Not every teacher who leads a class was a good student. Sometimes the struggle of their own education is what makes an instructor great. First-year Gretna math faculty member Richard Krueger is one example of this.
Krueger grew up in rural Nebraska, about an hour from Omaha, for most of his life. Following his parents’ divorce, he moved to Lincoln and attended Lincoln High School. He said that he barely graduated due to missing many classes and his school’s strict attendance policy. However, after appealing to receive his diploma, he graduated in 2002. He went to UNO for a year before deciding to leave school and work in retail. After a decade, he returned to school to receive his teaching certificate. Seven years later, he has two degrees and three children – Titus, Capri and Bayla.
“I had the potential, I just didn’t have influences in my life that held me accountable towards pursuing it,” Krueger said. “I should have been able to get this much sooner.”
There are many motivators in Krueger’s life, but one of the most important is sports. Participating in a mentoring/Big Brother program while volunteering as a coach for youth football are a couple of the things that encouraged him to pursue teaching after so long. He also plays in a year-round basketball and football league.
Krueger said he strives to be the person in a student’s life encouraging them to work harder for their future. Based on his own experiences, growing up in a single parent household and living off of a low income, welfare and food stamps, Krueger said he believes that everybody has the opportunity to do great things. He said that his upbringing played a huge role in his decision to become a teacher.
“As far as here in Gretna, but just especially with teaching in Omaha South it was like, hey, look, I came from government housing and welfare,” Krueger said. “And now I own my home, I have three kids [and I’m] married.”
Before teaching at Gretna, Krueger was an educator at Omaha South High School for five years. He notes that though he enjoys both schools, there are many cultural differences between the two, such as the way administration holds students accountable for their education.
“The higher expectations means that not only do I have to hold students to a higher accountability, but that means I have to hold myself to a higher accountability,” Kruger said. “So it’s making me become a better teacher.”
Principal Todd Mueller echoes what Kruger believes about GHS students.
“We hold students to a higher expectation than most school districts do with our accountability policy and also in our grading scale,” Principal Todd Mueller said. “It’s also one of the highest, if not the highest, in the entire area.”
Longer term, Krueger said he hopes to become a coach at the school for one of the football teams.
