History teacher John Perse is finishing up his last year of teaching after 38 years, 27 of those at BHS.

 Mr. Perse always wanted to be a teacher. 

“It was just something I always thought I wanted to do,” he said. “I enjoyed certain aspects and certain classes in high school, and I enjoyed playing football. I was very much inspired by my teachers and coaches.”

However, he didn’t start his career as a teacher.

“After grad school, I went off and worked for the government,” he said. “[I did] US foreign policy stuff for about five years, but I really found that I missed being in a history classroom.”  

Perse then turned to teaching at private schools in the Washington, D.C. area. 

In 1996 Perse made his way to Beachwood. He describes his students and colleagues as highlights of his experience. 

“Really, the staff here–from support staff to prevention specialists to classroom teachers–it doesn’t take second place to anybody,” he said. “So that’s been great. And of course, over the years I have had some amazing students and been able to teach a subject that I love learning about.”

Perse has also enjoyed watching his students go on to thrive.

“I’ve had great joy in seeing students leave Beachwood and go off and do amazing things as adults,” he said.

For most of his career Perse coached football as well as teaching history.

“For me coaching and teaching were very similar,” he said. “[They are both about] motivating students to accept [a] challenge.” 

Perse has been an inspiration for many students, including junior Radha Pareek, who took both AP US History and AP European History with Perse.

“In his class the focus is not just preparing for the AP exam but actually exploring and learning history,” she said. “He often analogizes that to creating a jigsaw puzzle where you have to constantly zoom in and out and engage in both inductive and deductive reasoning often within the same moment to really see the larger trends of history.”

She also appreciates the class discussions she has had in Perse’s class.

“Often that process of bouncing ideas off of one another leads to new innovative [ways] of thinking and also new ways of seeing history so that we not only look at it as a static narrative but as something that’s dynamic,” she said.

Pareek emphasized that Perse has been an asset to the Beachwood community and has made a huge difference for the thousands of students he has taught during his career. 

“He’s made his students ultimately better human beings,” she said.