Long and winding road leads to Humboldt

New Humboldt High School math teacher Chad Carter has revamped his career by taking it in a different direction.
Carter, an Augusta native, initially earned a pastoral degree from Mid-America Christian University in Oklahoma City. He spent time preaching while doing other part time work around Wichita and Chanute.
“It was kind of a process of figuring out what I actually wanted to do,” Carter said. “When I was a pastor, I enjoyed the teaching aspect of it. But a lot of the other responsibilities that go along with it was something I didn’t enjoy that much.”
To find work, Carter picked up an English as a second language teaching certificate in order to go to China. He taught English there for two-and-a-half years.
It was in China where Carter decided that he liked teaching more than being a pastor.
“I went to China as a necessity,” Carter said, “As I got into it and started doing it, I realized I enjoy teaching.”
When he returned to Kansas he took online courses at Western Governors University to earn a degree in mathematics.
Carter said math is something he understands best and is confident in his abilities to teach.
“Math was always a subject I enjoyed,” Carter said. “It was something that was fairly easy for me to pick up. I’m by no means a math genius, but it was the natural choice.”
Carter moved to Chanute with his wife and liked what USD 258 had to offer. He enjoys being in a small town and had minimal interest in returning to Wichita or another larger city. In particular, he liked the vibe from his interview.
“From talking to principal John Johnson and Rob Myers, the other high school math teacher, they told me why they were offering me the job and I got an idea of their attitude. It was attractive to me. They seemed to want to hire me, not just hire a person to fill a spot.”
Carter’s parents have southeast Kansas ties with his mother, originally from Chanute, and father in Altoona.
His current role at HHS is teaching basic math, including pre-algebra, algebra I, geometry and consumer math. Many of his students typically struggle with math prior to high school.
He said he is happy to work with students who need more help in math. 
“I’m glad I have those lower level kids because I think I’m good at finding ways to explain things that makes it more understandable than just saying ‘this step, this step, done,’” Carter said. “They may be able to do the steps, but they may not understand what they’re doing. If you give them a story problem and take the numbers putting it into an equation, they have no idea. They have to be shown ‘this is what you do.’ Once you understand what they’re doing and why they’re doing it, it becomes more simple.”
This new chapter in Carter’s career has only begun and he hopes to continue teaching for years to come.
“My biggest hope is that I’m able to make it something that they can grasp better,” Carter said. “For a lot of people, it’s not necessarily that they hate math, it’s that they don’t quite understand it. It’s difficult so they grow to hate it, but once they latch onto it and once they understand, it’s not as bad.”