Written by Abby Spaulding
It has been 39 years since John Calhoun first got a job at Salem Schools. As the 2025-2026 school year comes to an end, so does Calhoun's career as a teacher.
When asked about how he got into education Calhoun explained, “Well, I didn’t have much of a choice. My parents took me to kindergarten 56 years ago and I haven’t stopped learning since.”
Calhoun stated that his father was a teacher, and his sister is a teacher, so the idea of teaching came naturally to him.
Salem was the ideal teaching environment for Calhoun. He wanted to be in a smaller community and at an average sized school. When a science position opened up 40 years ago he didn’t hesitate to take it.
“The people around here are great people,” he said. “They have made the job easier. I’ve developed good relationships.”
When asked what he wanted to be remembered for, Calhoun said, “It doesn’t bother me whether I’m remembered or not at Salem High School. I hope that my students had a good relationship and benefited from me being their teacher. That’s not just because I’m retiring. That was my goal in year one, year two, year three, every year. I hope my students benefited from me being their teacher. I wasn’t here to make a legacy of my name. I was here to help kids become better in the moment. That's what I did, that's what I think I do.”
Calhoun teaches manufacturing, physics, chemistry one and chemistry two. He shared that he does not have a favorite class to teach.
“Every class I’ve taught is fun,” he said. “They all have their perks. All four of my classes could probably harm some kid throughout the course of the day, but we’re doing it anyway, because that’s education. I mean, you’ve got to learn. If you don’t go out and experiment and take the risk, how do you know if you can do things?”
Calhoun’s favorite part of teaching is the relationships he has formed.
“Without wanting to form a relationship with students, there is no point in teaching,” he said. “You can be the smartest person in the world, but if you can’t communicate and relate to people no one will want to learn from you.”
In his retirement Calhoun plans to travel, hangout with his friends, and work on his farm.
Teachers already know what it’s like to not have to go to work for a month or two in a row,” he said. “So just extending that for the rest of whatever, it’s really exciting. I’m looking forward to it. I hope I don’t miss teaching; I don’t think I will. I hope to be so busy I don’t think ‘Oh gosh, I wish I was teaching’ but no, I have tons to do. My wife and I have lots of friends, we do a lot of different things, and I’m going to do new things.”
Teaching has meant everything to Calhoun, as he described the career as unique.
“Everyday is a new challenge,” he said. “And I always think, wow, I get new challenges everyday even though it’s the same job. I think that’s wonderful.”