploma. This helps the seniors that are privileged to be in his course to have a more distinguished high school transcript. The Civic Seal of Readiness consists of multiple parts and is a formal recognition that one has gained civic knowledge and skills at a high school level. With his assistance, he has truly made it easier and less complicated for his students.
Stahl is in his 18th year of teaching and has taught many subjects ranging from Economics, Government, Global 9 and 10, U.S history, Law, and Computer Programs. He currently teaches AP GOV & POLITICS, which he has taught for the past three years. Outside of school, Stahl’s life consists of spending time with his family of 3. Him and his two boys love to ride bikes, go to parks, go on hikes, and play a lot of sports especially baseball.
He grew up in Jackson Heights. Growing up, he aspired to become a chef and had the intention of attending culinary school. He eventually shredded the thought of attending culinary school since it wasn’t a set plan in his career, leading him to attend Bryant High School because of its locality. During his years of high school, Stahl claimed that 10th grade was his most challenging year due to the introduction of Regents exams, however his easiest year was his senior year. After high school he attended Queens College in which the curiosity of becoming a science teacher was prominent in his mind until his unpleasant encounter with Organic Chemistry in college. This led to him majoring in History and minoring in Political Science, as well as re-attending college to earn a Master’s in Education.
His inspiration to pursue teaching as a career came from his mother who was a special education paraprofessional. He saw how involved his mother was with the students and how much she tried to help them which prompted him to further explore this passion. When asked why he chose to teach high schoolers, he claimed, “I never thought of not teaching high school… I like having conversations with people and I believe when working with older students, you can have better conversations because they are more capable than someone in younger classes”.
To all of the Bryant students, Stahl’s main advice is to “never give up”. He wants everyone to always keep in mind that class and school will be difficult, and the workload will be challenging at times, but if you give up, you’re just not trying hard enough. He vocalizes this same advice to his children all the time. At no time give up, keep going and eventually you’ll find your way. As for the seniors in Bryant, Stahl offers important guidance that should be your key takeaway from this interview, he claims that life is much more existent as a senior. According to him, considering this is the start of adulthood, it is crucial to not take things easy or slack off during this phase. He stresses the importance of working harder than you ever had before due to it playing a key role in your life after high school. Stahl’s words of wisdom are, “ ”.
