Bretton Cole
Editor-in-chief
A common theme in high school and collegiate education is the idea that history class is simply a lecture session of learning the basic facts of historical events – when the Declaration of Independence was signed, who gave the Gettysburg Address or where the United States dropped the first atomic bomb. But one Crowder history professor, Dr. David Schieffler, seeks to dispel such rumors and clarify the true value of history and what its discipline can teach us in our contemporary world.
Schieffler is not a lot different than your ordinary, northwest Arkansas citizen. He’s a middle-aged teacher captivated by nature and gladly positioned in the Ozarks. His top two hobbies are fly-fishing and going to rock concerts – both of which can involve a lot of traveling, which ranks third on his list. His love for the Ozarks and rich Arkansas accent is a staple of the area, and he blends into the culture like anyone else. Yet, he has a deep interest and passion for history and passing that fascination on to his students at Crowder.
Schieffler’s collegiate experience began at a small liberal arts college in Sewanee, Tennessee. Formerly named The University of the South, Sewanee College reignited his interest in teaching. Schieffler found in his breadth of study that history was what he was passionate about, and he decided to explore teaching.
In his high school days, Schieffler had an excellent history teacher who gave him inspiration for the subject and planted a seed that would later bloom while at Sewanee. After receiving a James Madison Fellowship, a scholarship that would help pay for his masters degree but required him to teach two years of secondary school, the opportunity was one he felt he just couldn’t pass up – not only for the financial help, but the chance to open the pathway to a career teaching the subject he loved.
Following Schieffler’s graduation in 2005, a teaching opportunity opened up in West Fork, Arkansas to teach high school history. His time there was well-spent, and he instructed on a variety of subjects ranging from US history to politics and government. However, another opportunity presented itself for him to teach a night class for Northwest Arkansas Community College (NWACC).
This was the gateway for Schieffler to teach at the collegiate level as he does now. “I always kind of had the itch, and when I saw what college teaching could be, I made the decision to scratch that itch.”
This pursuit led Schieffler – single, no kids, with money saved – back to grad school, where he applied to one place, the University of Arkansas. Hedging his bet on the university accepting him and giving him a scholarship, he took the step towards becoming a college professor.
Schieffler completed a rigorous and extensive tenure at the University of Arkansas where he both taught freshmen and took classes. He mentioned that on some days, he would teach a morning class and then attend an 11 o’clock class as a student. “Being a student and a professor in the same day is weird,” he admitted, “but kind of fun!”
His route to Crowder was an interesting one. One of Schieffler’s classmates at the University of Arkansas was Dr. Denna Clymer, Crowder’s current Social Science Division Chair. With her personal recommendation, Schieffler applied for and earned a spot at Crowder in fall of 2018 as a U.S. History teacher.
However, Schieffler’s approach to teaching history varies from a traditional view of what history means as a subject in education. Too many people view it as rote memorization of facts. “History is not memorizing what’s in a textbook,” Schieffler declares.
He seeks to teach it in a way that it will be relevant to everyone. In a smaller school with few history majors, it can be a challenge to make it something everyone will benefit from. To that end, Schieffler has adopted a document-based approach.
“It’s an interpretation of evidence and what I think people should have the ability to do, is look at evidence, we source it, determine whether or not it’s trustworthy, we contextualize it, and if possible we try to corroborate the evidence,” Schieffler says.
He has turned history class, which would ordinarily be a lecture on dates and places, into a lesson on how history teaches us more than how in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. It’s about taking evidence and being able to understand it and build an argument from it.
“I don’t care what you do in life, I think those skills are applicable. I think that if more people understood that things have deep historical roots, I think they could better contextualize the world they live in today,” Schieffler attests.
Schieffler has found that this approach indeed works well for non-history majors. The skills he focuses on, more than listening to a teacher list the memorization necessary for the next test, can be extrapolated to other fields and jobs.
More than the skills, though, Schieffler enjoys building relationships with students. His effect on students is well-chronicled. Taylor McNeill, a former Crowder student and business management major explained, “despite having his class at 8 a.m., he always had me deeply interested in his lessons and eager to go to his class. [He] makes his lessons interactive and interesting in a way that I’ve never experienced with another instructor.”
As any college student who has taken an 8 a.m. class can attest, that is high praise. Getting students involved in early-morning classes is no easy task. But taking time to build long-lasting relationships with students and giving them an experience in history they will remember is credit to his hard work.
“There are few things in life I get more satisfaction out of than the lightbulb going on over a student’s head.” Schieffler exclaims, “It makes the experience more enriching if you can learn more about people.”
This testament of his dedication to teaching his students is one that makes him unique among professors. His methods are unorthodox, but they are certainly impactful to students. As he learns more about students, Crowder’s fly-fishing, Ozark-loving professor shows them the beauty of history and helps to clarify its value to each student personally and in the modern world.
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