Mr. Hull by Megan Engebretson
Mr. Hull (teacher for over 25 years)
Mr. Hull is currently one of our PE teachers, and also one of our World History teachers. He has been teaching at Cascade for over 25 years. He has had many experiences and memories at Cascade that most of the teachers don’t. The talk we had with him was amazing; we saw a totally different world that does not exist in our society nowadays. Everything back then was totally different, as things change as time passes by. The old Cascade will be something that remains in Mr. Hull’s mind and it also will be in our minds as we considered how things started to change here.
[Mr. Hull’s background and how he arrived at Cascade.]
Mr. Hull here, I’m going to tell you a little bit about my background and where I came from and how I arrived to Cascade High School. I grew up in Edmonds, Washington, and graduated from Edmonds High School in 1981. I grew up in a family of teachers. My dad taught for over 40 years. His last stop was at Meadowdale High school. He opened up Meadowdale High School in 1964 and he was the first men’s basketball coach there. My mother taught Business Ed at Everett High School for 25 years. Throughout my high school career, I was fortunate enough to have some outstanding teachers and coaches; together with my parents, I kind of realized at a young age that I wanted to go into teaching and become a teacher as well as coach.
After I graduated in 1981, I went to Washington State University, got my teaching certificate as well as a bachelor’s degree in art history and a minor in political science and health. Right before I graduated, I did a six month student teaching experience at University High School in Spokane. This was an outstanding school and I was hoping that’s where I would start my teaching career, but teaching positions were really difficult to come by not only in Spokane, but also throughout the state when I graduated in 1986. Consequently, when I did graduate, there were no jobs available so I was going to substitute teach and then coach freshman football at Meadowdale High School and coach JV basketball at Edmonds High School.
And low and behold about mid August, Axtelle, who was the principal at Cascade High School, and also my high school biology teacher, informed me that there was in fact a non-continuing social studies position available at Cascade High School, which basically meant was just a one year contract. So I was fortunate enough to get my foot in the door at Cascade High School in the fall of 1986. Fortunately I was able to get the non-continuing contract.
So that’s a little bit about my background. I did in fact go back to graduate school in the late 80’s and early 90’s, and obtain a masters in physical education and athletic administration, so I do have that potential. I’ve been teaching since then; this is my 25th year at Cascade High School. Early in my career, I taught mostly history but that kind of evolved into Physical Education where I’ve basically spent the bulk of my career.
[Life at Cascade High School and how it changed]
I would like to tell you a little bit about Cascade when I first started in 1986. At that time Cascade was the largest high school in the state of Washington with roughly around 2,700 students. There were only two high schools; Everett on the north side of town, and Cascade on the south side of town. When they build Cascade in 1960, the intent was that it would kind of be the show case for the district and consequently that’s why the gym was built as big as it is, along with some of the other facilities, so they would be able to hold district tournaments and championship events of that nature.
As the largest school, it was a blue ribbons school meaning we were the best of the best. When I look back at my career, I realize I am so fortunate to be able to have spent part of my career here when Cascade really was truly a state leader in just about everything. Athletics, academics, art, drama, fine arts, you name it. It was just truly a phenomenal place to be. If you look at each department, whether it was math, science, social studies, art, or physical education, a lot of people said it kind of resembled a college staff. A lot of teachers had spent their entire careers at Cascade High School when it initially opened. There was a really strong, vast interest in ownership in Cascade High School. It was a really special place to be.
I’m briefly going to discuss how our classes had changed, the kind of the district expectations, and of course, the evolution of technology. When I first arrived back in 1986, the district emphasis was trying to get the students to graduate so that they were well rounded in all areas. We had a lot of vocational classes at Cascade High School, and that was just phenomenal. We had a metal shop, we had Wood-shop we had and still have auto. We had a full time operating daycare. We also had a class called Building Trades where kids would build a house. So it was pretty neat. The one thing I really liked about that was that kids could work one hour a day, 5 days a week with metal or wood. There were extremely skilled, fabulous teachers teaching these classes. It was pretty cool. Of course that was before Sno-Isle. When Sno-Isle came in, you had to commit to 3 hours a day. They eventually got rid of all our shops and kind of went in a different direction with technology.
