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Technology has transformed education and advanced the study of physics, but longtime Hayfield Secondary School teacher Dave Hincher says one crucial part of the classroom remains familiar.
“The students are about the same,” Hincher said after more than four decades in education.
Hincher has held an assortment of jobs over the years, including selling cars, building decks, landscaping and working for telecommunications companies. He has also coached, taught and operated a school planetarium. Through it all, teaching high school physics has been his one constant profession.
His career has included positions at Hayfield Secondary School and West Springfield High School. Hincher joked that he never expected teaching to make him rich, but he believed it would keep him employed.
He began considering high school teaching and football coaching while still living with his parents. “I needed a job, and I think mom needed me out of the house,” he said.
Hincher started teaching in Smyth County, Virginia, where he met his future wife, Ellen, as she completed her education at Radford University. Ellen, a Vienna native and Oakton High School graduate, now teaches at Hybla Valley Elementary School. The couple moved to Northern Virginia after she began searching for a teaching position.
Sharing a profession has helped them understand each other’s work, Hincher said. He also views teaching as less of a burden now that he has the option to retire.
Retirement frequently crosses his mind, but Ellen is one reason he remains in the classroom. After staying home with their children for many years, she returned to teaching, and Hincher promised to drive her to work each day. Their route happens to pass Hayfield Secondary.
“At 4 p.m. every day, I pick up Cinderella and head home,” he said of Ellen.
Hincher has used summers to experiment with other careers, sometimes pretending he might leave education for good. Selling cars became one of his favorite sidelines because he saw similarities between the showroom and the classroom.
“We sell education every day,” he said, noting that both professions involve talking with people and getting to know them.
Each fall, however, he returned to school. Compared with his outdoor jobs, teaching offered relief from heat and rain. More importantly, he said, his students appeared to enjoy his approach.
Technology represents the largest educational shift Hincher has witnessed during his career. It has reshaped how students learn while helping move physics forward, even as the students themselves have remained much the same in his view.
At Hayfield, Hincher has earned a reputation for stepping in whenever students and colleagues need support.
Assistant Principal Casey Quigley said Hincher readily takes on classes and uses hands-on instruction to strengthen important concepts and maintain student engagement. Quigley praised his flexibility, dedication and longstanding commitment to the school’s team.