By Gabriel Brogan

On a Tuesday morning, I walk into Mr. Wilson’s unassuming lost wing classroom. Flags of several nations hang on the walls, joining a 2008 Obama poster and a joke about chickens crossing the road. While his room may seem typical for a history teacher, the man inside is anything but. 

On that particular day, Mr. Wilson was dressed in this year’s red and gold McCaskey marching band shirt, tucked into well-worn blue jeans. A thick leather belt bearing a Ford buckle the size of an iPhone 13 held the ensemble together. 

“I don’t really care about what you guys think of me.” And it’s true. Anyone who’s ever taken a class with Mr. Wilson knows he cannot be fazed. While many other teachers seem constantly flustered, disorganized, and angry, Mr. Wilson only reveals one emotion while teaching his classes: calm. “I don’t want to say I don’t respect the opinions of students…but socially, I really don’t…I know that I’m bald, and there is nothing you guys can say that will really hurt my feelings.” 

However, Mr. Wilson wasn’t always the unflappable veteran he is today, and says his demeanor has come with “being older.” Even after teaching at a similarly large and diverse school in San Antonio, Texas, from 2008-2017, Mr. Wilson admitted his transition to McCaskey was rough. “In the years I’ve been here, the biggest challenge is that no two years have been remotely the same, there’s so much change…but to be fair we’ve had Covid, technological changes…this year I’ve got this TV which I don’t know how to use.” 

Mr. Wilson may seem like he’s been here since the dinosaurs roamed the earth, but 17 years of teaching under his license-plate-sized belt buckle, he is still relatively new to McCaskey. “Despite my expectations, McCaskey was a big change from my school in Texas.” 

Though he hasn’t been here long, Mr. Wilson loves McCaskey, especially teaching AP and IB classes. “Getting the scores, and knowing that I potentially helped that student get college credit, or get into a school they wanted to go to…that’s nice.” It’s another strategy Wilson uses to stay so steady in such a demanding profession. “You go through the grind, survive the year, and then the kids leave, you get a few months off, and it all starts again…but with the AP classes, I know I really helped those kids.” 

Mr. Wilson also knows when he’s had enough. At only 45 years old, Wilson revealed he plans to retire at 55. Why? He always wants to be the best for his students. “I don’t want to be one of those teachers that’s really old and really grouchy all the time and just doesn’t have the energy…I always want to have the intelligence and wit to banter, engage in debate, to think on the spot, to really keep up with my students.”

And he isn’t just teaching at McCaskey. Mr. Wilson also runs the Model UN club, and the Color Guard, his own version of ROTC. “We used to have a junior ROTC attachment associated with the air force here…when the ROTC unit dissolved, I formed a group to practice marching with the flags and rifles and present them at events.” 

Mr. Wilson is not only a great teacher, but a great example of someone that we all can learn from. His calm consistency, self-awareness, and wry humor earn him the admiration and respect of his students, a puzzle very few other teachers have solved. As he told me, it comes down to simply enjoying the job: “I like what I do, I like what I teach, and I like McCaskey.”