For many, the purpose of traveling is to see the most iconic landmarks and pack a suitcase full of souvenirs to bring home. But Mountain View High School teacher Paul McHenry travels to explore everyday scenes and returns with diverse stories to share with his students.
“It’s those almost serendipitous moments that I really enjoy about traveling, being able to experience a new culture and… understand the culture through the eyes of the locals,” McHenry said.
McHenry brings everything he learns from his travels back to his AP Psychology classroom at Mountain View High, where he entertains students with stories from around the globe.
“In many ways, [teaching and travelling] is a symbiotic relationship,” McHenry said. “My students make me a better traveler and a better human, and then traveling gives me that perspective that I can bring back to understand layers of my students that I don’t see expressed in my classroom.”
This yin-and-yang, give-and-take relationship was evident when McHenry found teaching helped prepare him for meaningful travel long before he ever boarded a plane or navigated unfamiliar cities. McHenry said teaching was a formative experience that gave him the framework for understanding the diverse perspectives he encountered abroad.
To his students’ delight, McHenry always returns from his trips with insights he applies to his classroom. His teaching style, influenced by his travels, engages many students, including Mountain View High junior Adelie Dyer, who is currently taking his AP Psychology class.
“Mr. McHenry engages the class through many stories and has us do fun activities that help us understand the concept at hand,” Dyer said. “He stands out as a teacher to me because he uses storytelling as a method of teaching and always makes it clear that he is there to help us when we need it.”
McHenry said travel also allows him to experience being a beginner and make mistakes without fear of judgment, which enhances his teaching by helping him empathize with his students’ struggles with understanding materials in class.
Beyond becoming a better educator, McHenry’s passion for travel has also inspired him to experience being a student and to learn again.
“If we have curiosity about what we’re learning, and why we want to know, it’s gonna stick with us better, and we’re going to become more well-rounded learners,” McHenry said. “Tying that back into travel, that curiosity is a piece that builds beyond some of the more foundational understandings that we often have of things, of places of being.”
Ultimately, McHenry’s goal is to empower his students through leveraging his unique travel experiences.
“I hope that’s the way that they [students] pursue life and go through life: with that curiosity, with that wanting to know and experience the world rather than just kind of live in the world or ‘exist’ in the world,” McHenry said.
