St. Paul’s School welcomes new Medical Director Kate Doyle, MD
October 29, 2026
St. Paul’s School German Teacher Justin Mohler builds on a 47-year legacy of academic rigor and cultural exploration, bringing fresh perspectives and a philosophy of flexibility to the classroom.
BY JANA F. BROWN
Waiting for the bus that would take him to his first day of work as a Fulbright teaching assistant in Austria, Justin Mohler was surprised when the transport never came. He had checked the schedule for his route to the high school where he’d teach English to students in the city of Graz, but still there was silence instead of the roar of a diesel engine.
Mohler spotted an elderly gentleman across the street and asked him about the missing bus. He nodded as the man answered him, but he hadn’t understood a word he had said. Despite being a German scholar who was primed for his two-year teaching assignment, Mohler recalls that the stranger spoke in heavily accented dialect that was unfamiliar to Mohler. He had to quickly come up with another plan for how he would get to work.
“The joke growing up … was that the family word was flexibility,” Mohler says. “That was held up as the measure of a person. How flexible can you be? The world is pretty merciless with people who are not able to adapt.”
Now in his second year of teaching German at St. Paul’s School, Mohler aspires to translate that adaptability to his classroom. His motto of flexibility connects directly to his teaching philosophy that preparation — of both teacher and students — enables spontaneous change. He reasons that a teacher must “know the lesson plan well enough to throw it out.” Mohler prepares extensively, while remaining ready to discard the best laid plans when circumstances demand it.
The holy grail for me is to have students come in with language abilities that allow them to ask different questions, to think new thoughts.
— Justin Mohler, German Teacher
It was his ability to pivot that landed Mohler at St. Paul’s in the first place. After three years as an assistant professor in the Department of Modern Languages at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, Mohler learned that longtime SPS German Teacher Jennifer Hornor was retiring, and the School was looking for someone to take over. Mohler and his wife had just purchased a home in Manchester, and their young daughter had started school, so the thought packing all of that up for boarding school life initially gave Mohler pause. But he decided to apply for the job and see what happened.
During Mohler’s first interview, Hornor mentioned that her German 3 students put on an annual play, a daunting task even for higher-level German learners. He was impressed.
“This is something I saw people attempt at the college level and it didn’t always land successfully,” Mohler says. “I thought that if they pull this off every year, this program is something special.”
Mohler has witnessed the progression of German learning from beginner to the highest level of scholarship. Raised in Washington state, he developed an early interest in German through his mother, who grew up on U.S. Army bases outside Frankfurt. Her understanding of German language and culture made an impact on her son, and Mohler began studying German in high school. He continued his language immersion at Colby College and spent a formative junior year abroad in Munich, where he met his wife.
After college, Mohler spent two years teaching English to German-speaking students in Austria through the Fulbright program. He later taught English in Hong Kong for a year before returning to Seattle for his master’s and PhD at the University of Washington. Following teaching positions at the University of Puget Sound and University of Washington, Mohler and his family relocated to New England, and he began his position at Saint Anselm.
In his upper-level German classes at St. Paul’s, Mohler uses German literature to help students explore beyond vocabulary and grammar. His goal is for students to use their language abilities to access philosophical debates and challenging ideas they wouldn’t encounter otherwise. In other words, to be flexible.
“The holy grail for me is to have students come in with language abilities that allow them to ask different questions, to think new thoughts,” Mohler says, “and it will change everything about their lives.”
While Mohler is committed to preserving the foundational elements that made the program successful, including the annual German play and Oktoberfest, he’s excited about adding to the traditions Hornor established in her 47 years at the helm of the SPS program (introducing some Austrian culture, for example). What won’t change is the academic rigor Hornor established, which created a tight-knit community around German studies. Mohler strives to embody the same high standards and mentorship that define the program, while remaining true to his flexible nature when it comes to adapting for the future.
“Being flexible and rolling with things,” he says, “has been a throughline for my entire life.”
