Q&A with Daniel Lancaster

What brought you to FWCD in 2013?

I grew up in Fort Worth and had friends and family who attended CDS, which is what the School used to be called. However, I never seriously considered working here until Caroline [Corpening ’99] Lamsens [now Director of Admission and Enrollment], then a phenomenal kindergarten teacher, called to let me know about an opening in the Upper School English Department. I checked the posting and saw the application took about five minutes. What I didn’t realize was that the interview process would be a full-day campus visit, phone calls, and a teaching demonstration with students. It was those students who made me want to work here. During the demo, I was nervous, really nervous. And when I’m nervous, I sweat. At one point, I joked that I had prepared the wrong book, and I watched the students start to panic. But instead of calling me out, they rallied. I could see them mentally gearing up to help me through it. I reassured them, told them I was nervous enough for all of us, and we all laughed. From there, we had a great time. That moment of empathy and support – that’s when I knew I wanted to be part of this place.

What do you love most about teaching?

I did not set out to be a teacher. My first job out of college was in marketing. It didn’t work for me; I needed something more. I went back to school to study literature and met my wife, Pamela, who was already a teacher. I decided to give teaching a shot. I taught classes at the University of North Texas and Tarrant County College and found that I enjoyed teaching much more than research. I’ve been teaching for about 18 years now, and I love literature. Luckily, and honestly, it was mostly by chance that I found I love teaching students just as much as I love the material. That’s when it clicked.

One of the greatest byproducts of reading literature is empathy. It’s often easier to sit with a character in a book and begin to understand them than it is to do the same with someone sitting right next to you. Through stories, students get to explore experiences they might never face themselves and learn something meaningful along the way.

What is the White Whale Club?

I started the club about a decade ago after noticing a national dip in top-end analytical reading scores. I suspected it might have something to do with too much short-form reading and not enough long, complex texts. So I thought: ‘Why not challenge our top readers?’ That original idea turned out to be wrong, and that’s a good thing. It’s not just the so-called ‘super readers’ who are interested. Students from all skill levels and grade levels have joined over the years. Some stick with it, some don’t, but the beauty of the club is that it creates a community. Readers – students and faculty – take on giant, intimidating books together. That shared experience matters more than any test score.