After 10 years at St. John’s and a more than four decade career in education, English teacher Linda Carswell is retiring.

Carswell initially became a teacher in order to earn money to attend law school. Soon after, Carswell caught the teaching bug.

“I never quite made it back to law school,” she said.

Before coming to St. John’s, Carswell taught at Mayde Creek High School and Cinco Ranch High School in Katy. In her years as an educator, she has taught every grade of high school. After meeting math teacher Bobbie Oldfield through a mutual friend, Oldfield talked Carswell into applying for a job at SJS.

“She spoke so highly of the school, and she encouraged me,” Carswell said. “St. John’s had a terrific reputation, and I thought I would enjoy continuing my teaching career here.”

Carswell considers her years at SJS as the capstone of her teaching career. Currently, Carswell teaches freshmen and seniors. Teaching the senior seminars allows her to spend time on her favorite literature: Shakespeare and spy fiction.

Hamlet is her favorite play to teach.

“I never get tired of it,” Carswell said. “It’s the play that keeps on giving.”

In addition to teaching, Carswell has been adviser to a mixed advisory for seven years.

“It’s like a family,” Carswell said. “You have younger kids coming in and looking up to the juniors and seniors, and I’ve had such gracious personalities in this mixed advisory.”

The remaining members of the advisory will stay in one advisory with a new adviser.

“I will miss the support system we had the most,” advisory member Sunnie Liu said. “Whether it was being a listening ear or eating away our problems together, Ms. Carswell and our advisory provided just what we needed at the time.”

Her advisory threw her a retirement party on their last day of advisory, each advisee gifting her a book to remember them by.  

In her retirement, Carswell is looking forward to spending more time with her grandchildren, volunteering, having more time to read and picking up French.