Early in October, Roger Clouser, beloved history and government teacher, announced his retirement. He had been teaching for 41 years. It is no question that a lot of people will miss him. “LHS is marvelous. The kids are fabulous and the teachers are amazing. Everyone welcomed me and made me feel good to be here. I hate leaving LHS. The kids are the best part of teaching,” were Clouser’s parting words. In his 41 years of teaching, he taught at South Jr. High for 30 years before he moved up to LHS this summer along with a lot of other teachers. He also taught at KU for five years in the Anthropology Department. Although he has been teaching for a long time, it isn’t the only career he has had. Clouser was a self-employed contractor, free-lance writer, and property manager among other various things. When asked why he decided to teach, Clouser replied, “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
Of all things, Clouser will miss his students the most. When asked what his most inspiring memory of teaching was, Clouser replied, “When kids come and tell me that they changed their life around because of my class.” Despite his great relationship with his students, Clouser decided the move from South Jr. High to LHS was too hard. He went from teaching three classes a day to teaching six classes a day. This stress caused him to decide to retire, but teaching a lot of the same kids again, he said, was “like meeting family members I haven’t seen for a few years.”
One of these students, Alyssa Crider, was excited when she first heard that Clouser was going to teach at LHS her senior year. She knew that he would be a great addition to LHS and that all the kids would love him. Crider had Clouser for her senior U.S. Government class for the first quarter of the semester. She said, “It was really cool going into his class because I already knew him and knew what to expect.” When asked about her opinion on his retirement, Crider replied, “I’m really happy for him. He works hard, so I’m just glad he gets to take a break now. Everyone is going to miss him for sure.”
Alyssa Crider’s favorite memories of Clouser’s classes are his stories of taking useless appliances to a field and ‘executing’ them, and the dumb car safari. Clouser took his classes outside to the school’s parking lot and showed them some ‘dumb’ cars. This is one of the many things that Crider, along with the rest of Clouser’s former students, will never forget because it is a skill that is useful to her in the future. She said, “He taught us basic life skills that we don’t really learn anywhere else like how to buy a house, buy a car, and make a resume.”
His helpful advice isn’t the only reason Clouser was so popular with his students. He really knows how to talk to kids and it is obvious that he loved and respected his students very much. Clouser taught his students many of the things that experience taught him, and they will hopefully remember those things and use them in their futures. After his retirement, Clouser plans to write a book about teaching.