Student, teacher, and principal. Mr. Hewitson has played each part. He was raised in Walnut Creek in the Bay Area, graduated high school in 1992, volunteered in Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign, and describes himself as a “politics geek”. Before Mr. Hewitson was the principal of Lincoln High School, he was a teacher.

Not only is Mr. Hewitson a principal– he has also disguised himself as a student and taught a Government class. Back in November of 2014, Mr. Hewitson was spotted attending classes, getting his lunch from the cafeteria, and walking around campus as a Lincoln student. Was this all just for show? Was he shadowing a student, as some people believe? Lion Tales dug out the truth behind this case.

It turns out, there was a clear purpose for this occurrence. The goal was to acquire a student perspective of what Lincoln is like not only inside the classroom, but also in the lunch line, bathrooms, and general school campus.

Before Christmas break, Mr. Pike, a Lincoln social studies teacher of more than twenty years, retired. A new teacher, Mrs. Stevens-Webb, took over teaching his U.S. History students on January 16, and will soon begin teaching AP Government as well. In the meantime, Mr. Hewitson has been teaching AP Government to the students in room P111.

Hewitson told Lion Tales, “I love it. It’s been a lot of fun and a lot of hard work.” He says politics and government are subjects he likes, so he enjoys sharing this passion with students. “It is fun to get to know kids in a different way than when I’m principal.”

According to Mr. Hewitson, the challenging part is that nowadays there are more required materials to teach, like PBL (Project Based Learning) and EDI (Explicit Direct Instruction), compared to when he was a teacher himself.

Desiree Sausele, a senior in Hewitson’s 5th period class, said, “He’s actually pretty cool. It’s fun having him as a teacher.”