From the very first day at school, Mr. Buchman was one of the people who made me feel very welcome. First days at a new school are always confusing and you get very nervous. You don’t know where to go, what to do, whom to ask for help. People ask about your country, but not all of them know what country that is, especially when it’s a very small country. On that day, I was prepared not to get disappointed if no one knew about my country, Armenia. But when I opened the door of the Sociology classroom, Del Buchman surprised me with his knowledge of Armenia. He knew not only where it is, but also about historical important facts like the genocide of 1915. It made me very happy, so Sociology classes became more interesting for me because of the teacher.

Buchman has a lot of interesting stories about him, even though he thinks that he is “not an interesting guy,” which is not true at all. There is a lot to his background, which was thrilling for me to discover.

“When I graduated from high school, I was planning to study engineering at Iowa State University but I went to junior college instead because of money and then while I was there I decided to become a teacher. So, I went to Iowa State University after junior college because they both were trimester systems and it was the best fit credit-wise,” Buchman said.

“I went to school there for three years, because I started off having to take a lot of math and science, and ended up need to take a lot of social classes. So I had tons of credits, that earned me a philosophy minor and thanks to math credits and science credits I can actually teach some science classes but I’ve never had to. Luckily for students, I haven’t,” Buchman said.

“I worked my way through college. My freshman year I played baseball for the junior college, but that was a short lift. Then, I had to work and went to class. When I graduated from college it was not the easiest time to find a social studies job, so I went back the following fall to take some graduate courses to start to become a principal maybe and I got a teaching job shortly thereafter. Then, I started to work for Crinc, who I still work for,” said Buchman. “The next year I got a job down in southern Iowa teaching in Hedrick at a school that no longer exists. I taught at the high school, social students, which means I taught everything. And from there I went to a school named North Winneshiek north of Decorah, Iowa, a beautiful country. I taught there for five years. There, I taught seventh through twelve social studies. Students had to see me every year for a few years. That was okay if we got along. If we didn’t, that wasn’t so good, but that’s how it was. And then I came here in 1996 and I’ve been here since.”

He is not only nice with foreign exchange students, but also with all others. I asked him how and why he is doing that.  It’s so we feel very welcome.

“I guess since I have a lot of backgrounds and a lot of experience in worldwide stuff because I’ve taught World History before and Sociology the things we touch a whole bunch of background things. Also, It makes my point to reach out to new students weather foreign exchange student or not and make them feel welcome. And I think it seems a very natural thing. They are coming from the place and don’t know what to expect here, what the people will think, what are they gonna do. I feel especially extra special to talk with Muslim students who come over here about food because we have lots of pork mixed in our school lunches etc. And there is a way different view of the people in our country, unfortunately. So I feel that it’s my job to make them feel welcome and I try to do that to all my kids, I think,” said Buchman.

He always has his best advice and wishes for every student, no matter what career they choose. Buchman loves to share sweets with us during classes. Those give me a lot of energy to continue the long day. There are two exchange students at his class and he never stops surprising us. Once he gave both of us articles about Armenia and Indonesia. The other time he gave us some kind of Armenian dried fruit and Indonesian spices.

“I would say that the best part about anybody is when students find their success, the thing is that they are going to be successful whatever they are doing whether that’s welding or being a doctor.”

He teaches Economy, World History and Sociology right now.

“Sociology is my favorite subject to teach because it deals with so many things that might interest teenagers and it always has been interesting to me how people will react, how the things work, plus to me, being a sort of a working-class individual popping into professional world, it’s quite interesting how people come from different social classes and can still come together but there are still differences between folks as far as understanding where the kids are coming from sometimes,” said Buchman.

Besides teaching, he drives a truck. “I’ve been driving a truck forever. My company picks up the liquor and beer bottles and then we take them back to recycle.”

Buchman has three grandkids – three girls and their favorite things are to climb over grandpa’s desk and to play with his dollar coins and write on his papers. “I think they watch me and my desk,” he said. “And, also, of course, they’re in love with Paw Patrol so we spend a lot of time sitting on the chair and watching it over and over and over again.”

“Nowadays, I work 24/7 so I have found the last few years my diabetes slows me down so I feel a lot more comfortable to kinda hang out. Well, between managing your house and managing the people I take care of, and driving a truck on the weekends and cutting wood to heat the house and rebuilding houses. So, sometimes I just hang out or vegetate, but when my grandkids are over, it’s a lot more energetic.”

He is a big fan of metal and heavy rock music. His favorite music band is Kiss and he has the classroom decorated with all the posters and pictures of them. I was not surprised that he even knew about System Of A Down (SOAD) heavy metal band and I was happy to tell that they are Armenians.

“I love that kind of music because it has a lot of power and energy. Kiss was really big when I was the age when they got hit by the stuff – 5th grade, 6th grade. That was the first time I listened to music for the most part and their make-up and the image that they put out I think was very powerful. A lot of people say that their music sucks but to me I like music. And I like heavy metal and hard rock in general. It is my favorite kind of music even though I grew up listening to country music. I just like the energy of it and the imagery of it and they put on a really good show”.

About his hobbies, Buchman said, “I’ve got a lot of boring hobbies. I used to like to build model airplanes, but my vision got worse. I’ve got like 400 model airplanes that were waiting to be built but my eyes are so bad, so I cannot see the parts anymore, so that’s the problem. I did like to collect coins but have the same problem–I cannot see the dates anymore, but I always liked coins.”

He is always busy, not only at school but also with household work.

“Most people probably don’t know that I work every day of the week and at some point in my life, I work 17-18 hours a day doing this and that. I rebuilt my house, my kids’ houses. In fact, for my son, I rebuilt two houses,” he said. “So, I’m always doing something. Hopefully, people understand the vision of going to a job and to your home and sitting back, relaxing and not doing anything else isn’t my life. I’ve got kids and we’ve got all this and we take care of a lot of handicapped individuals. So there are always bills to pay, forms to fill out, phone calls to make and you’ve got to use your time wisely”.

Buchman said, “I don’t think current things changed really from the thousands of years to today as far as human beings go. But we have a lot of changes in technology that are changing the way we interact. That’s the biggest issue that young people are going to have. The dependency upon the technology is a huge concern for me. We lose the function of what we can do because we depend on machines do the same. You’ve got to have a work ethic and you’ve got to be able to put forth your best foot. That’s cliche but that’s the way what it is”