Transcript: Dr. Foulds on Teaching, Community, and the Power of Passion

Good morning, and welcome back to the show. We're here with beloved history teacher, Moksha advisor, and just overall great guy, Dr. Folds. How are you, Dr.

Folds? After that introduction, I'm doing incredibly well, thank you. It's deserved, but it's appreciated. It's great to have you on the show.

Yeah, for sure. It's a pleasure to be here. So, Dr. Folds, obviously you're teaching at U.S. now, but can you tell us a little bit about your career leading up to U.S.?

Absolutely. Yeah, so I began teaching technically when I started grad school in 2006. I was a teaching assistant. So, essentially, you would have a professor who went up there and gave their lecture three days a week, and then two days a week, I would lead discussion questions, which actually look kind of like what we do in our class, what I do in my classes now.

We would read a primary source and then spend 45 minutes discussing it. So then after that, after I went through a process called my comps or my comprehensive exams, I started teaching my own classes at Ohio State. I did some adjuncting work at Ohio Dominican University. And then when I finished my PhD, taught at Shepherd University.

So, I had what they call a tenure track job there. But after three years, my wife and I really wanted to move back to Cleveland. And so, I gave my notice to Shepherd. We moved back here, and I spent a very uncertain year looking for full-time teaching employment until this opportunity here at U.S. presented itself.

And so, here I am. You know, it's really interesting. Your role is as like professors at Ohio State and Shepherd. How do you feel that experience teaching these college students and college-level courses kind of apply to teaching high school students at U.S.?

So, I think, you know, the classroom component is very different. And honestly, I mean it in the best of ways because I so prefer the dynamic here than the dynamic I often had at the college level. But I think a lot of the fundamentals when it comes to, you know, analysis, whether it's critical thinking, writing, dissecting, or writing about primary sources, that really transcends, I think, you know, whatever level you're teaching. I think those kinds of skills and knowing how or figuring out how to make, you know, what you're doing, especially when it comes to studying history, interesting to or relevant to students, you know, regardless of the age, I think that it's one of those skills I picked up there that I brought with me here, I hope.

And so, that's really, to me, was the big takeaway. What I love about teaching here is that I feel that the board, the boys at U.S. are so much more engaged in the classroom than what I was used to at Shepherd. And if for some reason anybody at Shepherd is listening to this, I loved teaching there as well, but very happy. Yeah.

And I will say the classroom dynamic, just from being in your class, it's like we're working with you to dissect the source. It's not just you're talking at us, which I really like. That means the world to me. That is what I strive to do.

I want it to feel like we're collaborating, we're working together. I'm not, because I'm not a sage, some sage on a stage. Just speak, speaking at you or talking at you. So, you know, at Ohio State and Shepherd, you were rated a 4.8 out of 5 on Rate My Professor.

Oh, no. That's like a really incredible high score for just a professor at any college, let alone these two colleges where a lot of your, I mean, even one of your own students says, he was the best teacher I've ever had. I was pleasantly surprised by his lecture methods and he made every class worth coming to. His stories and his ways of teaching, and I really highly recommend him.

Why do you believe students just have such a positive attitude about their class? And what do you think is that characteristic that leads to just that joy that students have, just like us, for your class? Wow. That's really, first, that's really nice.

You know, it's weird because, and I think I've mentioned this in class with you guys, that I tend to focus a lot on the negatives when I teach, of myself. I hope never with you guys. I hope as, you know, current and past students, you don't feel that way. But I'll always walk out of class or I'll be thinking the next day on my road.

I'll be thinking about all the things that I didn't do well and that I was unhappy about. But if I had to think of one thing, I think it comes down to truly believing in what you're teaching. In that I really believe, whether it's world history or U.S. history, that what we're talking about is important and matters and is relevant to you. And I think that if I believe that, you create an environment where then the students, you know, one is working with also believe that.

That what we are doing really, truly matters and that I'm truly excited to be doing it. And I am. I mean, this is not a job. I mean, I'm very glad I get paid for it.

But I don't feel like this is a job. I am excited to come back to school after breaks. I'm excited to think about what we're doing. I think that's a big part of it.

And I think also is that, you know, and again, that idea of it being collaboration, that I hope, I really do, that when I teach and when I'm in the classroom with you guys, I'm going to be able to do that. And I think that's really, I think that's the most important part, that it's showing respect for the students as well. I think, I hope. But that's what it feels like to me.

Yeah, for sure. And we definitely feel the same way. So who or what got you interested in teaching? And did you always believe that that would be your career path?

