Meet the New Teachers: Mr. Freeman-Coppadge
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By Caity Reiter '21
This week, I had the pleasure of sitting down with one of our new English teachers, Mr. Jonathan Freeman-Coppadge, or Mr. FC for short. Mr. FC went to St. John’s College just down the road in Annapolis and developed a passion for teaching at a young age. |
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Caity Reiter: Where did you grow up?
Mr. FC: I grew up in north-central Pennsylvania in the middle of nowhere in a town of 500 people. My public school graduating class was 54.
CR: Where did you go to college?
JFC: I went to St. John’s College in Annapolis, which was the perfect fit for me. I really wanted the academic and intellectual curiosity that I didn’t get in high school. I wanted to read the great books that have shaped the western world and I wanted to grapple with the big questions. That is what St. Johns is all about.
CR: What sports/clubs/extra-curricular activities did you do in high school and college?
JFC: In high school, I was very involved with music and theater. I was also involved in our Christian fellowship group and National Honors Society. Outside of school I got involved in an organization called the Hugh O’Brian Youth leadership organization--HOBY for short. It pulled high school sophomores from across the state and across the nation for four-day conferences on leadership and service. It became a big part of my life. I actually continued volunteering with that organization for fifteen years. In college I was involved again with Christian fellowship, some of the theater productions, and I formed an acapella quintet that performed for a few years.
CR: Have you taught at any other schools before Severn? What are they like compared to Severn?
JFC: I started my full-time teaching career at Indian Creek School. I was there for five years and then I moved to Massachusetts for my husband’s doctoral program. I taught at Groton School, which is a boarding school in rural Massachusetts about an hour outside of Boston; I was there for five years as well. Indian Creek is obviously more similar to Severn than Groton in a lot of ways. If I had to compare them I would say I find the same level of excitement between Indian Creek students and Severn students--in general people are really happy to be students here, which is great. One of the big differences between Severn and Groton was that because Groton was a boarding school, you saw your colleagues and students all the time. You saw them from 8 a.m. until 10:30 or 11:00 at night, sometimes later. There are ways in which that was wonderful--it means that every moment was a learning moment--but there were ways in which that was hard.
CR: What made you want to start teaching?
JFC: It was the teachers I had in high school. When I was in high school, I thought my high school English teachers had the best job I could imagine. They got to read great books and they got to talk about literature with people who were interested in it and who cared about it, and they got to do it for a living. That was awesome to me. [They] were my mentors and … the people I trusted. I went to them to talk about the things that were bothering me in life because we had already talked about the big questions and big problems in the books we were reading.
CR: Do you have any pets? Kids?
JFC: I have a two-and-a-half-year-old son named Langston, whom many of the students met at the frosh-soph picnic. Hopefully he’ll be a Severn student next year. I also have a dog, an Australian Shepherd and Bernese Mountain Dog mix; she’s twelve years old and her name is Lacey.
CR: Do you have any hidden talents?
JFC: I can play piano passably and I sing; I have sung for a number of years. I also write--writing is my main creative outlet right now.
Please stop by Creeden 306 if you have any more questions for our new English expert!
Mr. FC: I grew up in north-central Pennsylvania in the middle of nowhere in a town of 500 people. My public school graduating class was 54.
CR: Where did you go to college?
JFC: I went to St. John’s College in Annapolis, which was the perfect fit for me. I really wanted the academic and intellectual curiosity that I didn’t get in high school. I wanted to read the great books that have shaped the western world and I wanted to grapple with the big questions. That is what St. Johns is all about.
CR: What sports/clubs/extra-curricular activities did you do in high school and college?
JFC: In high school, I was very involved with music and theater. I was also involved in our Christian fellowship group and National Honors Society. Outside of school I got involved in an organization called the Hugh O’Brian Youth leadership organization--HOBY for short. It pulled high school sophomores from across the state and across the nation for four-day conferences on leadership and service. It became a big part of my life. I actually continued volunteering with that organization for fifteen years. In college I was involved again with Christian fellowship, some of the theater productions, and I formed an acapella quintet that performed for a few years.
CR: Have you taught at any other schools before Severn? What are they like compared to Severn?
JFC: I started my full-time teaching career at Indian Creek School. I was there for five years and then I moved to Massachusetts for my husband’s doctoral program. I taught at Groton School, which is a boarding school in rural Massachusetts about an hour outside of Boston; I was there for five years as well. Indian Creek is obviously more similar to Severn than Groton in a lot of ways. If I had to compare them I would say I find the same level of excitement between Indian Creek students and Severn students--in general people are really happy to be students here, which is great. One of the big differences between Severn and Groton was that because Groton was a boarding school, you saw your colleagues and students all the time. You saw them from 8 a.m. until 10:30 or 11:00 at night, sometimes later. There are ways in which that was wonderful--it means that every moment was a learning moment--but there were ways in which that was hard.
CR: What made you want to start teaching?
JFC: It was the teachers I had in high school. When I was in high school, I thought my high school English teachers had the best job I could imagine. They got to read great books and they got to talk about literature with people who were interested in it and who cared about it, and they got to do it for a living. That was awesome to me. [They] were my mentors and … the people I trusted. I went to them to talk about the things that were bothering me in life because we had already talked about the big questions and big problems in the books we were reading.
CR: Do you have any pets? Kids?
JFC: I have a two-and-a-half-year-old son named Langston, whom many of the students met at the frosh-soph picnic. Hopefully he’ll be a Severn student next year. I also have a dog, an Australian Shepherd and Bernese Mountain Dog mix; she’s twelve years old and her name is Lacey.
CR: Do you have any hidden talents?
JFC: I can play piano passably and I sing; I have sung for a number of years. I also write--writing is my main creative outlet right now.
Please stop by Creeden 306 if you have any more questions for our new English expert!