In 2019, history and psychology teacher Kyle Short was invited to support his teacher friends in a funding dispute within San Jose Unified School District. He was inspired by how teachers and students stood together to help support their school and wanted to be a part of that. 

“I found it very rewarding to watch the relationship they (Short’s teacher friends) had built with their students and watching them inspire students to do greater and better things,” Short said. “I figured I should give that a shot as well.”

This year, Short joined the SCHS staff as a U.S. History and Psychology teacher. Though he started teaching at SCHS a few weeks ago, Short has already discovered the collaborative spirit in the faculty. He also enjoys the interest many students have expressed in his history and psychology classes. 

One thing Short wishes more students knew how to do is properly analyze historical sources for their learning benefit. Short pointed out the value that certain historical objects provide when credibility is a factor.  

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“A lot of our information about history is through other people’s writings, people’s paintings, artifacts, genetics,” Short said. “It’s really important to know why they’re writing because there’s a misconception that primary sources are more truthful than other sources.”

Alongside history, Short also explained how teaching psychology offers a new perspective to philosophy by using scientific methods to explore an individual’s thoughts. He finds it important to learn how to use and apply a scientific experiment into this scenario. 

“How you explore people’s thinking is usually through scientific experimentation,” Short said. “Learning what a good study is and how applicable this study is is very important.”

Short chose to be a history teacher because of the many historical experiences he has lived through, a major one being the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

“How things have changed from before to then really just goes to show the great impacts that history has,” Short said. 

Short enjoys his new job, the cooperative environment of the faculty, the engaged students and most of all, teaching history. 

“I’ve always enjoyed history,” Short said. “I think it’s really important to know where things come from and know how things are or how things came to be.”