“You need a nickname, and it’s going to be Teach.” So said someone at an early Rockingham Smokeout after learning Kevin Baas was probably the first high school shop teacher to offer an actual chopper class to his students. And that’s how “Teach” has been known in the motorcycle world ever since.
That was nearly 20 years ago and early in his career. While he was doing well then, Teach is truly in a wonderful place now. He loves his three boys: Braiden, Gavin, and Mason, his wife Amy, and the family life they’ve built together. He loves his work, his students, where and how he lives, and of course motorcycling and all that entails. Teach’s life is an excellent example of how well you can do when you stay tuned into your likes (and dislikes) and follow not only your passion but your instincts as well.
You need only look to Teach’s parents, Darlene and Ken, to see how motorcycling came so naturally to him. Ken started riding as a kid and had a pre-war Knucklehead by the time he was 14. When he went to fight in Vietnam, he mail-ordered motorcycle parts that were delivered to his dad Milton (Teach’s granddad) back home. Milton would take photos of the small pieces right up to the springer front end and send them to Vietnam to show what had arrived. Now in his 70s, Ken still rides his 1952 Panhead, a ’64 Police special with a sidecar, and even the long Shovelhead chopper he built with those parts that were waiting for him when he got back from the war. Darlene (also in her 70s) still rides her old Ironhead Sportster and a 1977 Superglide fitted with a sidecar.
Working with his hands is another big part of who Teach is. In many ways, this was something he was born into, or perhaps a gift from his parents. Growing up on a “hobby farm” with a sheet metal worker for a dad, the tools were there, as was plenty of opportunities to use them. He was constantly whittling knives and messing with his mini-bikes, go-carts, and dirt bikes. By the time he was in shop class in high school, he had a Blazer to which he had changed bodies on, added a lift kit, did sheet metal fab, and reworked the interior.
Teach was then off to college to study Graphic Arts Management. In the middle of his first year of college, he recalled the advice his high school teachers used to give him: “You should become a shop teacher.” So, he realized he didn’t want to sit and watch printing presses running all day for the rest of his life and switched his major to “Technology Education” (Shop Class). Four years later, in the middle of his senior year at the University of Wisconsin in Stout, he was offered a job and upon graduation was gainfully employed at Kennedy High School in Bloomington, Minnesota. Best of all, he’s never looked back!
Two other significant events happened that last year of college. Out on an unintended double-date, Teach met his wife to be and lifelong partner, Amy. For his graduation, Teach’s dad gave him a graduation present of his first street bike, a 1958 Sportster—in boxes! “Dad and I built that old Ironhead together back home where I grew up outside Milwaukee as a father-son project that first summer after college. After we finished it, we took our first of many one-thousand-mile rides together. (And for some years after, they would pick a cool location 500 miles away to ride every summer. They would get there, turn around, and ride back home.)
Teach and Amy continued to date for the three years it took Amy to graduate, and in 1999 they married. The 2000s were a growing period for the couple and what quickly became a family as Braiden was born in 2001, followed by Gavin (a junior in high school now) and then Mason (a freshman). Meanwhile, Amy got a graphic design job where she worked for 15 years as the boys grew up. In the same period, they moved from a small rental to a slightly larger house they bought in Farmington and, eventually, to a larger home in Lakeville, where they remained for 15 years.
After two years at Kennedy, Teach had the idea of bringing his love of motorcycles into the classroom by having the kids help with a build. It was part of the Advanced Welding class he offered. After being well received, it got its very own course listing the following year as “Motorcycle Technology – Chopper Class.”
Regarding mixing his love for motorcycles with his passion for teaching, Teach says, “It helps me be a better teacher. It’s something I know is fun and that I don’t have to study. It comes from my heart, so I always look at my curriculum to see how some of the lessons can be done with a motorcycle. It makes it more interesting and relevant for the students and something they can see in use later.” An interesting aside is the fact that the bikes built from donated parts get sold to support the program. (Although if they’re made with Teach’s parts and old engines, he gets to keep them!)
