Fr. McDaniel in the Classroom

Excerpted from Scene, the Magazine of St. Ambrose University, Vol. 30, No, 2, Autumn 2003
From “Why I Teach”

St. Ambrose is a teaching institution, and it takes only a moment in any classroom to realize that SAU’s professors are here because they love to teach. Even knowing that there’s an element of the teaching process that cannot be explained, where discovery and creativity and original thought come only in the endeavor, we thought we’d let a few professors tell you themselves: of their proudest moments and most gratifying surprises, of the greatest length to which they’ve gone to engage students, what brought them to teaching in the first place—and what keeps them in the classroom, year after year.

When I teach, I want to impart to my students that, to be properly understood, history involves the integration of facts and events to make connections over time, how people do what they do because of what they think and believe. I want my students to learn to read and not to accept anything at face value. I have no illusions that within two weeks of the end of a semester most dates and names are forgotten, but if students take with them the ability to express themselves well and think critically, I’m satisfied.

To me, the best thing a student can say to me—and I thank God it happens once nearly every semester—is that “I never liked history before but you made me like it.” I’m first a priest, so the students who make me feel I’ve done my job are those who work to their potential and even beyond, and these aren’t always the “A” students. I feel God gave us a great gift in our minds, and when we use it to its fullest extent, we return the gift to God.

— Fr. George McDaniel, PhD ’66
Professor of History