Fr. Matt Stewart, SJ said on Tuesday that when one individual is absent from our St. Louis U. High community, their absence is felt by the whole community. This could not be more true for English and band teacher Thomas Curdt, who has made the decision to leave SLUH at the end of the year to pursue content creation for the thing he loves most: coffee.

Curdt, like many other teachers at SLUH, has been involved at SLUH since a very young age.

“I first came to SLUH before I can remember,” said Curdt. “I would come a couple times a month while dad was grading things.”

Curdt started his high school journey at SLUH in 2014, and was first drawn to the idea of teaching his junior year, when was hired as a Learning Coach for Upward Bound 7 in 2018. 

After graduating from SLUH, Curdt attended DePauw University where he graduated with a degree in music and English literature. Curdt also continued working at Upward Bound over the summer, giving him a unique glimpse into the world of teaching at college. 

After college, Curdt began his teaching saga with a one year stint at Regis High School in Denver, where he served in the Alumni Service Corps. Wanting to pursue teaching, Curdt came right back to 4970 Oakland as a teacher. He began teaching sophomore English, lab band, symphonic band, jazz band, and combos, combining his two loves for the English language and the language of sound, as well as continuing to work at Upward Bound, which he has been a part of for the past nine years. His impact was immediate and profound, as so keenly stated by his students.

“Mr. Curdt’s approach to teaching jazz band was excellent,” said junior Charlie LaBarge. “He made sure we covered the basics first, and then the basics took us to the next level and helped us learn more difficult songs.”

The most important part of a teacher's impact is admittedly not the lessons that they’ve taught, or the learning that they’ve fostered, but the impacts that they’ve made on their students.

“Mr Curdt really made class engaging every single day,” said junior David Young. “I’ve never had an English class that made me so excited to come to it.”

Curdt works to challenge the way his students think about their material and to make them feel comfortable about encountering new and exciting subjects. He has worked to spark his students' curiosity for new and unfamiliar genres. He has worked his hardest to create an exciting routine for his students that allows them to have fun exploring the material while making sure that they are able to fully dig in and understand the material.

In his English classes, Curdt works to give his students as much space in their brains as they need to dive into and fully understand the literature being presented to them. When teaching band he pushes his students to open their ears to new musicians and genres, and to pursue as much one on one time as they need to ensure that they feel comfortable with their instruments and with the solo that all students have to perform at their concert.  

When Curdt first shared with his students that this would be his last year at SLUH, he was met with excitement about his new venture but also great sadness. Since hearing the news, his students have worked to create a greater connection with him and been curiously asking him questions about his new job.

“I will miss all the student connections,” Curdt said. “It's a really great experience to walk around the hallway and feel like you're a part of a lot of people's lives, that's a cool thing.”