Darin Baltezore is the current North teacher of Western Civ, a class for sophomores. He’s only been at the school for a few years, but he’s already made an impression with a lot of the students here– mostly with his impressive slicked-back hair and funny socks. Also, though it’s not yet official, he’s in line to replace the retiring Mr. Fischer in teaching psychology next year.
Speaking of his funny socks, he said that they’re “Just a thing that I like to do! I’ve been doing it since probably my senior year. It started actually with track meets and things like that. I would always like to wear, y’know, funny different socks when I was competing, and it kinda just stuck when I went over to the professional side of things.”
Melissa Evensen was in the room during this part of the interview and demonstrated that she was also wearing funny socks, specifically ones that depicted a cat version of Rosie the Riveter and a corresponding pun on the original slogan. She said that Baltezore is “Rubbing off on the rest of us.”
His favorite pair of funny socks are “Spongebob Squarepants” themed. “My wife actually got them for me. They were supposed to be separate, but she got me a set of Spongebob and a set of Patrick but I switched them around, so I always have Spongebob and Patrick together.” These mismatched Spongebob and Patrick socks are a staple in his repertoire of foot coverings.
You also may be wondering about what product he uses to get his hair so fabulously slicked. When asked, he fumbled around for a good 3 minutes trying to find it, finally figuring out that it’s Fix Your Lid Fiber Travel Hair Pomade. This isn’t an advertisement, but if you want to look like Mr. B, maybe you can find some use for it.
Even if you haven’t had his Western Civ class, you may know him as your coach for girls’ basketball, track and field, or “I do a lot of coaching, which takes up a lot of free time, and I enjoy that. […] On occasion I like to do some light reading and things like that. I really like coaching and leadership books and things like that.”
Baltezore is in his third year of teaching here at North, and he’s only taught Western Civ and some US History here. He said that he enjoys “Just working with young people and, y’know, helping them out. I think high school is a fun age. I especially like Sophomores. I think that’s a good balance between Seniors [who] have been doing it for so long that they’re tired of it, but they’re a little more mature than Freshmen. But y’know, it’s just like interacting with kids and showing them there’s things from the past that you can learn about that can still kinda pertain to life and are still valuable. It’s more kinda just building relationships with students and building connections”
Since this issue is for the month of February, which just so happens to contain Valentine’s Day, he was also asked some questions about his romantic life. He, in fact, has a wife here in the building. Kristen Baltezore teaches some math classes at North. They’ve been married a little under 9 months, according to Mrs. Baltezore. Or is it a little over seven, like her husband said? My instinct here was to trust the math teacher, but it turns out they were both a little bit right and a little bit wrong. Because of the discrepancy, I just got the date they were married: June 18 2022. As of the interviews, it had been almost exactly eight and a half months since then. If you average out their answers, they would be spot-on!
They had their stories a little more straight on how they met. Mr. B went into a little more detail than his wife, but the gist is that some of their mutual friends got them onto a dating app and they found out that they were just outside of each other’s social circles, but in the same academic and professional circles.
I also asked Baltezore for some questions to ask his wife. In a pragmatic move, he told me to inquire as to his wife’s “ideal date” and “what her biggest pet peeve about me is.” Respecting the gamble, I did just that. She said that she likes a basic dinner followed by a movie, and she hates that he doesn’t clean up coffee grounds when he makes coffee. You’re welcome, Baltezore.