Teacher Feature: The World According to Rupprecht

By Kimiya Aframian and Michael VigmanSteve Rupprecht, a veteran Samo math teacher and avid outdoorsman, has a story like none other. We sat down with him to learn about all the niche adventures and wise insights that he has acquired throughout his many years as a traveler and teacher. With a geophysics major from the University of Minnesota and a masters from UCLA, he even once applied to be a park ranger at Arches National Park in Utah. His perennial advice, love of science through math and earnest personality makes him a captivating educator to all. The following is a transcript of our conversation with him during lunch last Wednesday, edited for conciseness. Kimiya Aframian: Hi Mr. Rupprecht, Michael and I are from The Samohi and we’re starting a new segment in the paper featuring teachers at Samo and highlighting their unique backgrounds. It’s called “Teacher Feature” and you’d be our first!Steve Rupprecht: That’s a fun name but I’m not that interesting! Are you sure you want to interview me as your first?KA: Definitely, we want to find those special things about you and share it with the Samo community. Let’s start with the basics. How long have you been teaching at Samo?SR: 23 years, but didn’t start teaching until I was 38 years old. To me, that was a good decision because if I had been teaching all the way through from college, I’d probably be going out of my mind. I’m glad that teaching was a later-in-life decision after I had been doing a bunch of other stuff like traveling and exploring the world. Michael Vigman: What was your inspiration to go into education? SR: I love learning. There was a long gap between my college years and grad school. I wanted to stay connected to the academics somehow and of course teaching is a great way to do that. Plus, I know it sounds cliche, but a career with young people makes you feel younger. It really makes you connected to the energy of a different generation. I have to be perfectly honest; I had done a lot of traveling and never worked more than 8 months a year so I had to find a career similar to that. Teaching was the perfect fit for that. MV: Where did you travel to?SR: I wanted to see if I could support myself living out of a backpack and so the day I finished college I started doing that. I thought it’d last a year or two, but it ended up being 13 years. I would do different jobs that didn’t require a home or car or furniture. So I was doing things like living overseas teaching English, or for a while I lived in the woods in New England teaching outdoor science to middle school kids and then I was leading camping tours around North America. KA: Of all the places you’ve traveled, where would you say is your favorite?SR: The favorite places I’ve been to are for different reasons. There’s reasons for cultural differences or food or the landscape. For example, Malawi, Africa is one of the poorest nations in the world but the people are so amazing, so friendly and there are brilliant, green landscapes with waterfalls. Lake Malawi is one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. It’s a spectacular place despite the incredible poverty. Another example, Indonesia. I was struck by the special music there. They have a cultural tradition of these puppet shows. And I climbed a volcano there. That’s a cool country. KA: So after all your travels and exploring the world, what brought you to Santa Monica and eventually Samo?SR: I always knew that I wanted to be able to get to mountains, ocean and desert in one afternoon. Where else can you get it except California? I had a friend who heard about an opening [at Samo]. I had never been to this campus but I came to the campus and I said ‘Wow, I can see the ocean from campus. That’s crazy!’ So I immediately applied for the job and got it. I was sold.MV: How do you think you brought your solo adventures and the experiences on the road to the classroom? SR: Living on your own without many resources teaches you how to solve problems. You don’t panic and you know that you can get through this. Teaching is very much a solitary job in the sense that you are the only adult in the room. Those years alone just taught me to use what I had to solve any kind of challenge I had. That’s why I kind of think that most teachers should probably do some other things first before they become teachers. Try something: a life of adventure or a life of challenges in the business world or in science or in writing or whatever interests you. Just try something before you go right into teaching. MV: With so much technology, I feel that the beauty of the natural outdoors has been lost on people of our generation. Would you say that we need to stray a little from the full-technology path?SR: I have issues with the reliance on it. I find that a lot of young people consciously or subconsciously need to be entertained and they’ve come to expect technology to be that source of entertainment. In my times, you created your own entertainment. I’d be hitchhiking around America and sometimes you wait for a long time to get a ride so you pick up a few rocks and you teach yourself to juggle. That's what I mean about creating your own entertainment. When I was a kid, the first thing I wanted to do when I got home was go outside, roll in the grass, climb a tree, build a fort.I wonder if my students couldn’t do that without their videos and their playlists. And I know it sounds cliche, adults lamenting about the teenage obsession with video, but to me it’s a disengagement with the natural world that is being caused by this.  *Lunch bell rings*KA: You said you had nothing interesting about you! This is amazing!MV: Well thank you very much Mr. Rupprecht, it was a real pleasure and I’m so glad.