Speaking of technology, when I first started teaching, every classroom had a chalkboard. You used the chalkboard to instruct as well as an overhead. Overheads were kind of cutting edge. VCRs hadn’t come out yet, so basically you had to order films and use projectors to show filmstrips. You would order those through the district at the beginning of the year and they would ship them out to you. When VCRs came out they were cutting edge because you could go out and buy programs to show to your classes, and you could tape programs. But no one had TVs in their own room, so you had to check a TV out from the library and they had them on carts. Each particular department had couple TVs and you could check those out as well.
Then when we got cable they put TVs in everyone’s room. Those TVs came with VCR, so every room was equipped with that access. Of course chalkboards went out and whiteboards came in. Overheads went out and Elmos came in. Computer technology came in. It was a whole different element as far as teaching kids with a wide variety of different means and methods. I kind of saw it all; it’s interesting in that regard.
One of the things I’d like to talk about is when I first started teaching. Each school was able to manage itself. It was call site base decision making. The administration team of each school would be dedicated to the budget. They also went out and found very good teaching candidates to fill positions. Our administrative team at that period time was by far the very best I’ve ever seen. And many of them would go on become principals at other high schools. They went out and they got the best people that they could find when one of the positions was available. I think that was one of the reasons why Cascade was such a tremendous school. We were a very strong team, we worked together. And nobody, absolutely nobody, ever wanted to disappoint other teachers as well as other administrators.
We were a very affluent school, like when you think about areas such as Mill Creek being a very affluent area. I was amazed when I first started teaching here, how wealthy most of the kids were and how they came from affluent, professional homes. I think that had a direct coalition to the involvement the kids had in their school and in all sort of activities. Whether it was sports, band, fine arts, drama, German club, these kids had much more involvement in their school activities. I think kids as a whole, followed their school activities a lot more then than they do now. I’m just amazed at the number of kids that just wander around after school, not involved in some type extra activities. That used to be unheard of in the old days. All kids were all involved in something. For whatever it may be, they were involved.
There have been a number of traditional events that have always been special at Cascade. We have the food drive which is, by far, probably the most spectacular things I have ever seen. I was totally amazed and impressed about the collaboration and the coming together of the student body and the faculty in taking care of those who are not as fortunate as some of us are at during the holiday season. It just continues to get bigger and better each year. So it’s nice to see the big lesson behind the food drive and that is to take of others who don’t have as much as you have. So that was a huge tradition. We used to have a Christmas assembly. It was kind of a Christmas concert/assembly right when we got out for the holidays and it was collaboration between the drama department, choir and band. They often times put together a Charles Dickens skit and the choir would sing and the band played. It was really spectacular. Now you can’t necessarily require anyone to go to a Christmas assembly because that is politically incorrect but it was really special. Our gym used to have a large press area on one side of the wall. There were rooms and offices on one side with Plexiglas that reporters went. They used to cover games and they’d be up there on the phone and typing away to cover a high school sports. I just remember during the Christmas assembly, they would toss snow flakes out the windows, and it would sprinkle on to the kids and it was just a real neat deal. We still have tried of put one together but it’s kind of voluntary and because of the political correctiveness, it’s kind of watered down. Homecoming used to be an absolute huge deal and I was shocked because I came from a high school where that was low-key and here it was a huge big time event and there was a lot of emphasis on it.
Bruin buddies is one other item I’d like to talk about. Bruin Buddies was a partnership between elementary school kids that started out with our high school football team. It was put together by a history teacher here by the name of Mike Therall. He was just a mover and shaker. Our head football coach at that time was Terryanus. Bruin Buddies was just a tremendous partnership between Cascade high school and the community. It put kids in a position of being a mentor, leader, positive example and a role model for the younger kids. The kids would come to the games and ride the bus and the players would go visit the kids at the elementary schools, and they eat lunch with them and do homework with them. It was the first of its kind and a lot of other high schools in the state tried to model themselves after what we had done and then it kind of filtered over into our other sports programs outside of football. Basketball had bruin buddies as well as girls volley ball. It was a pretty special thing.
