With only days to go before the AP exam, Upper School students taking AP American History enter Mike Weiss’s classroom with a frantic and stressed air — but he speaks to them with so much sangfroid that calm soon fills the room. As Weiss prepares students for the exam, they visibly relax and gain confidence.

On this Thursday afternoon, Weiss’s review of American history has reached the late 20th century, meaning that topics include stagflation and the Camp David accords. He brings some of the era’s significant figures to life with personal connections, mentioning the day that Gerald Ford visited Charlotte Latin School and the time that Weiss ran into Jimmy Carter in an Atlanta, GA, McDonald’s.

He also brings a jolt of energy to the proceedings when necessary. Before Weiss dismisses his students, he jokingly instructs them, “I want everyone to pound on their desks and chant, ‘We want to learn.’”

Since 1990, Weiss has been inspiring Latin’s students in manifold ways: he is both a history teacher and as a coach of long-distance runners. This summer, he’s stepping down as a classroom teacher — but he will remain as the director of the Cross Country program and Head Coach of the Varsity Cross Country team.

“Over the past few years, I’ve started to feel worn down physically,” he confesses, explaining why he’s scaling down his responsibilities. “I keep myself in pretty good shape, but you can’t cheat Father Time. I wouldn’t say that I finished my work as a classroom teacher, because you don’t ever complete that work, but I had unfinished business with the distance running program.”

Looking back at his first 36 years at Charlotte Latin, Weiss says, “If you’re lucky enough, as I have been, to have meaningful work, the thing that makes it meaningful is what you learn from it.”

What were you like in high school?

I was a confused and indifferent student at first. And then I snapped out of it by 11th grade and started to bear down. But I discovered sports in high school and that was a real place of refuge for me. When I was a teenager, that helped me through a lot of hard things.

How did you become a teacher?

I went to a small liberal arts college in Tennessee called Maryville College, where I was majoring in pre-law and political science. Freshman year, I was in this class that combined history and Western literature. One day, a professor lectured about the French Revolution for 70 minutes from one notecard: she was not only a master of the content, but a master storyteller. I had an epiphany in the middle of that class: That’s what I want to do. A couple of days later, I knocked on her office door and she mapped out how to change my major. I was really lucky to have her as a mentor.

Going to a small college steeped in the liberal arts tradition was one of the best decisions I ever made. Even though the world today seems to point students in a different direction, I am an unabashed advocate for that environment. We were nurtured as lifelong learners: they taught us to think critically and to be open to new ideas. And most importantly, they taught us that we were only beginning our education. That guided me in a lot of important ways — and I even applied it to sports.

How so?

In recent years, I’ve been doing a deep dive into the Stoic philosophers, including Seneca and Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus. One of the mantras I use with my team is “the obstacle is the way”: that’s from Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Identify what the obstacle is and then instead of trying to avoid it, route yourself toward it.

As a coach and a teacher, you’re always seeking new information. Coaching runners has a lot of scientific basis to it, but there’s also an art to it. You can design a workout, but you also have to be attentive to an athlete’s mindset and their body language, and know when to adjust in a way that can make them successful. 

What drew you to the Cross Country program?

I’m biased, but kids who choose to be distance runners are an extraordinary breed. Sometimes they’re kids who perhaps haven’t had success in other sports and they’re looking for something where they can be successful that doesn’t depend on their size or even their coordination. But they have to be very self-directed and operate out of the athletic spotlight to do something that sometimes is very painful. It attracts a special kind of kid, one who likes to be challenged and who gravitates toward doing hard things. These runners have a maturity and self-discipline that I certainly didn’t have at that age. Most days after practice, I’m tired but I head home feeling good about what just happened. 

Tell us something about yourself that might surprise people.

I’m obsessed with books and movies and television shows about organized crime.

What have you been reading lately?

For years, I read mostly US history, but recently I’ve been reading more fiction because I’ve deprived myself of it — right now, a detective story by a really fine writer named Tana French, about a Chicago police officer who thinks that he’s getting away from it all by moving to Ireland and then he gets pulled into what’s going on in this small Irish village. I’m also reading some philosophy books — Buddhism and Stoicism — and I’ll certainly put some history books in the rotation. 

I mostly teach juniors, and every year they have to read The Great Gatsby. It occurred to me this year that I hadn’t read Gatsby since high school, so I reread it in solidarity with my students. And it really helped with my unit on the 1920s.

How do you think you’ve changed as a teacher during your time at Latin?

Just yesterday at practice, I saw some kids with stressed looks. By the end of practice, I got to have conversations with some of them about everything they’ve got going on with tests and extracurriculars. I think I’ve always been patient, but teenagers’ lives are much more complicated now than when I started, so I’ve had to learn to zoom out and consider all the things that they have going on. 

What will the history office be like without you?

Our younger teachers give me hope for the future of the profession: they work so hard, they’re creative and innovative, and they care passionately about their students. Other departments do this too, but the history department has always prided ourselves on contributing to the school in ways outside the classroom. And I know we’ve got two really strong incoming teachers. When I look at this tremendous collection of teaching talent and the leadership of Chuck Edwards, I feel great about the future of the department.

What would you hope your legacy here is?

That students discover things about themselves, enlarge their life experiences, and realize they’re capable of doing things they didn’t think were possible.