No. I did not. I think I wanted, I wanted to, I went through a couple different ideas of kind of what my career would be. At one time, I even thought I might be a poet, but you have to be good at writing poetry to do that.

So that was off the table. For a long time, I was interested in journalism. I worked on my college newspaper for my whole four years in college. It was actually my, a professor I had in college my senior year, who turned me on to actually pursuing history as a career.

I'd always loved history. I'd actually, I'd always loved history. I had been an English major my first two years at the College of Worcester and then switched to history because I realized I was taking all history classes even though I was supposed to be an English major. And then I did my senior thesis and my, my, my advisor at the time, Mary Linehan, I, really helped awaken me to just my passion for research and historical inquiry.

And, you know, she was the one who really encouraged me to apply for grad school and graduate programs in history. But then what happened was, is I discovered, as a grad student and then when I was at Shepard, that I found the teaching side of the profession to be far more stimulating and fulfilling than the research side. And I, again, it's not a shot at research, but I found times when I probably should have been working on my book manuscript, I was much more interested in, in coming up with new ways to deliver the material that I was delivering to my students. And so then I came to realize, wow, I actually prefer the teaching side of this most.

This is really what I'm interested in. And it gets me up in the morning. And so then when this position came up, you know, all teaching without necessarily having to publish books, that was it for me. And so that's kind of what got me here.

Yeah. I mean, and this should be a simple question, I think, just off your enthusiasm, but what makes history so awesome for you? Seeing it in the world we live in every single day. And again, history does not repeat itself at all.

But history, you know, our past is, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's just a tossed up discussion. And the one that I think is most important is that I think, right now, history, you know, my past is speaking to us in every moment of every single day, in terms of, you know, right now I'm about to do a class on the new left with my new US history since 1968. Elective. And, you know, even though the new left is a movement, you know, its heyday has passed in so many different ways, we can see its race, hierarchies of gender, that Americans really hadn't thought about until that movement.

And that, you know, seeing individuals represented in our school, in our politics, in business who were not represented prior to that movement, that there's history right there impacting our lives every day. And so I think that's really what it is, is this constant fascination with how the world we're living in is shaped by the decisions people who preceded us made or sometimes didn't make as well. So kind of off the topic of history, but that like enthusiasm that you have, another interesting thing about you is your daily morning runs, right? You tell us about how you wake up at these crazy early times and take runs that are like multiple miles long, which is just really incredible.

What made you start that routine and how do you think it improved your mindset as a whole? So it started, so the whole workout routine started in 2019 where I just realized, you know, it was. It was a visit to the doctor's office where the doctor said, OK, you know, you're in the mid-30s, you might want to think about, you know, taking better care of yourself, specifically in terms of exercise and kind of watching what I eat. And I just found that, you know, exercising just became such a great mental release for me.

It was a way, and originally when I first started, it was an end of the day thing. And it was just a great way for me to reflect on my day and kind of, you know, just let go of a lot of the stress or anxiety. And I had built up over the course of the day. When the pandemic started, because I used to work out at my local Planet Fitness, when the pandemic started, that was what really got me interested into running because I needed exercise that I could do almost all the time.

And that wouldn't put me in a gym at the time crowded with people where I could get sick. And so that's what started me on the running. Switching it to the 5 a.m. was more a reaction to as our family grew and we had two young children, there was just no way to get away with doing that after school anymore. So it had to be at a time.

That would fit with my family. And I found the mornings to be even better because it became a way for me to, you know, reflect on the past day, but also think, you know, have the energy to think about how it was going to apply those reflections to the next day. Also, I'll be completely honest. I'm a person who has always dealt with anxiety.

I take medication for it. And exercise has been by far, along with the medication I take, the best way of dealing with anxiety and helping to, you know, obviously you live with it, but not let it get to you. And so I've been doing that for a long time. And I've been doing that for a long time.

You know, you do a lot of other physical activities. You talked to us about how you're going to do a bike, like a whole biking trip. Where do you think exercise kind of fits into your life as a whole? And do you think it's something that you would definitely recommend to others?

Yes. And it doesn't have to be going out and running six miles. It can be, you know, walking. It can, you know, staying on your feet during the day, getting your steps in, lifting weights.

There's so many different ways to do it. But just kind of being active. Because I found that it often helps you think, you know, think very differently about, you know, whatever it is you're thinking about, whether it's something related to your personal life, your professional life. You know, people often say they get the best ideas when they're in the shower.

Some people do like their best thinking in the shower. Others of us do our best thinking when we're just physically engaged. The bike trips, for example, you know, if you're ever going to do, you know, a long 300 mile bike trip with somebody. Yeah.