[National events]
There were lots of events occurring during my 25 years here that kind of drastically altered things. The one event that sticks out in my mind while I was teaching history was the fall of the Iron Curtain and the fall of Berlin Wall during the Cold War. This was an interesting time in American politics and American history. From day one to the end of World War II, dissented the Iron Curtain. Eastern Europe had fallen under Soviet domination and as a student, and eventually as a teacher, we were always talking about it. We were taught about the evils of communism, and the competition between capitalism in the free world and communism in the non-free world. From a political stand point, economic stand point, cultural stand point, athletic stand point, scientific stand point, the arms were raised. And our whole form policy revolved around the policy of containment and stopping communism. The Korean War, was a different event occurring in and outside of Europe.
So when the Berlin Wall finally came down, and Eastern Europe started gaining its freedom, some of those countries that had been under Soviet domination also started gaining freedom at the end of WWII. Shortly after the eastern European country dissolved and gained their freedom because of Michel Garbishop, the Soviet Union started dissolving gradually. Now you have these independent republics which are now free and they are no longer under the Soviet Union domination. It totally refocus’s and relates to our textbooks and what we were talking about in the classroom on a daily basis. With the advance of the VCR, it was kind of neat to be able to go home at night and watch the news and other programs that were covering the dissolving of the Iron Curtain. And of course watching the Berlin wall come down, and it separated East Berlin from West Berlin, and eventually East Germany from West Germany and to see people gain their freedom, and to be unified with their loved one that in some cases they haven’t seen since the end of the second World War. It was mind boggling and being able to bring it to school and show it to kids and explain the historical process and what actually was occurring was amazing. We did not have cable TV in our classroom like we do now. Cable in the class now is kind of nice because you can watch things live like 9/11. When the Berlin wall came down it kind of started the process of framing up Soviet occupied and dominated Eastern Europe and eventually the collapse of the Soviet Union. Thinking back, it was pretty spectacular. No question about it.
Mr. Hull is currently one of our PE teachers, and also one of our World History teachers. He has been teaching at Cascade for over 25 years. He has had many experiences and memories at Cascade that most of the teachers don’t. The talk we had with him was amazing; we saw a totally different world that does not exist in our society nowadays. Everything back then was totally different, as things change as time passes by. The old Cascade will be something that remains in Mr. Hull’s mind and it also will be in our minds as we considered how things started to change here.
[Mr. Hull’s background and how he arrived at Cascade.]
Mr. Hull here, I’m going to tell you a little bit about my background and where I came from and how I arrived to Cascade High School. I grew up in Edmonds, Washington, and graduated from Edmonds High School in 1981. I grew up in a family of teachers. My dad taught for over 40 years. His last stop was at Meadowdale High school. He opened up Meadowdale High School in 1964 and he was the first men’s basketball coach there. My mother taught Business Ed at Everett High School for 25 years. Throughout my high school career, I was fortunate enough to have some outstanding teachers and coaches; together with my parents, I kind of realized at a young age that I wanted to go into teaching and become a teacher as well as coach.
After I graduated in 1981, I went to Washington State University, got my teaching certificate as well as a bachelor’s degree in art history and a minor in political science and health. Right before I graduated, I did a six month student teaching experience at University High School in Spokane. This was an outstanding school and I was hoping that’s where I would start my teaching career, but teaching positions were really difficult to come by not only in Spokane, but also throughout the state when I graduated in 1986. Consequently, when I did graduate, there were no jobs available so I was going to substitute teach and then coach freshman football at Meadowdale High School and coach JV basketball at Edmonds High School.
And low and behold about mid August, Axtelle, who was the principal at Cascade High School, and also my high school biology teacher, informed me that there was in fact a non-continuing social studies position available at Cascade High School, which basically meant was just a one year contract. So I was fortunate enough to get my foot in the door at Cascade High School in the fall of 1986. Fortunately I was able to get the non-continuing contract.
