Humans of East: Q&A with the new wood shop teacher Nicholas Scheuerman

After teaching social studies and wood shop at Shawnee Mission West for three years, Nicholas Scheuerman transferred to East two weeks into the second semester to become the new woodshop teacher. He compares East to West and reflects on the adjustments he made to fully settle in at East.

How long have you been involved with woodwork?

“Since I was a little kid. My dad built furniture in our house and it’s all still there. I was always outside in the garage with my dad doing something with woodshop.”

Was it a hard adjustment coming in two weeks after the semester started?

“It was. First of all, there’s the aspect of me teaching government versus now teaching a hands-on class, but it’s also how kids are here versus how they are at West. They’re all teenagers, there’s just something different and I haven’t quite figured it out yet. It might just be more about school pride — it seems like there’s more of that here.”

How is the woodshop program at West different from the one here?

“At West, the program is bigger, there’s a lot more kids taking the class. It’s just a bigger group of kids, and I think kids from other schools that don’t have those programs travel there. You have a lot more kids that are more into wanting to be able to be a woodworker as opposed to just taking a cool class.”

Was it hard not being able to be a social studies teacher at East?

“I’ve always been into history. I love history. I love that aspect, but truthfully I would much rather do something hands-on where kids are actually creating products, and they’re able to take an element and use it. I don’t miss teaching social studies, I’d much rather do this.”

What are you looking forward to?

“This woodshop [class] a lot of work, not saying anything bad about the last teacher, it was just run a little differently. I think there are some things that need to be upgraded and fixed. I look forward to making this my shop and making the program mine.”