Teach and the program received awards and accolades on all sides. Publicity came in newspapers, the popular press, motorcycle magazines, podcasts, and social media. HeTeach was invited to build a bike for Born Free 5 (where he took best Panhead), the school bikes won awards at the Donnie Smith Bike Show many times, and he’s been an invited builder to my Sturgis exhibition on several occasions. Teach even received the Top Teacher award in 2015 from the Fox Television station in Minneapolis—they arrived at Kennedy with a whole camera crew to surprise him.
He went on, “Kennedy High made me who I am. People got to know who I was because of what I did there. I got to be friends with the likes of Billy Lane, Indian Larry, Paul Cox, Brian Klock, Jay Allen, Chris Callen, and a slew of other industry notables I looked up to. Everyone heard my story, and they all wanted to help out.” And help out they did. Donations were coming in from builders, parts and tool manufacturers, and ordinary people that wanted to be involved. During a talk at the Harley-Davidson Museum, Sugar Bear offered one of his incredible springer front-ends, and then Willie G himself chimed in that the Motor Co. was good for an engine. The program was so successful that it was emulated by teachers at other schools around the country.
On the home front, there was something he and Amy did want to change. They were running out of space. The old garage in suburban Lakeville was packed wall to wall right up to the ceiling and into the rafters. And with more “stuff” in storage all over town, a plan was laid in 2015 to start looking for a larger piece of property. It had to have a big shop that would be better for the family and their growing side businesses: Baas Metalcraft, for what Teach produced in the home shop, and Amy’s Little Fish Designs, where Amy made beautiful metal dimensional signs that she cut on a plasma cutter and welded together.
They settled on an idyllic 10-acre parcel of land in Prior Lake, Minnesota—known today as Baas Acres. The house isn’t as big as their Lakeville home, but what it does have is a huge barn that can handle their businesses, interests, hobbies, and all they’ve collected and accumulated over the years. It’s the perfect shop. There’s even a converted horse barn on the backside of the property that’s become a party barn appropriately renamed the “Horse Bar(n)”. Best of all, there is room to grow. It took just two months for the two-story high shelving to be packed and the walls covered with memorabilia.
As Teach tells it, “We were lucky to get this kind of property. It was a stretch financially, but we wanted to build the family dream, so we just put our noses to the grindstone and figured it out. When it gets tough, you just work harder and get through it.” While the move to Prior Lake was terrific in a thousand ways, one aspect became a problem. The commute to Kennedy High was 90 minutes in each direction, and this was on a good day. An accident or snowstorm meant he had to leave home at 5 am to get to class by 8 am.
Teach knew he would have to find a teaching position closer to home right when they moved to Prior Lake. It still took two years of the grueling commute before they started looking locally. And then, as things happen, when Teach brought Braiden to freshman orientation in Lakeville, he ran into a friend who was also the activities director at Lakeville North High School. Aware of Teach’s program at Kennedy, he mentioned an opening for a shop teacher to replace the person that had just retired. Having someone with Teach’s passion for the program would be perfect, so a plan was set into motion.
The well-oiled-machine Teach had built at Kennedy High was left behind for a program at Lakeville North that was a bit run down and outdated, but Teach saw it as “a diamond in the rough.” It would just be another challenge, and he was up for it, especially as he knew the principal and the community were behind him.
As I walked into the school with Teach early on a Monday morning, I was struck by the amount of space allocated to the shop program, along with the quantity and quality of equipment. There’s a waterjet cutter (perhaps it is the only class in the country with a 4’x4′ cutting table), two plasma tables (4×4 and 4×8), 12 new Miller MIG welders, four TIG welders, a 45-ton hydraulic press, seven laser engravers and a host of traditional mills, lathes, and metal cutting shears. Even the brand-new heavy-duty butcher block-covered workbenches were of the highest quality. It was explained that a recently passed referendum in the community made this all possible. It was so supportive of the shop program that it is the only program in the school with its own data center with 35 brand new Apple iMac computers loaded with Adobe’s latest version of the Creative Suite. Now, after five years at Lakeville North, there are still some things to do, but the mechanics are in place, and overall, Teach sees it as operating at an 8 out of 10—he’s still shooting for 10 out of 10.
