Lamp of Knowledge

List of 1 items.

• 

  Michael Seckman

  This year’s Lamp of Knowledge Award recipient Michael Seckman is nearing completion of his 33rd year at St. John’s School. Reflecting on receiving the award, Michael shared, “It was exciting to get recognition from the alumni body, which is a little different from getting recognition from the School. We hope as teachers that our instruction has staying power and that the positive impressions remain.” For former students of Mr. Seckman, they clearly do. 

   

  Michael’s arrival at St. John’s School can really be traced back to an origin story of his own making when he was in high school. Michael grew up with five brothers and two sisters in Rome, GA. One day while reading a magazine, he happened upon an ad for a summer program at Phillips Academy Andover. The program offered financial aid for students to attend, so unbeknownst to his parents, Michael requested an application. He later heard back that he had been accepted into the program with all tuition and expenses covered. 

   

  Experiencing his first airplane trip from Atlanta to Boston, Michael spent six weeks living in the dorms and eating in the dining hall while taking two courses and participating in a work study program. It proved to be transformative for him. He notes, “It ignited something in me. It opened my eyes to what could happen at a school. As a part of that program, we had college counseling at a level that wasn’t at my public high school ... and I learned about Rice University.” 

   

  Attending Rice University brought Michael to Houston, and he has never left. After earning his degree, Michael attended the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. He also began working with Writers in the Schools, “and that’s where I gained my love for and figured out my aptitude for working with young people. I was in elementary classrooms, teaching creative writing.” Michael began applying for teaching jobs, including opportunities in Spain, a country he had a great interest in visiting. Feedback from this process was that he needed experience working in a more traditional school setting. Consequently, Michael applied to the most traditional school he could think of in Houston, St. John’s. Unfortunately, he never heard back. 

   

  Some time later, when Michael was working in the education department of the Contemporary Arts Museum, he learned that a group of Class 5 students from SJS was coming in to learn about an exhibition of conceptual art. Having still not heard back from St. John’s, Michael decided to channel his passion and lead the best lesson that he could muster for the visiting students. Apparently, he made an impact. Michael tells the story, “Kathryn Hooper pulls me aside and says, ‘Who are you? Tell me about yourself.’ And I said, ‘Well, by the way, I’ve put in an application at St. John’s, but I haven’t heard anything.’ She goes, ‘I can’t believe it. Give me your name and your number. You're going to hear from us today.’” Next thing he knew he had an interview with Head of Lower and Middle School Pat Adams, and the rest is history. 

   

  From the beginning, Michael taught in Middle School. He and Kem Kemp arrived together on campus and were charged with fostering creative writing in Class 7, which they did together for a number of years before Kem moved to Upper School. At the time of their arrival, the Middle School was housed north of Westheimer on the Cullen Campus, along with the Upper School. There Michael was surrounded by veteran English teachers, including Michael Cullinan, Theo Coonrod, George Goolsby, and Richard Johnson, among others. “There were all these folks who had a pretty profound influence on me as a young teacher. It was a place that fostered my learning as a young teacher, so I feel very indebted to those colleagues.” 

   

  Throughout his time at SJS, Michael has taken on several different roles in addition to teaching Class 8 students. Having wrestled through high school, he coached wrestling alongside John Friday and later Coach De La Garza for the better part of ten years. Michael has also done Admission work, interviewing prospective students and sitting on the admission committee. Recognized for his leadership in the classroom and the division, Michael has served as the Middle School English Team Lead since 2017. And of course Michael has become a mainstay and key leader on the Class 8 trips to Big Bend and now Utah, better known as “Seckdog” in camp, where he has overseen the kitchen cleanup for years. 

   

  Michael has great appreciation for the many opportunities St. John’s has afforded him, crediting the School with ultimately getting him to Spain, where he taught for a year through the School Year Abroad program, one of the best experiences of his life. He also earned a Fulbright Teaching Award that allowed him to exchange roles with a teacher in Romania for a school year, an eye-opening and affirming experience. In addition to Spain and Romania, St. John’s connections have allowed him to travel to Mexico, Costa Rica, France, Taiwan, and Japan, where in 2023 he trained for and climbed Mt. Fuji thanks to a grant from the Sarah Rabinow Pesikoff ’86 Faculty Summer Enrichment Fund. 

   

  As he eyes his future, Michael draws upon the lessons and motivations he has learned from over three decades and counting, “The thing I would not have predicted from the beginning is just how much change would be a part of the job. Being in schools and being an educator, there’s always something exciting and new. And then the constant is the kids. I’m happy to be in this building with young people. It’s a tremendous, tremendous gift.” His colleagues know the inverse to be true as well, noting, “Michael cares deeply for his students, both as writers and as humans,” adding “they know how to write well!” and most notably, “Mr. Seckman’s students know that they are seen and loved.”