It’s the eighties.

 A young man finds himself off of the coast of Thailand in the dreaded shark sea. The fishing boat he’s on struggles to navigate the rough waters in the midst of a violent storm. Even when he and the other fishermen were still at the dock, a giant wave crashed into them, enveloping the entire ship for a terrifying moment. Now they’re in open waters, trying to make the journey back to shore. The fishermen on the boat start to light incense and make prayers. Everyone is seasick and scared. As the young man watches the commotion unfolding, seasick, soaking wet, and tied to a fishing boat as not to go overboard, he thinks to himself one thing:

“Welp, I’m going to bed.”

And so he did.

This may sound like a scene from a cheesy action movie, but it’s merely one of social studies teacher Joe Rosewell’s many stories while traveling the world. You may know Rosewell from classes he teaches like Modern Warfare, Honors History of China/Japan/Korea and Honors History of the Middle East/India/SE Asia classes. Perhaps you have him as a coach for Parkway South’s track team. However you know him, he certainly has a history at South and beyond it.

Rosewell is currently the longest active teacher at South High. 

“I’ve been teaching since… 95’? Or 94’,” he said.

He started his career at South soon after in 1996, left in 1997 to teach at a different school for two years, and then returned to South in 1999, where he’s been ever since. That’s almost 30 years that Rosewell has been teaching–26 of those years being at South.

Rosewell is also currently the only teacher in the entire Parkway district with the proper qualifications to teach the two honors Asian history classes offered at South. He earned his master’s degree in Japanese History at Washington University. Why Japanese history? Rosewell explains that he’s always had a love for history. 

He went to study history in college, but when he was done with his degree in history, he suddenly didn’t have an idea of what to do. Roswell Consulted one of his professors, who tells him to “go for a higher education:“ A Master’s Degree. 

“I’ve loved learning about Germany and Japan durring WWII,” said Rosewell. 

And when he was ready to pursue a Master’s Degree, he had the choice to specialize in Germany or Japan: But not both. 

“When I asked my professor which one I should choose, he told me to choose the one that less people do,” Rosewell said. And so Japan it was.

During his studies at school, Rosewell had the opportunity to travel extensively. Firstly, he spent a year between Hong Kong and Japan in his college days. In Hong Kong, Rosewell remarks living on the 26th story on a highrise apartment. 

“Everything was so tall,” he said. “There was a building out the window that was under construction, and instead of normal scaffolding they used bamboo instead, and it must’ve been a 40-story building!”

While in Japan, Rosewell traveled to Osaka, where a kind gentleman let him stay at his apartment. Here, Rosewell took on a very odd job, teaching English to other Japanese people over the phone. 

“I remember one day I returned to the man’s apartment, but he wasn’t there and I couldn’t get in,” Rosewell recalls. “So I couldn’t use his phone. But I still needed to do my job, so I remember standing outside in the rain teaching English on a public payphone.” 

Now, why is a job like this even available in the first place? Well, to be frank, the “company” that Rosewell worked for was actually a sex phone line. Rosewell explained that “they wanted to go legitimate, but the sex line needed an actual service. So, they had people teach English over their lines as well.” They made sure to keep the two businesses separate. 

As sketchy as this job was, it paid remarkably well, earning Rosewell $30 an hour in the 1980s.

Rosewell also traveled to East and West Berlin with his college class. Rosewell and a good buddy of his went exploring apart from the rest of the group. 

“The East side was a very boring, very communist place,” said Rosewell. “We were warned not to sell our jeans to people on the East side. Sometimes Soviet guards will disguise themselves as civilians and offer to buy our jeans. If we had said yes, we could’ve gotten arrested.” 

Rosewell and his friend then went back to the West side to grab some paint to decorate the Berlin wall. While doing so, they took a picture with some British soldiers passing by, gave a patriotic ‘bird’ to a couple of Soviet guards in a nearby tower, and went about the rest of their day. 

“We were young and stupid back then,” Rosewell admits. “We thought we were so cool.”

Point is, Rosewell has been out and about. And now, he’s using the knowledge and experience he’s gained on his journeys to share with his classes. As said before, Rosewell teaches two classes covering Middle Eastern, South Asian, East Asian, and Southeast Asian Histories. 

Rosewell tells students to “take the class!” He explained that it is an “Honors class and college credit, but it’s not hard like an AP. You’ll learn stuff you never knew about, and it isn’t crazy hard.” 

That’s a part of the reason why Rosewell enjoys teaching the class so much: 

“It’s something very few people know about,” Rosewell said. “The opportunity to teach it is awesome. I love Asian history because it’s different! Different viewpoints and making other people understand them is really cool.” 

It may not be a harrowing adventure in the Shark Sea, but it is certainly worth a try for those interested in social studies.

When asked if he would like to say one thing to the students at Parkway South, he started with one word.

“Travel! Experience as many different things as you can.”

Rosewell also adds that he’s fortunate that he traveled when he was in his 20s. He also noted how easy and cheap it was traveling in the 70s and 80s, making it even more important to travel if and while you can. 

And if you want to know how Mr. Rosewell survived the shark sea, feel free to stop by and ask him! He’ll be happy to tell you all about it.