In 1991, Bill Staples left a national corporate sales position to pursue a career in teaching. With the same level of enthusiasm that he brings to everything he touches, Bill completed 19 classes in less than 11 months while making Phi Beta Kappa at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania. After graduating in May of 1993, Bill worked as a substitute teacher at more than a dozen schools in eastern Pennsylvania. In October 1994, he accepted a contracted 7th grade English teaching position at an inner city school in Bethlehem, PA.

Since that time, Bill Staples' teaching style has been likened to that of the Pied Piper. Whether he's jumping on desks, introducing students privately to Derek Jeter and Michael Jordan, or taking his class to the Sally Jesse Raphael Show in New York City, Bill has tried to make education an adventure. From combining music and poetry to impersonating Detective Columbo, Bill makes the classroom a place kids don't want to leave.

But in the classroom, Bill strives for much more than entertainment. His philosophy is LEARNING + FUN = KNOWLEDGE RETENTION. By combining energy with fundamentals of the English language, Bill has achieved measurable results that surprised parents, teaching peers, administrators, and sometimes even the students themselves.

"One of my greatest rewards is watching the underprivileged inner city kids kick butt in everything from their day-to-day schoolwork right up to the state testing at the end of the year, " Staples says.

So fulfilling was Bill Staples' day of teaching, it seemingly never ended. During his most intense years, at 3 o'clock Bill supervised the after-school detention program at Northeast Middle School. At 4 o'clock, it was on to another building for five hours of teaching at the LAMP school, where he worked with "at risk" kids expelled from the public schools in Bethlehem. The challenge of working with kids literally ejected from the system is one Bill welcomes. "I am possibly their last association with a teacher, and I believe it's my job to make sure that it isn't. Staples says, Sadly I've buried over 20 teenagers in fourteen years as a teacher."

For that reason, the variety of "off beat" teaching skills Bill employs from 8 AM to 3 PM are all the more crucial with these kids.

In addition, "Stapes" organized an annual 8th grade talent show, teaches an after-school fundamentals program for kids who are in danger of failing, and is taking classes toward his master's degree.

Late one night, exhausted from yet another eventful day, Bill couldn't sleep. He wondered, if he could motivate hundreds of kids in one small school in one small town, why couldn't he do it with hundreds of thousands of kids nationwide? With that, Before the Glory was born.