School District 6 candidate: David Shaffer

David Shaffer, 79

When teaching in Columbia Falls Junior High, I was called the banana man. One of the things that I did in the classroom was to give students the opportunity to teach math and physics to the other students in the classroom by way of board presentations.

I retired with 30-plus years of experience teaching in Montana during the summer of 2000, which included my teaching at FVCC in the evenings and during the summer for 10 years.

I then took a job teaching in California for two years and after 9/11 I moved to Washington to teach for eight years before retiring in 2010 with my goal of 40 years teaching.

I love our students and staff of School District 6 and have a personal vested interest in our school system. Ten of my 13 children graduated from Columbia Falls High School. Three of my grandchildren have graduated from Columbia Falls High School with one more graduating this year and one grandchild currently in the junior high.

I am 79 years old counting gaps, but I have had 80 birthdays. I have seen a lot of challenges that face our students and parents and I just want to help where I can.

In my years in Columbia Falls I was the math chairman and was involved in selecting mathematics curriculum. We wisely kept with traditional mathematics , we tried fuzzy math occasionally, but the success of our students was in keeping with traditional math. I believe that success comes from the quote, “work will win when wishy washy wishing won’t.”