Mr. David Palmer has been teaching at Canyon Ridge for nine years. After the 2025-2026 school year is over, Palmer will be leaving Canyon Ridge to teach for a worldwide prep school organization in Chengdu, China.
Palmer has taught a wide range of classes, from study skills to yearbook to almost every social studies class in the district. Palmer had also coached basketball for ten years and was the founder and coach of the Canyon Ridge E-sports team.
Palmer’s contract in China begins in August. This means he will be leaving at some point during the summer, he says. “It’ll be a two-year contract where I’m gonna teach in an international prep school. So it’s going to be different in so many different ways—both for teaching and for my family, and for our opportunities. We’ll get a chance to travel to different corners of the world, you know. This summer, my kids will get to see panda bears and the Great Wall of China. It’s things that I wouldn’t have ever dreamed I had an opportunity to do, but to say no, just because we’re scared, I think we’d regret it for the rest of our lives.”
Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan, a southwestern province of China. “It’s about three hours by bullet train from Beijing. The city itself is roughly the size of Atlanta or Houston. Once you get outside the city, you’ll be able to see the foothills of the Himalayan mountains.”
In China, Palmer will be teaching social studies classes like geography, anthropology, economics, and history classes in English. Students of the organization are taught in English so they will be proficient in the language by junior high school.
When asked why he was leaving, Palmer said, “I like new things. I like new adventures, I like new challenges… There’s been a lot of things that have been really good about Idaho. But that itch to try something different, try something new, came back.” Palmer also noted that he had been exploring the possibility of teaching in various other countries, such as South Korea, Egypt, and Bulgaria.
Palmer said his initial interest in teaching in a different country was sparked when he met someone who was involved in the program. “Through a chance meeting, I met somebody who was teaching internationally, and we got to talking, and we kind of said that once we decided this was something that we were willing to look at. We really changed our discerning criteria to safety for family, and I wanted to be in a place where everybody in my family was treated the same.”
Palmer says he’s unsure of what to expect in China.“All of it’s gonna be new, all of it’s gonna be different. I hope that I’ve developed a tool bag of tips and tricks and everything else that we’ll be able to land on our feet. I’ll be going into it with at least my local support network, [which] will be good. I don’t know what I expect. I expect to be challenged.”
Although he has faced a few uncertainties, Palmer is eager to explore new opportunities in China. “Never in my life did I imagine that I would get a chance to go see the Great Wall of China and the Terracotta Warriors—that I would live so far both in distance and in culture from what I grew up with. I grew up in a little suburb of Indianapolis, and I’m now working on getting a work visa for the second most populous country in the world. And I get a chance to learn and to grow and to see things differently than I had before. Travel changes you, no matter where you go, so I’m excited for the changes that it brings.”
Palmer’s family has considered the move with many different feelings. “We’ve had every emotion. We’re excited. We’re nervous; we’re sad to leave what we know. My kids are processing it differently than my wife and I are. You know, for them, it’s leaving the only school that they’ve known, the only house that they’ve known. This is where they took their first steps; this is where they came home after the hospital. For them, it’s been everything that they’ve known…We’re overwhelmed. We’re nervous, we’re excited, we’re happy, we’re sad, we’re you know, all of it. And I think that just leaning in and embracing all of those different emotions gives us a chance to process how we need to as we get ready to make this significant shift.”
Palmer is unsure of whether or not he will be staying in Chengdu past his two-year contract. “I didn’t have moving to China on my bingo card when the school year started. I’d gotten to the point in my life that I kind of had general ideas, but I don’t necessarily have concrete plans.”
Even though it’ll be an intense transition, Palmer stresses the importance of exploring different opportunities.“Taking advantage of opportunities to do things like study abroad [and] take advantage of opportunities to learn from all the cultures here at Canyon Ridge. You can try to find different ways to explore other cultures and see the way other people live, so that when you get to a point in your life [where] these opportunities come up, you can make more informed decisions. You can take advantage of chances to go and to travel and to get out of just the little bubble that is Twin Falls, Idaho.”
Palmer says he’s grateful for his years at Canyon Ridge, and he will miss his coworkers and students. He says he will continue to be grateful for those he taught with as he moves forward with new opportunities. “It’s been a great opportunity to learn and to grow as a teacher, it’s been a great opportunity to really kind of flush out some of the things that I like, and that I’m looking for as I continue my professional career path.”