Make sure it's somebody, not who you can make conversation with, but somebody who you feel comfortable going an hour or two hours saying nothing to. And that to me is like the best kind of friendship or relationship. Somebody who you can be silent around. And I joked with my friend Andrew, who I do the trip with, there was one stretch of our bike trip in western Pennsylvania where I planned out a huge section of my modern America elective because we just had about two or three hours where we just didn't feel like talking.

We're just riding. And so that just getting that kind of thinking and reflection in is huge and just being in nature because that's the best thing in the world. Yeah. It always amazes me exercising, which is expending a lot of energy.

I always seem energized from and after, which is interesting. Exactly. And on the same way, I have more energy than, you know, when I first started here, I didn't exercise regularly and I'd feel just obliterated at the end of the day. I don't feel that way now.

And I can't because I have to go home and then entertain. So my wife and I both, I should say, but, you know, another one of your roles is also serving as the head of Sanders House. Yes. What does the house system really mean to you and how do you try to lead Sanders?

I honestly, I love the house system. I love it for the fact that, you know, it represents another kind of community within the broader school community. We use that word around here a lot, but I really believe in it. You know, the notion of how we look out for one another, we support one another, we lift one another up, but we also hold one another accountable when we stumble because we all stumble.

And so I think the house represents another community within that community. I think it offers an opportunity to make connections between upperclassmen and underclassmen. I think it enables people to meet teachers they might not otherwise meet. It allows me to see you guys.

It allows me to see you guys in a different way. Like, you know, Founders Day is fun for obviously the competition of Founders Day is all great. But like watching you guys in a different element or, you know, that I wouldn't usually see you in is just so much fun. Watching you guys come together for this brief moment and forge this kind of brotherhood based upon your house is really cool.

But then also using the house system to not just build a community here, but to actually reach out to our community. The community around us, you know, whether that is, you know, through different community engagement opportunities we can pursue as houses. Obviously, I know, you know, Mac House has done a fair bit of that as well, you know, or just, you know, right now we're looking at reinvigorating the freshman seminar program, hopefully through the house system. And so kind of having those conversations at the house level, kind of what we did back in October is something I'm really excited about.

So I love being a head of house and could not imagine not doing it. Frankly. You also have a leadership role in U.S. News.

Mm hmm. So that's the oldest running student newspaper. And you also are the head of are you head of or just help out with the mock trial? Mr.

Kate, even though he'd get mad at me for saying this, I still think of him as the head coach and I am and he would disagree. But I mean, I very much have taken my direction from him that you're heavily involved. There we go. I like that better.

Yeah. And U.S. News. So what do you enjoy most about leadership roles?

Well, you know, I think it's just the fact that we have these special interest clubs like those. You know, and again, I think it's this wonderful opportunity to see you guys, you know, show skills that you might not otherwise show in the classroom or sometimes taking what you've learned in a humanities classroom, thinking on your feet, critical analysis, writing and applying it in a different way. You know, so for example, you know, I might have somebody in World History 10 or I might have somebody in U.S. History or APUSH.

Yeah. Who loves to write and takes real pleasure from it. But who doesn't like to write about history? And yeah, it hurts me to shed a tear, but not everyone does.

But maybe they love to write about international politics or they love to write about sports. And then now there's this opportunity to work with them and see them cultivate that passion, but just not in the history classroom. And same with mock trial, you know, to watch and that's, you know, for that one, it's more of this process. Yeah.

I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool that you guys go from the beginning of the season when we have this case file thrown in front of them they know nothing about to getting to this polished position, you know, in January where they're ready to go and argue their case and shine. And I think it's it's so awesome to watch students kind of develop their own confidence as they do that. You know, see, wow, I really did just argue this case in front of three real judges in a real courtroom.

That's really cool. So I think it's another moment to watch you guys excel. That's the reason I love being here is the daily exercise of being humbled myself by watching what you guys can do like this, for example. So, you know, I kind of have an interesting question in a time where media is kind of so fuzzy.

And what do you think is the importance of maintaining integrity in media like you do with U.S. news? It's everything. It is. It is.

It is everything. You know, having a media that will speak truth to power. That will is willing to shed light on uncomfortable truths or uncomfortable realities is essential. You know, it is, you know, I often I'll so often hear people use the term freedom is not free, but I'm not entirely sure they know what it means.

And I think part of it is the willingness to be uncomfortable all the time, to know that we are all kind of sharing in this project of maintaining a republic. There's this famous line from the end of the Constitutional Convention. So, you know. Somebody goes up to Ben Franklin and says, you know, Mr.

