50 years lead to one last semester of storytelling
Dr. Clive Hallman in his home office.
He may have technically retired from the James
Madison University faculty in 1998, but Dr. Clive R. Hallman Jr., is looking
forward to teaching two of his favorite history courses – The Old South and
Colonial America – when JMU starts fall semester 2012. Just as he has for 50
years, Hallman will impart his knowledge of and love for American history to
filled-to-capacity classrooms in Jackson Hall.
A total of 55
undergraduate students are enrolled in the classes that the professor
emeritus of history declares are his final ones in a career that began in
Madison College's summer session of 1962. "Dr. (Michael) Galgano and I
decided I would teach this semester to take me full circle," Hallman said,
referring to the head of JMU's history department.
Hallman's
affiliation with the university began when he answered a plea from the director
of the Division of the Social Sciences, Dr. Elmer Smith, to teach a survey
class in early U.S. history during the summer term in place of a gravely ill
professor. Hallman, who was teaching history in the upper school and serving as
principal of the junior school at Staunton Military Academy, was one of the few
educators in the area holding a master's degree in history, one of Madison's
requirements.
Hallman taught
that summer and in summer 1963 before leaving his post at SMA, where he had
taught for eight years after earning degrees from Appalachian State University
(M.A.) and Berry College (A.B.), to join the Madison College faculty in 1964.
Two years later, he took leave to complete a doctoral degree program in early
American history at the University of Georgia.
Known for
calling his students by the name of their home state or city, Hallman says
there is a teachable moment even in such an exercise. "If you're a
Southerner, when you meet someone, the first thing you do is ask, 'Where are
you from?' and if you're a Yankee, the first question is 'What do you do?' and
if you're from California, it's, 'What’s your sign?"
"We were
having fun one first day of class. I told them that story and we started going
around and they seemed to get a kick out of it, so it sort of stuck. But I know
their names too," said Hallman, who obviously hails from the South,
Douglasville, Ga., which is located about 20 miles west of Atlanta, to be exact.
Hallman
describes his teaching style as "storytelling to draw the students into
conversations about history." His favorite course is one he is teaching
this fall semester. "I trace my interest in Colonial American history to
the road trips my Dad decided our family needed to take when my brother and I
were young. He was interested in history and took us to see historical sites."
Among those
treks was a visit to Colonial Williamsburg with its extensive re-creation of
late 18th century houses, shops, gardens and dependencies. Hallman's
affectionate affiliation with Colonial Williamsburg continues to this day. He
has led JMU undergraduate and graduate students to the town as part of May and
summer session courses for years to envision daily life in the Colonial era and
to consider a specific topic, such as architecture.
The
relationships he built with Colonial Williamsburg officials and interpreters
led to a spur-of-the-moment invitation for Hallman and his students to cook an
authentic Colonial meal in Williamsburg one January. Hallman put out the word
to head to Williamsburg on a Friday, traveled on Saturday and got a meal on the
table on Sunday.
"They
milked the cow, they killed the chicken, they churned butter, and we cooked a
meal of chicken, oysters, black-eyed peas and ash cake (a cornmeal-based dish)
over the fire," Hallman recalls. "We ate our Sunday dinner about 3
o'clock. It took that long. The students didn't realize how much work it was to
get a dinner together. For some of the folks, milking a cow was an
experience."
Hallman
describes "success" in the classroom as helping students develop an
appreciation for history, a goal he says is harder to achieve in more recent
years. "Since we went to the SOLs (Standards of Learning), you begin to
see students come in that have no idea about the early part of American
history," Hallman said. "Now, when you get down into the more recent
stuff, politics and all that, they can handle that fairly well."
That's where the
storytelling comes in. "If you don't do something like that, they get
bored with fact after fact after fact. I try to pull the facts in there but
connect them with a story or event. I try to get a conversation going, and
fortunately, there's always one (student) that knows what's going on and helps
get the ball rolling."
While most of
his teaching has occurred in Jackson Hall, the home of JMU's history
department, Hallman recalls teaching with Dr. Paul C. Cline, professor emeritus
of political science and law, in Burruss Hall, where they taught a government
class on closed-circuit television.
"We had
four classrooms all hooked up to one studio. We had a full camera crew and
communication with the classrooms. We couldn't see them, but we had remote
voice. A little light would come on and we would know we had a question from
classroom 5. Paul and I had a wonderful time teaching, but the closed-circuit
television delivery just didn't catch on."
Hallman's
contributions outside the college classroom are numerous. He regularly teaches
sessions for the JMU-Lifelong Learning Institute to share his knowledge with
adult learners. This fall, he's teaching "Thomas Jefferson: The Virginia
Years."
Hallman serves
as a member of the board of directors of the American Frontier Culture
Foundation. He's the founding faculty advisor for the JMU chapter of Theta Chi,
which traces its roots to the late 1960s when men displaced by the closing of
Frederick College in Portsmouth transferred to Madison College and brought
their fraternity with them. A few years later, wanting to affiliate with the
national fraternity, members asked Hallman to be their advisor. In honor of his
dedication, Fraternity and Sorority Life at JMU has named one of its top annual
honors The Clive Hallman Outstanding Chapter Adviser Award.
"People ask
me what I'm going to do after December. I say, 'I don't know; I'll think about
that in January." Before then, he has students to teach.
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Aug. 27, 2012
