For this week’s edition of Shaler Area’s teacher feature we will be interviewing Mr. Cory Williams, our history department’s loudest member.

Q: What is the best concert you’ve been to?

A: Probably the best concert I ever went to is TID the season which is the ‘Every Time I Die’ concert up in Buffalo every year. The very first year I went, they did this awesome thing where they have like local professional wrestling, so they had this crazy professional wrestling thing going on for an hour or two then they started playing shows which they don’t do anymore because Every Time I Die broke up. But the first concert I went to when I was there had like 6 or 7 different bands and I got to see Every Time I Die which was cool but I saw one of my favorite punk bands which was Pup for the first time. It was actually the first time I ever really listened to them. I saw ‘Turnstile’ before they started to get big, ‘Knock Loose’ was up there and they’re was a couple of other ones that were really cool. Probably one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to so that was cool. The other one was probably the ‘Gaslight Anthem’ which I went to last year, they broke up and got back together and now it’s an old guy reunion tour. 

Q: Big question, what is your fattest moment?

A: When I was in high school I tried to eat 100 wings. I tried to eat a benji with Worm, my buddy. So we did our best to eat 100 wings, but i was stopped when the establishment we were at stopped bringing out the all you can eat wings. So I ended up falling short, but I ended up eating somewhere around 95 or 97 wings and that was just me by myself. It was really bad and it got really gross about an hour later and that was that. Wings are still like my favorite food so y’know I didn’t destroy them for myself. I did destroy myself though. 

Q: What is your favorite student slang, and if you could use it in a sentence that would be great. 

A: This is the toughest of all the questions. So at home I’m always using ‘Brah’ because my daughter picked up on the fact that high school boys are always like ‘BRAH’ so I use that at home all the time to let my daughter know she’s acting like an idiot, but I don’t want to yell at her. So brah, “dude brah” is my favorite thing that kids say now. 

Q: What’s the craziest place you’ve visited? 

A: Neuschwanstein is King Ludwig II’s first castle that he commissioned entirely by himself, yet it was never finished. It is the model for Cinderella’s castle….. I take that back , Neuschwanstein as crazy but Hohenschwangau was less impressive as a castle but the surrounding areas were far greater and the idyllic setting is built in this mountainous area up in Bavaria up on an Alpine lake and so that was pretty amazing. I got to walk out of the castle and I walked down into this little village and there was ice cream and all this sort of stuff so I had some ice cream and walked down towards the dock with my feet dangling in this alpine lake. And I could see y’know the Alps all around me, I could see Austria, Switzerland and all this craziness with Germany hanging behind my back. It was pretty remarkable, one of those places where you find that zen, a place where you belong. That was probably my favorite place. You can put me on a raft and give me a Viking burial at Hohenschwangau.

Q:  Most Irresponsible Purchase You’ve Made?

A: So my wife and I were committed to going to the Pittsburgh Pirates playoff game, the very first playoff game, the wildcard game. Russel Martin hits a home run after Johnny Cueto drops the ball and we were so committed to going but we couldn’t buy tickets. Tickets were totally sold out so I made the irresponsible choice to go down and scalp tickets and I’m not a scalper. It’s not a thing I do and my wife and I decided we were going to, we had a limit set and this guy was selling a set of 4 tickets and we had to give him 300 dollars for two tickets in hopes that maybe we’d sit next to these guys from Cincinnati who were also willing to pony up the cash. And so this guy sells us these bunk tickets, and like I never even looked at the ticket after he gave them to me, I just ran across the street and handed them to the usher. I was on the rotunda, I made it into the wildcard game, but security came and grabbed me to tell me that my tickets were fake. And those are 300 bucks I’ll never get back. 

Q: What was the first car you bought?

A: 1990 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera. It had like 85,000 miles on it, it was not my first choice of car, but it was my first car where I had enough money saved up where my dad would chip in 1000 dollars after I started saving money. The car ended up being 4500 dollars or something. We bought that thing and within three weeks of us buying it the radiator blew up. So here I am driving this car and it’s just leaking radiator fluid everywhere and I had to replace that right away… just stupid. And then I drove the thing until literally the doors wouldn’t stay closed and they would fly open on you when you were going around bends on a highway and the only thing that would hold the door closed was the seatbelt being attached to the door. It was pretty dangerous, pretty dumb and then we gave that car up and then they raced it in this thing called the Cornfield 500. It is like a junk car race they do up around farmers’ fields up where I’m from in Meadville so pretty funny stuff. It didn’t survive the race, apparently this guy ramped it and everything in the undercarriage blew out so it was time for that thing to go.

Q: What would you say is your favorite lesson to teach?

A: There’s a lot that I like to teach, but I think the ones I like the best are the ones that force kids to think about a different perspective than their own experience. We always take a look at Thomas Jefferson in context and that’s a fun one to teach, we take a look at Abraham Lincoln in context that’s always fun to teach. Teddy Rosevelt is always a decisive character we take a look at in context so we can challenge your perspectives. And of course rice, I love to teach about the Vietnam War through the perspective of not knowing how to grow rice. Anything that challenges your perspective and makes you think about somebody else’s issues is my favorite to teach. 

Q: Most over-hated Historical Figure?

A: He’s not over-hated, but he is oversimplified and that’s William Howard Taft. Taft was a remarkable politician, Taft was a remarkable human. Taft has the distinction of being a member of the House of Representatives, the president, the vice-president, and he also ends up being a Supreme Court justice. So yeah he’s one of my favorites. All most people remember him for is being the fat guy who got stuck in the bathtub which never even happened which really upsets me. So yeah Taft is one of those guys who got a bad rap and I like talking about his contributions and how he was even more progressive than Teddy Roosevelt or Woodrow Wilson and the other people we consider to be progressive presidents. 

Q: If you get a free night to yourself with no responsibility what are you doing?

A: I’m hanging out by the fire. It’s pretty simple, as long as it’s a decent night outside I’m gonna start a fire and you can probably catch me out there until probably midnight. Usually I’m just staring at the moon or the fire or I’m just listening to music that’s like my number one go to. If it’s raining or too cold then I will lock myself in the attic and play video games by myself. And NO I’m not playing online and no I don’t have a gamer tag and no I’m not playing you so don’t get any ideas. 

Q: What made you decide to become a history teacher?

A: Oh geez what a terrible question. I had a great history teacher in 3rd grade, Mrs. Richmond, she inspired a love of Native American history and western Pennsylvania history in me that has been an undercurrent for my entire life. Mr. Ockenbaugh was my football coach in high school who was amazing. He was a terrific teacher who approached things in a way that got the job done but also made it fun to learn about those people and events in the past. I was actually not even going to college for teaching, I was going for law and I got through the end of my freshman year and came to a little bit of a crossroads and I talked to a friend’s dad who was a lawyer. And I asked him how his experience was, and he indicated that he spent so much time of his life and he had so many great things, but as a result of having all of those great things, he wasn’t able to spend time with his kid which was one of his biggest regrets. He said if you want all the stuff, be a lawyer, but if you want to have time with your family and your friends and the ability to live a different life then try to be a teacher so that’s what I did.