Franklin, what kind of government did you create? And he says, a republic if we can keep it. Because republics are fragile. No republic has ever lasted the test of time.

And ours is still relatively young. And you know, having an intelligent and engaged press corps is essential to ensuring that we have an engaged republic where we don't all have to agree, but we all have to work from a common set of facts. And so that to me is. . . Just so important to the health of our state, having that.

So yeah, I think it's incredibly important. And knowing how to how to separate real news from, you know, malarkey or I hate using the term fake news. It's lost all meaning at this point. But you know, and I think that's what we do, hopefully partially in a history class.

And that's the same thing, too, because, you know, the historian can kind of step in where sometimes the journalist falters, you know, with the understanding of this is how things have worked in the past. Or what's happened in the past. And that informs the way we, you know, through our media, understand crises in the present. That's great.

In your classes, you have B Spill, Marination Station, and Frown Town, the dreaded Frown Town. The dreaded Frown Town. For our listeners who may not know what those are, can you explain what those are and how they kind of help in the classes? I'd be happy to.

So I tend to really prefer to use only two of those. I think the only person who's been in Frown Town this year has been me. But you know, so the idea is to kind of, you have a little incentive within the classroom. And so the idea behind B Spill is when a student just says something that is just, they make a connection that is not readily apparent, they can connect what we're doing in one unit to something in a past unit, or even better yet, in a completely different class.

Like when we had a student in my world history class the other day connect something we were talking about to what he had learned last year in ninth grade. It was a beast film moment, like those are the best. You know, so that that would be beastful marination station is just, you know, you know, a class is going well when you have 10 guys who want to participate. But you also don't want them to feel like they have to hold their hand up the whole time because then they're focused, understandably, as I would be on my hand being up rather than kind of running along with the conversation.

So marination station is, you know, a list, essentially, we're okay, you know, either it's immediate to the conversation. Somebody is just on the list of hands who want to be heard, or they've made a point that perhaps applies to, you know, a later point in the discussion, or sometimes a later point in the unit two classes down the road. And so they're going to sit in the long term marination station, we're going to come back to that point. frown town goes back to my point from before about something, you know, we all stumble sometimes, students stumble, sometimes, it hasn't happened in class this year. But if you're, if you're doing something that is consistently slowing the class down, there's that threat of frown town.

Which, again, nobody has traveled to this year, which is good. So you know, you kind of brought up the idea of with you have these peaceful points where they relate to last year's topic. How do you like where we have other teachers teaching things that work seamlessly? And do you like working with a bunch of teachers who just all kind of make this one seamless story?

I love it. It's I have never, I mean, I've loved everywhere I've worked, but I've never loved someplace I've worked as much as us. And part of it is, and you guys can see it, you can see what our offices look like, and kind of the dugout style office, where we are all you know, every professor, every teacher in a given discipline is all in the same room so that we are constantly talking with one another about what we're doing. And we're learning from each other.

And we do we have meetings where we think about, you know, how does what the guys are learning in ninth grade, how does that connect to what they're doing in 10th grade? How does that connect to what they're doing in 11th grade? And so and so when I see that playing out in the classroom, I am legitimately excited because I feel like we're doing what we should be doing. And so you know, that that is a huge component of why I love working here.

And so when I hear a reference to othering and belonging from Mr. Lewis's class in ninth grade to what's happening in 10th grade, we're doing what we want to be doing. And I think that's we're scaffolding and I love that. One thing that Charlie and I talked about a lot is our whys.

And I think that's what we're doing. We're scaffolding. We're doing our whys. And that's this question on every single show to our guests, you could say it's a qualified as a beast fill question.

So we want to know what makes you get up in the morning and just make such a positive difference in everyone's life. So Dr. Foulds, what is your why? My why is, oh, it's when a student in a class makes that noise, when they have all of a sudden understood something they didn't understand before.

They've connected something we're learning to something they've learned in the past, or they're connecting what we're learning to the world in which they live. When hearing somebody make that connection and the sense of ownership they get from that, that gets me up in the morning, professionally. Obviously my family is the number one thing that gets me up in the morning. But in this, you know, for this profession, it's those kinds of moments.

It's working with you guys every day. That, that is what, that's what does it for me. Well, Dr. Foulds, it's been a great episode.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts and stories and experience with us. To our listeners.

Thank you so much for tuning in and we'll hope you join us next Wednesday for another episode of Late Start Show. Thank you, Dr. Foulds. Thank you both so much for having me.

Thank you. Thank you.