So that’s a little bit about my background. I did in fact go back to graduate school in the late 80’s and early 90’s, and obtain a masters in physical education and athletic administration, so I do have that potential. I’ve been teaching since then; this is my 25th year at Cascade High School. Early in my career, I taught mostly history but that kind of evolved into Physical Education where I’ve basically spent the bulk of my career.
[Life at Cascade High School and how it changed]
I would like to tell you a little bit about Cascade when I first started in 1986. At that time Cascade was the largest high school in the state of Washington with roughly around 2,700 students. There were only two high schools; Everett on the north side of town, and Cascade on the south side of town. When they build Cascade in 1960, the intent was that it would kind of be the show case for the district and consequently that’s why the gym was built as big as it is, along with some of the other facilities, so they would be able to hold district tournaments and championship events of that nature.
As the largest school, it was a blue ribbons school meaning we were the best of the best. When I look back at my career, I realize I am so fortunate to be able to have spent part of my career here when Cascade really was truly a state leader in just about everything. Athletics, academics, art, drama, fine arts, you name it. It was just truly a phenomenal place to be. If you look at each department, whether it was math, science, social studies, art, or physical education, a lot of people said it kind of resembled a college staff. A lot of teachers had spent their entire careers at Cascade High School when it initially opened. There was a really strong, vast interest in ownership in Cascade High School. It was a really special place to be.
I’m briefly going to discuss how our classes had changed, the kind of the district expectations, and of course, the evolution of technology. When I first arrived back in 1986, the district emphasis was trying to get the students to graduate so that they were well rounded in all areas. We had a lot of vocational classes at Cascade High School, and that was just phenomenal. We had a metal shop, we had Wood-shop we had and still have auto. We had a full time operating daycare. We also had a class called Building Trades where kids would build a house. So it was pretty neat. The one thing I really liked about that was that kids could work one hour a day, 5 days a week with metal or wood. There were extremely skilled, fabulous teachers teaching these classes. It was pretty cool. Of course that was before Sno-Isle. When Sno-Isle came in, you had to commit to 3 hours a day. They eventually got rid of all our shops and kind of went in a different direction with technology.
Speaking of technology, when I first started teaching, every classroom had a chalkboard. You used the chalkboard to instruct as well as an overhead. Overheads were kind of cutting edge. VCRs hadn’t come out yet, so basically you had to order films and use projectors to show filmstrips. You would order those through the district at the beginning of the year and they would ship them out to you. When VCRs came out they were cutting edge because you could go out and buy programs to show to your classes, and you could tape programs. But no one had TVs in their own room, so you had to check a TV out from the library and they had them on carts. Each particular department had couple TVs and you could check those out as well.
Then when we got cable they put TVs in everyone’s room. Those TVs came with VCR, so every room was equipped with that access. Of course chalkboards went out and whiteboards came in. Overheads went out and Elmos came in. Computer technology came in. It was a whole different element as far as teaching kids with a wide variety of different means and methods. I kind of saw it all; it’s interesting in that regard.
One of the things I’d like to talk about is when I first started teaching. Each school was able to manage itself. It was call site base decision making. The administration team of each school would be dedicated to the budget. They also went out and found very good teaching candidates to fill positions. Our administrative team at that period time was by far the very best I’ve ever seen. And many of them would go on become principals at other high schools. They went out and they got the best people that they could find when one of the positions was available. I think that was one of the reasons why Cascade was such a tremendous school. We were a very strong team, we worked together. And nobody, absolutely nobody, ever wanted to disappoint other teachers as well as other administrators.
We were a very affluent school, like when you think about areas such as Mill Creek being a very affluent area. I was amazed when I first started teaching here, how wealthy most of the kids were and how they came from affluent, professional homes. I think that had a direct coalition to the involvement the kids had in their school and in all sort of activities. Whether it was sports, band, fine arts, drama, German club, these kids had much more involvement in their school activities. I think kids as a whole, followed their school activities a lot more then than they do now. I’m just amazed at the number of kids that just wander around after school, not involved in some type extra activities. That used to be unheard of in the old days. All kids were all involved in something. For whatever it may be, they were involved.
