The average American visits three countries in their lifetime. Kansas City teacher Kevin Stoda has visited 102, and also taught in nearly a dozen, including Japan, Kuwait, Nicaragua, and the United Arab Emirates.
Inspired by his late father, who loaded up the family and traveled the country each summer from Kansas, Stoda has spent four decades immersing himself in foreign places and cultures. His first overseas assignment was teaching English in Germany as a fresh college graduate. His most recent stint was in Oman, where he taught for six years and introduced popular American movies and music into English-language classrooms that had been hidebound by traditional textbooks and methods.
Now back in the U.S., teaching English to immigrant students at Wy- andotte High School in Kansas City, Kan., Stoda believes he has brought back a few essential lessons that he learned overseas: One, all students appreciate high standards. When he was teaching in El Salvador, a student pulled up his shirt to show Stoda his gunshot scars. Be empathetic, be understanding, says Stoda, and figure out ways to help that student succeed.
Even in places with deep poverty and racism, “if you give them a chance to shine, they’ll surprise you with what they can do,” he says. This is as true in Nicaragua as it is in Kansas City, he says. “Students want to be pushed, they want to learn.”
The other lesson: Be curious. Stoda’s curiousity has driven him from Kansas to Kuwait. It has pushed him across the globe into unfamiliar and alien places where mistakes are inevitable, where new learning is required to survive.
“Teachers make more assumptions than anybody else on the planet, but when you’re abroad you need to make mistakes and ask for forgiveness,” he says. That is the most valuable lesson.
“When you’re [teaching] abroad you need to make mistakes and ask for forgiveness.” — KEVIN STODA, TEACHER, WYANDOTTE HIGH SCHOOL, KANSAS CITY, KANSAS
From top, Stoda in Yemen; Kuwaiti students on a seaside field trip; and a rooftop perspective in Sana’a, Yemen.
At top right, end-of-year dinner with Matsu Island students. Above, Stoda with his students in Oman.