What is particularly noteworthy here is how the Lakeville North program has blossomed while shop classes across the country have, for the most part, declined for decades. Take California, for example, where less than 25% of the shop classes that used to be offered are still in existence. It’s been a losing battle as high schools have had to focus their curriculum on college prep, even though about 40% of high school graduates don’t go on to college, and 5% of the students don’t even graduate high school. Surely shop classes could teach some of these students skills that could help them get a job or find a career. And what about those that go to college? Wouldn’t some of these shop skills help them in their lives as well?
Perhaps this trend will reverse as more and more people see the value in working with their hands, not only for the self-worth and self-esteem one can develop, but also for realizing that it can pay quite well or just come in very handy. Matthew Crawford, a philosophy Ph.D. turned motorcycle mechanic, wrote succinctly on this topic in his national bestseller book, “Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work,” that was described by the Wall Street Journal as, “A powerful case for the special value of skilled work that requires the use of one’s hands.”
In the meantime, Teach’s shop program at Lakeville North is running smoothly. Every day, he tells his students, “The world is too filled with negative energy,” and “Understand that actions speak louder than words. You’re never going to make the world a better place by complaining about it and not doing anything to fix it.” He is always setting goals for them to be better people and implores them to be nice to one another whether they’re out in the hallways or in the lunchroom where they can sit beside someone who would otherwise be by themselves.
The Lakeville North students that take Teach’s classes are excited to be there. For many, it is their favorite time of the day. They create tangible things that they can take home and keep for years to come, and all the while, they are learning. In addition to the basic required skills they practice, they learn about math, science, and computers. It is excellent all-around.
On the personal side, Teach still has another 15 years before he can retire, and by then, he believes he’ll be ready to just work on his own projects and side businesses. In the meantime, he still plans “to be there for as many kids as I can while I’m still doing it. Helping my students find their path and something they love to do has been my lifelong journey. I feel fortunate that some of the kids have pursued what they learned in my class and have been successful with it, which makes me feel good and like I’m doing my job.” To that end, one of his former students got a job running the shop in Prior Lake and is now teaching his son Mason.
Teach feels blessed, saying, “I’ve led an exciting life and made an impact on the world around me. Hopefully, my kids and grandchildren will follow that lead and will work hard. I don’t want them making bad choices that would make them miserable.” He added, “It would be awesome if one of the boys eventually takes over Baas Acres. They could live in the house, and Amy and I could build a little A-frame cabin on the back of the property.”
“Maybe they will keep all my stuff, and the walls can tell my story when I’m not around to share it.” That’s a very tangible way of looking at one’s legacy, but in the end, I don’t know if it’s “the stuff” that’s most important. In Teach’s case, his legacy will live on with every student that’s come through his shop class, felt his passion for working with his hands, and has heard his daily pep talks. And then there’s all the encouragement they received along the way, which they’ll have forever.
In 1979, Easyriders started to publish some of Michael’s motorcycle photography. He photographed a number of smaller events and features specifically for them, proved his abilities and then was off on his third trip to Sturgis in 1981, now on assignment for Easyriders, for whom he has returned there ever since. Also in 1981, after a solo exhibition of his work at the Gallery of Photography in Dublin, Ireland, which was boycotted by the League of Decency, Michael became disillusioned with the “art world” and again changed course. He stopped publicly exhibiting his photographs in favor of publishing his motorcycle work in Easyriders and simultaneously began developing his career as a commercial advertising and corporate photographer. By 1982, his studio was open in Boulder, Colorado. It wasn’t long before he developed a clientele that included companies like IBM, Sun Microsystems and Kraft Foods.
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4 comments
Thanks I am honored to have had Michael create this story about my life!
What a beautiful tribute to the life of Kevin Teach Baas! We are so very proud of Kevin, Amy & their beautiful family, sons Braiden, Gavin & Mason. We are happy that he’s a teacher, the best shop teacher ever. He puts the kids first. What we all want for our children & future, this is what Kevin is doing.
Mike you do amazing work! You’re making a difference with what you do. You put life into all your photos & a story behind them. Congrats to you!
awesome story – but would still love to see some video!
A sensational,inspirational write.
Many of us enthusiest out here can always benefit from people actually living the “American Dream”.
Just the motivation I needed to get back to fixing my 77 Ironhead.
Additionally,every backwoods small town needs a “Teach”.
Thank you both for sharing your lives with us.
Aligator