Bannard showing HGT students a problem in a textbook.

By Caitlin Long

Have you ever been in a math class where the teacher is almost jumping for joy with his love of derivatives? If not, you have not had the opportunity to take a class with Upper School math teacher David Bannard.

Long before he started expounding on the wonders of derivatives, Bannard grew up with two sisters in Long Island, New York and went to high school at The Hill School, a boarding school in Pottstown, Pennsylvania.

When asked about his youthful ambitions, Bannard said, “I assumed I would go into business, which is what my father was doing.” After spending a few of summers working in New York City for business, he learned he “really didn’t like [business].” Other summers were spent working at a camp, and Bannard enjoyed that job much more.

After graduating from Yale University with a degree in economics, Bannard applied for a job teaching history at a small school, Vincent Smith, on Long Island. He ultimately got a job teaching science for elementary and middle school students. His second year teaching, a math position opened, and Bannard began teaching math “and has been in math ever since.” Bannard later taught at Groton School, a boarding school in Groton, Massachusetts, for 17 years before coming to Collegiate. 

Bannard started at Collegiate in 1989. He now teaches various math classes, including Honors Geometry and Trigonometry (HGT), AB Calculus, and many advanced math electives, like math modeling and advanced geometry. Geometry is his favorite to teach, as he is “a geometer at heart,” and fractal geometry is a field that did not exist when he began teaching. He enjoys teaching a subject “where I have met almost all the key people in the field.” Additionally, Bannard was the Upper School math department chair from 2000 to 2015.

If Bannard could teach any class at Collegiate, regardless if it is offered or not, he would teach the history of 1968. Bannard said that “it was the most disruptive year he has lived through.” At the time, he was an upperclassman in college. “College campuses were wild… [the year] included Martin Luther King’s assassination and [Robert F.] Kennedy’s assassination” and many more historical triumphs and tragedies.

In Bannard’s college years, the United States was involved in the Vietnam War. After graduating college, Bannard’s and other graduates’ first thought was, “What about Vietnam… what about service?” Along with his friends who wanted to serve, Bannard also had friends who were conscientious objectors of the war.

During Bannard’s senior year at Yale, the military service draft lottery was instituted for serving in Vietnam. Bannard “managed to get lottery number 12,” meaning he was not going to be exempted from service. He applied for Officer Candidate Schools in the Navy and the Air Force. Bannard was “turned down by the Navy twice because I failed the physical.” He passed the Air Force physical, and he was accepted the day after he got his first job offer as a teacher.

Bannard decided to take the teaching job offer instead of the Air Force physical test. He was deferred from the physical until the fall, meaning he had to test his luck again in the fall to see if he would be drafted. After his deferment ended, he ended up getting drafted, yet he failed the physical once again.

“I felt a little bit guilty, because I felt that I should have served,” Bannard said. His father served in World War II and volunteered to serve in Korea, so Bannard felt he should have served as well. “But at the same time,” Bannard said, “I do not feel a reason to go against the fact that I got deferred because of the physical.”

Bannard “had a number friends who died in Vietnam.” By the time Bannard was drafted in 1968, America knew that “Vietnam was the wrong place to be.” Bannard remarked that this would be the material he would teach in his fictitious history elective, the History of 1968.

Although the Vietnam War was a major focal point in most people’s lives in the late 1960s, Bannard also enjoyed the music scene at the time. He “loves the music of the 60s and listens to almost nothing else.” His favorite artist, besides The Beatles, is Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons. Bannard saw Valli live in concert when Valli was 84 years old.

When Bannard is not teaching or listening to 60s music, he likes to “walk my dog every day and exercise.” Additionally, Bannard spends time reading Wizard of Oz novels to his grandkids. In our interview, Bannard did not talk much about his family, but he did shared a very personal and moving story regarding his son and family’s history with alcoholism and drug addiction during the Upper School Thanksgiving assembly in 2015.

Former and current students of Bannard appreciate his knowledge and enthusiasm. Joseph Ascoli (‘20) said he “had Mr. Bannard as a math teacher for two years, and his love for teaching is shown in the way that he makes sure everyone understands the material.” Joy Ma (‘20) said that Bannard “teaches calculus in a way that makes the subject not only easy to understand, but often fun and interesting.” She referenced Bannard’s advice of “when in doubt, just derive.” Anika Prakash (‘19) said that “Mr. Bannard is the best; he gets so excited about math, and his enthusiasm is infectious. He is so modest and yet so intelligent. I am so glad I had him for the past three years.”

Bannard’s impact on many students’ lives and on Collegiate is extremely profound, and students recognize all the work, enthusiasm, and love he puts into teaching every day.

Photos courtesy of Collegiate School.