by Deborah Lanser
Introduction
To take a history course with popular LLI presenter Tom Walker is to gain a broad perspective on past and current events across the world. Studying history is important, he believes, because it teaches us that the questions may be more important than the answers. It can challenge us to think outside of the box. It allows us to read the newspapers with insight and gives us the background to be responsible citizens when encountering a new situation.
Obviously, history is one of Tom’s passions. Fortunately for Bard LLI, another passion is teaching. The breadth of his experience with both history and teaching is extensive.
The Beginnings
Tom’s interest in history was sparked at a young age when his grandfather gave him a 1922 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. He studied history at the United States Naval Academy and at the college and postgraduate level at the University of Rhode Island and Providence College.
He began his public speaking career at the age of 13, prompted by his father to get him out of the “book corner.” Tom discovered he loved it. In high school, he won the American Legion Oratorical Contest and was the male lead in the senior school play about a WWII pilot pursuing a lovely female pen pal. And in college, a favorite history professor saw his gift for teaching and encouraged him to pursue it.
Career and Teaching
Tom is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, where his primary areas of study were naval science and engineering. Trained in both fixed- and rotary-wing carrier-based aircraft, he served in three Navy squadrons as a pilot and legal officer. Beginning with his first squadron, he was a maintenance test pilot on the squadron helicopters. That soon led to aircraft testing opportunities on a variety of fixed-wing aircraft that were being upgraded at the adjacent overhaul facility.
Teaching was always part of Tom’s career. He noted that the Navy expects you to rapidly learn complex tasks and then pass those skills on to others. During his active service and later the naval reserves, he taught his juniors piloting skills and leadership skills.
After leaving the Navy, Tom worked as an insurance agent for 30 years, mostly at Marshall & Sterling in Poughkeepsie. However, he spent two years at their office in St. Croix, supervising the settlement of over 7,000 claims and many related lawsuits resulting from Hurricane Hugo. He taught insurance law at a community college. He also worked as a senior counselor in the New York State Division of Veterans Affairs, assisting veterans to access all their earned benefits.
Teaching History
Tom’s objective is to teach “big history,” with the goal of looking at an entire forest in a way that also enables us to see the role of an individual tree within it. In his lectures, he presents his best understanding of broad historical trends while illustrating them with lively anecdotes. While Tom plans an entire course out in advance, he will change direction midstream in accordance with the class’s response. With whatever subject he teaches, he always wants to make complex subjects easy to understand.
What he doesn’t want is to talk like a college professor because then he will put people to sleep. He also avoids discussing current politics, which can devolve into a food fight that doesn’t help solve our present problems.
LLI Classes
The breadth of Tom’s interest in history is reflected in the varied topics he’s chosen for his courses. He considers doing the research needed to develop his courses as a way of educating himself. And since he wants to keep studying new areas, he never repeats a course.
The first course he taught at Bard LLI was titled The Shaping of America, which focused on the development of agricultural and maritime economies. This semester, he is exploring the history of Russia from its early beginnings through its period as the world’s largest empire. In past semesters, he’s presented The Rise of East Asia, China from Earliest Times through the 20th Century, Cataclysm: America, Germany, and the USSR 1932-42, and Colonialism in the Pacific: 1840-1940. In current development is a course about America from 1890 through 1960.
Tom chooses the topics for his courses as a way for him to teach himself. Because he wants to keep learning new things, he never repeats a course. Fortunately, he is willing to take us along for the ride.
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