There have been a number of traditional events that have always been special at Cascade. We have the food drive which is, by far, probably the most spectacular things I have ever seen. I was totally amazed and impressed about the collaboration and the coming together of the student body and the faculty in taking care of those who are not as fortunate as some of us are at during the holiday season. It just continues to get bigger and better each year. So it’s nice to see the big lesson behind the food drive and that is to take of others who don’t have as much as you have. So that was a huge tradition. We used to have a Christmas assembly. It was kind of a Christmas concert/assembly right when we got out for the holidays and it was collaboration between the drama department, choir and band. They often times put together a Charles Dickens skit and the choir would sing and the band played. It was really spectacular. Now you can’t necessarily require anyone to go to a Christmas assembly because that is politically incorrect but it was really special. Our gym used to have a large press area on one side of the wall. There were rooms and offices on one side with Plexiglas that reporters went. They used to cover games and they’d be up there on the phone and typing away to cover a high school sports. I just remember during the Christmas assembly, they would toss snow flakes out the windows, and it would sprinkle on to the kids and it was just a real neat deal. We still have tried of put one together but it’s kind of voluntary and because of the political correctiveness, it’s kind of watered down. Homecoming used to be an absolute huge deal and I was shocked because I came from a high school where that was low-key and here it was a huge big time event and there was a lot of emphasis on it.
Bruin buddies is one other item I’d like to talk about. Bruin Buddies was a partnership between elementary school kids that started out with our high school football team. It was put together by a history teacher here by the name of Mike Therall. He was just a mover and shaker. Our head football coach at that time was Terryanus. Bruin Buddies was just a tremendous partnership between Cascade high school and the community. It put kids in a position of being a mentor, leader, positive example and a role model for the younger kids. The kids would come to the games and ride the bus and the players would go visit the kids at the elementary schools, and they eat lunch with them and do homework with them. It was the first of its kind and a lot of other high schools in the state tried to model themselves after what we had done and then it kind of filtered over into our other sports programs outside of football. Basketball had bruin buddies as well as girls volley ball. It was a pretty special thing.
[National events]
There were lots of events occurring during my 25 years here that kind of drastically altered things. The one event that sticks out in my mind while I was teaching history was the fall of the Iron Curtain and the fall of Berlin Wall during the Cold War. This was an interesting time in American politics and American history. From day one to the end of World War II, dissented the Iron Curtain. Eastern Europe had fallen under Soviet domination and as a student, and eventually as a teacher, we were always talking about it. We were taught about the evils of communism, and the competition between capitalism in the free world and communism in the non-free world. From a political stand point, economic stand point, cultural stand point, athletic stand point, scientific stand point, the arms were raised. And our whole form policy revolved around the policy of containment and stopping communism. The Korean War, was a different event occurring in and outside of Europe.
So when the Berlin Wall finally came down, and Eastern Europe started gaining its freedom, some of those countries that had been under Soviet domination also started gaining freedom at the end of WWII. Shortly after the eastern European country dissolved and gained their freedom because of Michel Garbishop, the Soviet Union started dissolving gradually. Now you have these independent republics which are now free and they are no longer under the Soviet Union domination. It totally refocus’s and relates to our textbooks and what we were talking about in the classroom on a daily basis. With the advance of the VCR, it was kind of neat to be able to go home at night and watch the news and other programs that were covering the dissolving of the Iron Curtain. And of course watching the Berlin wall come down, and it separated East Berlin from West Berlin, and eventually East Germany from West Germany and to see people gain their freedom, and to be unified with their loved one that in some cases they haven’t seen since the end of the second World War. It was mind boggling and being able to bring it to school and show it to kids and explain the historical process and what actually was occurring was amazing. We did not have cable TV in our classroom like we do now. Cable in the class now is kind of nice because you can watch things live like 9/11. When the Berlin wall came down it kind of started the process of framing up Soviet occupied and dominated Eastern Europe and eventually the collapse of the Soviet Union. Thinking back, it was pretty spectacular. No question about it.