Reading and Running Animate 11-Year Helix Teacher John Vanderpot

Name: John Vanderpot

Position: Teacher, Helix Charter High School and San Diego State

Overview: Vanderpot, in his 11th year as an English instructor at Helix, is a high-energy, fast-talking, upbeat ambassador of the written word. At 48, the Alpine resident is a man in constant motion. He’s at Helix daily from about 7 a.m. to 2:30 or 3 p.m., then moves over to SDSU at night, where he’s a lecturer in the Rhetoric and Writing Studies Department.

Background: He grew up in Croton, N.Y., and dropped out of high school at the age of 16. He proceeded to work at a gas station, as a custodian and an assortment of “no-skill jobs” before going back to school at age 26. He graduated from Binghampton University with a B.A. in liberal studies, then earned a master's in journalism at Iowa.

After Iowa, he worked as an editor for a textbook company and contemplated a career in journalism, but then decided to work on his doctorate in sociology at Rutgers. Part of the program at Rutgers required him to teach and on his first day, he knew he’d found his calling.

“I was home,” he says, a strange twist for someone he claims was “the world’s worst student.” He calls teaching his third career. He taught for a year on the East Coast before heading west. He earned a master of fine arts degree in fiction at SDSU, and has taught at the school for 16 years. “Life’s better after 30,” he says.

On teaching: At Helix, he tries to “build bridges” between students and the joy and mind-opening love of reading by seeking relevant works that will engage them. “As a teacher I’m a tour guide, looking for the switch” to turn them on, he says.

By helping students engage with literature and develop a love of reading, he believes he’s helping them lead better, more fulfilling lives and look at the world differently. He cites author Chris Hedges, who once wrote that 80 percent of U.S. households had not bought a book the previous year, but had watched 6¾ hours of TV every day.

“That made me want to cry,” says Vanderpot, who jokes that his goal is to personally get those numbers down to 78 percent and 6½ hours.

Wrasslin’ and runnin’: Vanderpot was a wrestler and has coached wrestling, including a stint at Helix. He also is a runner, with his latest passion being ultra-distance runs. He just completed his first sanctioned ultra race, a 50-miler at Lake Tahoe in which he finished “dead last,” but was invigorated by the experience.

His next is a 50-kilometer (31-mile) event in October. Discovering ultra-distance running has been a revelation. After completing his first 50-mile run, he says, “I didn’t know I was capable of doing it. I had a different perception of myself afterward.” He’s now assisting the Helix cross-country team.

Workout routine: A normal day includes a run before school after getting up at 5, a run or bike ride between his shifts at Helix and SDSU and a late-night run after his final SDSU class. He cites an ultra runner who once lamented that if a person lives to age 90, 30 years is wasted by sleep, so Vanderpot vows to “only give up 15.”

On weekends, if he doesn’t have a race, he’ll spend time at his places in Borrego Springs, Mount Laguna or Yucca Valley, reading and relaxing.

Quotable: “Reading is one of the top five pleasures in life. It’s better than eating.”

Quotable II: “I believe I reach the vast majority of students. I get along with 99 out of 100 students, but I tend to dwell on that one misconnect. … You can have several hundred human contacts each day, but when you botch one, it feels like a curse.”