Learning Everyday in the Streets, with a Cab Driver as a Lecturer?
Dr. Doug Mackaman (Dr. Mack) is the director of The Catalyst and known by generations of students as maybe the most inspiring professor they've ever had. But for those of us who have studied in his amazing classes on World War One and World War Two in Europe, he brings a special passion to how each class session unfolds. Alum Michael M. offers a case in point:
In the WW1 class, our group was tucked into a tiny garden in front of the British Museum in a light rain. Dr. Mack was talking about war and looting, and how times of conquest have always let the winners of wars steal what they wanted from their enemies. As if on cue, a London cabby pulled up right by our group and popped out with a huge smile. "Is your teacher telling you that everything in that old wreck of a museum was stolen by England over centuries?" Dr. Mack. laughed harder than any of us and proceeded to fold the cabby right into our class. It was amazing hearing his local point of view on Britain and its wars, and he even gave a decorous bow to all of us and welcomed us to his city. We all swore Dr. Mack had arranged it all.
Being and Feeling Where History Happened
Something his students cite as a reason for taking Catalyst history is the fact that he teaches his students about history where it actually happened. From royal processions including the Queen to muddy battlefields, military cemeteries and even Nazi concentration camps, Dr. Mack students feel like they get to experience The Catalyst at a visceral and emotional level. As he writes himself:
I don't mean for our classes to feel easy. In fact I want them to feel that they're lump-in-the-throat hard on many occasions. We walk and duck into places no tourist could ever see to create a mood and an atmosphere that won't fade as a memory even after many years. I know they may never walk the killing fields of Flanders a second time. Or walk around the conference table where the Holocaust was planned. For the time they are at those sites and learning our material, I want it to be a kick in the teeth that leaves every student deeply moved.
London and Paris: One Coffee and Croissant at a Time
Dr. Mack students will swear that he knows every pub in London with decent coffee and ever bakery in Paris with the best croissants. They'll also say he can find a restroom for his students in about 30 seconds. Maybe that's a requirement of his job, given that what he does is lead his students on a 7 mile walking lecture most days that unfolds over 4 amazing hours. After 25 years teaching this way, he does it like a pro and even has a system for what he calls "doing 4 important things at once." Alum Al remembers the system well:
Dr. Mack kills it with taking care of 4 important things at once, his little system. You get to a point in the city after about 90 minutes or so, and he will finish a burst of a teaching session and duck around a corner. And then say "who needs 4 at once?" Everyone. Then like a miracle you'll be by 3 cafés. And everybody knows what to do. We find our meet-up point and set our watches for 15 minutes. Then everybody knows how to pop in one of the cafes. Order coffee and a glass of tap water, Then ask for the restroom and use it while the coffees are being made. Then come back and ask for the Wifi code. Check email and messages while we get coffee and water. And then everybody's alarms go off and 15 minutes are done. Restroom, coffee, water and WiFi: 4 things at once.
The Battlefield and Holocaust Days
Dr. Mack is passionate every day he teaches. But for his classes, the battlefield teaching days are always special. As an historian who wrote a book on World War One, he takes the teaching sessions on battlefields as a special challenge. From the old trenches of World War One to the area around the Berlin Zoo that saw horrible fighting in the last days of World War Two, he makes the teaching times in these special places feel like bucket-list events for his students. Alum Carissa remembers:
We didn't really know about the concentration camp outside of Prague. Some in our group hardly knew about World War Two before this class. But when we got off the bus at the old ghetto and camp, Dr. Mack made sure we all had our kleenex ready for what was coming. I don't think anything I'll ever experience or learn about will be like that day in our History class.
Walking the Walk
Finally if you ask any Dr. Mack student what they would tell a newbie? They'd tell you to get ready for more walking than you've ever done before. A typical pedometer from one of his classes will track 15-20,000 steps in a day. It's an adjustment at first. But after a few mornings of meeting your cities from cafés you'd never find on your own to what it feels like to learn in every possible situation you'd imagine, you are hooked. As Caitlin recalls:
It's like he takes 5 hours each day to make sure every student in the group connects with history and our cities. Yes you walk until you have blisters. And sometimes it's rainy or so hot you're melting. But the end result is that you know these cities and you know this history on levels you won't believe until you experience Dr. Mack's style of doing this.
