Biography
I was born and raised in northern Virginia to immigrant parents from South Korea. I had what can be considered a pretty normal childhood, which included riding a big yellow bus to the local public school with the other neighborhood kids. From an early age, I recall loving Aesop’s Fables and reading stories within Greek mythology; I was always asking questions related to wisdom and truth. During junior high, I started tagging along with my older brother to a church youth group, and it was there that the gospel was consistently preached, I became a Christian, and those questions were definitively answered.

Though becoming an educator wasn’t on my radar until senior year of college, teaching has been my vocation now for more than twenty years. During that time, I've had the privilege of teaching students from fourth grade through graduate school in both the United States and South Korea. I've taught a broad range of subjects, including mathematics, Bible, grammar, science, English language arts, history, academic writing, public speaking, SAT and SSAT preparation, and English language skills. I've also presented at an international TESOL conference, chaired a math department, and developed innovative curriculum and assessments for both K-12 and college-aged students. Like many during COVID, I gained experience teaching online and collaborated with instructors in Mexico to design a language exchange program for the university students within our respective courses.

My formal education includes having graduated from a STEM magnet called Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a Bachelor of Science in Commerce from the University of Virginia, and a Master of Education from Harvard University. A cursory glance at their alumni publications (not to mention Teach For America, the organization that sparked my initial desire to teach) reveals the fallacies of secular humanism and pluralism they largely espouse. Similarly, I taught math in Virginia at a secular classical school that included the study of Latin and ancient Greece and Rome and displayed the decorum you might expect, yet the school did not acknowledge the lordship of Christ as the Alpha and Omega. I am grateful for the testing of faith, relationships and opportunities that arose from each of those institutions, but those experiences all gradually increased my desire to seek a work setting more harmonized with my beliefs.

That desire is largely what prompted the move to Moscow, Idaho, where I currently teach part-time at Logos School and live with my wife, son, and daughter. My hobbies include running, swimming, board games with family, and sometimes getting out to enjoy the beautiful scenery on the Palouse.

Teaching Philosophy
Jesus’s earthly ministry offers a useful teaching template: He led through actions, as lessons are more “caught” than “taught”. For better or worse, parents are a child’s first and most influential teachers, as they ought to be (Eph.6:4). Who we typically think of as teachers are actually delegates entrusted by parents with some subset of learning. Furthermore, Jesus spoke in parables and asked open-ended questions; the principle here is to use known, concrete concepts to illustrate unknown, abstract ones, and to provoke thought by inviting dialogue. Finally, in the Great Commission Jesus gave the command to teach new disciples to obey; my takeaway here is that proper teaching is pointed toward sanctification. To that end, my role as a teacher in the context of a class is to inspire students toward an ever-increasing awe of and submission to God’s truth, goodness, and beauty. As Gregory’s The Seven Laws of Teaching would remind me, I do it by knowing the subject well and facilitating an environment in which students actively engage in learning it well. God reveals aspects of Himself and creation through all subjects academic or otherwise, and my prayer is for joy in that journey of discovery.

Statement of Faith
I would describe myself as a Reformed Protestant who adheres to the Apostles’ Creed and favors the Westminster Shorter Catechism for instruction. My family attends Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho. While I have no intention of changing my views, I can certainly empathize with anyone whose faith journey has been circuitous: I was brought up in a secular household, converted in a Korean Baptist church, mentored in college by a charismatic pastor, and once was so intrigued by a Catholic convert that I twice enrolled in their Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. Two influential books I read as a teenager near my conversion were Postmodern Times by Gene Edward Veith and The Kingdom of the Cults by Walter Martin. 1 Peter 3:15 exhorts us to be ready to give an answer for the hope we have, and to this day, I enjoy engaging in conversations or catching online conversations and debates related to matters of faith, whether between Christians or among unbelievers.