This year, the History Department welcomes new faculty member Michael Bechtel to Concord Academy. Having worked as a history professor and mentor at Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan, an academic administrator and professor at multiple universities in the U.S., and a history teacher in China, Bechtel comes with an incredible global teaching background.
As a first-generation college student whose family did not encourage him to pursue higher education, Bechtel paid his own tuition for his undergraduate degree in medieval history. He held multiple jobs, and one of them was as a waiter in a Chinese restaurant. There, he was introduced to his first teaching job in Suzhou, China, where he taught for the first time.
Learning to speak Chinese in China also started Bechtel’s study of languages. While studying Near Eastern Languages and Civilization in graduate school, he read historical texts in many languages. “The funny thing [is] I was never good at learning languages,” said Bechtel. “I have to work very hard on it. We all have the things we struggle with, but still want to work on. It’s a hard-won love.”
Although a lot is taught and learned in the classroom, Bechtel believes that the most important lessons happen in the everyday conversations students have—in the hallways, during meetings, and on the weekends. “These unscripted, informal exchanges [are what really matter]” he said. It was through moments like these with his own teachers that Bechtel first discovered his love for teaching.
Bechtel plans to promote these conversations in and out of the classroom to inspire one generation of teachers and students to the next. “For someone like me who is the product of great teachers, we can never pay them back enough. The only thing we can do is to pass it on. So what they did for me is my duty to do for the students,” he shared. “It’s a legacy, like a history to itself.” When looking for teaching positions, Bechtel was convinced by both his wife and his mentor to apply to teach in independent schools. “I don’t know how many times I have to learn this in my life, but my wife and mentor are always right,” he laughed. “In my first interview at CA, I immediately made some connections with the faculty, and I felt like I met people who were going to be my best friends for life.”
Bechtel will be teaching Eurasian history courses at CA, and a key aspect of his teaching is reading travel accounts. He enjoys reading travel accounts in his free time, too. “[Travel accounts] led to the life I live now, where I’m not satisfied sitting still [for] very long, and I feel like I must go on the next great adventure,” Bechtel shared.
In fact, Bechtel lives a life that could be taken from the pages of a travel account. “Like the Chinese saying, I read ten thousand books, and I walk[ed] ten thousand miles,” he said. “I have walked the Camino de Santiago. I’ve hiked the Pacific Crest Trail and paddled way up north from the rivers and lakes in Canada. I’ve ridden my bike and motorcycle through long parts of the U.S and Central Asia.”
Before joining CA, Bechtel plans to ride his motorcycle into the Altai and Tianshan mountains. We’re thrilled to welcome Bechtel to the CA community!