Ben Wiehn, the new social studies teacher at Iola High School, is nothing if not an adherent of the middle states. Born and raised in northeast Nebraska, Wiehn attended college in Huron, South Dakota (Huron: Home to the Worlds Largest Pheasant), before eventually sliding back down the longitudinal grain chute and landing in Yates Center, Kansas.
After five years as the middle school history teacher and high school football coach at Yates Center, Thursday marked the 40-year-olds first full day at IHS. A devoted student of history and politics, Wiehn is also keen not to let his coachs whistle go mute. To that end, this former wide receiver for the Huron University Screaming Eagles has signed on as the Mustangs newest assistant football coach.
WIEHN, a smart, enthusiastic teacher, with the sort of easy, unaffected confidence that comes from being good at sports in high school, will be teaching sophomore World History as well as a class called Hands-on History, whose mission, at least in part, will be to work in close collaboration with the Allen County Historical Society in an effort to help organize museum displays and various other local projects.
And while Wiehn thrills to both local history and world history, the newly arrived teacher reserves his most avid affection for the arena of contemporary American politics.
Wiehn describes himself as an independent voter, who isnt bound by rigid party allegiance. A fact, he said, which is of pedagogical value, because it means he is fluent in the language of both sides and can speak to a classroom of students about a particular issue without having his views deformed by overweening bias.
For me, personally, said Wiehn, my main issue, what Im looking for in a politician what are you going to do for education? Because thats my job theyre talking about. … But Im never going to say to the students, I voted for Hillary or I voted for Donald. As a teacher you dont do that. But I always tell my students, If you can see both sides of an argument, then youre paying attention.
But are todays students paying attention?
Its both, confessed Wiehn. You get the kid who is really involved, who is reading the newspaper, knows whats going on in local politics. And then you get the kid thats like, Oh, we have an election this year? But, you know, continued Wiehn, summoning the only correct answer that a truly good teacher could give, thats why were here, to help those kids.
The philosopher John Dewey, writing at the turn of the last century, argued that it should not be the aim of teachers to dutifully pour beaker after beaker of received knowledge into their students as if they were simply filling empty vessels. Instead, he wrote, a good education is one that arms students with the ability to think for themselves, and one that awakens in them the extent of their own possibilities.
Wiehn is of the same view, at least in this regard: I tell my classes, Youve got to develop your own set of priorities, find whats most important to you. Their knowing how I approach an issue in my own life, or how I got interested in politics, leads them into developing their own ways of thinking. … I think I do a pretty good job of trying to help the kids become valuable citizens and voters, and maybe, one day, a few of them will want to get involved with local government themselves.
THE URGE to teach is a through-line in Wiehns life. His mother knew he was going to be a teacher when Wiehn was still a small boy. Something about the way he interacted with the other kids on the block. Later, Wiehn becomes what he calls one of those History Channel kids. Hes in it for the stories. In high school, history is, of course, his best subject. Barely into his freshman year of college, in one of the last practices before the first game of the season, Wiehn is running a simple comeback route. He plants his cleat and turns and snap. Torn ACL. Hes out for the season. But its a concealed blessing. The time in rehab gives Wiehn the chance to really hit the books.
But school has never been a chore for Wiehn. Hes always loved going to school. Wiehns parents divorced before he ever had a chance to form a memory of them together, and though today he has solid, loving relationships with both his mom and dad, every divorce induces its share of instability, at least in the beginning. Wiehns case was no different. School became my safe haven, he recalls. And my teachers were my real role models. That dynamic marked the entirety of Wiehns scholastic career. Even today Wiehn has a habit of quoting bits of wisdom he picked up from old college professors.
Not long after graduating from Huron, Wiehn takes up a teaching job in Nebraska. A few years later he moves to Yates Center. Not long after that, he ends up marrying his landlords daughter. But then two years ago she was barely 36 at the time Wiehns wife is diagnosed with cancer. She undergoes chemotherapy. The procedures are effective but doctors tell her, because of the radiation, she wont be able to have children. One year later shes pregnant, and last month the Wiehns welcomed their first child together, a son, Kershaw, named after a left-handed pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers. You, dear reader, can guess which parent chose the name.
Still, given all that a life contains, says Wiehn, nothing has ever managed to dampen the original joy he experienced as a kid going to school each day. It was my safe haven then, says Wiehn, And its not hard for me, even now at 40, to wake up and want to go to work, to want to go to school.
School became my safe haven. And my teachers were my real role models.
Ben Wiehn, IHS social studies teacher
