While most students think of Latin teacher Richard Esswein for the suits he wears or the Latin rhymes he teaches, teaching Latin is not something Esswein always did.  He had a previous career as an International tax attorney for the local corporation Monsanto.  While he liked both careers, he said his passion was for teaching.

lhsimage.com asked Esswein about his transition from practicing law to teaching Latin.

Q:  What did you do before you became a teacher?

A: I was an international tax attorney.  I worked for Monsanto.  In that role, I planned and analyzed the International tax consequences of any foreign related transactions.

Q:  Why did you decide to become a Latin teacher?

A: I was heavily influenced by my high school Latin teachers and found myself day dreaming about being a high school Latin teacher.  I’d [been an attorney] for 20 years—a good long run.  I didn’t want to go to my grave not having tried something I wanted to do and thought I’d be good at.

Q:  What do you think about being a teacher now that you are one?

A: This is where I’m happy to be.  It’s a lot more work than people think it is.  There are trade-offs.  When I had my first job, when I came home I thought I was done for the day.  Now, I’m thinking about the next day.  As with any job, there are challenges and difficulties, but the most satisfying years of my life were the years I spent teaching.

Q:  What do you expect to do in the future?

A: I expect that I will teach beyond ‘retirement age.’

Q:  What are the biggest similarities between your previous and current career?

A: In a strange way, Latin is like tax law and to a large degree, a lot of what I did was teaching business folks the rules and why they worked that way.  [Those are] similarities most people wouldn’t notice.