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\u201cI have sat in their seats \u2014 literally, in some cases \u2014 and I know what it is like to be a Cumberland student,\u201d Cheathem said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said his teaching style encompasses wisdom from quite a few mentors at Cumberland, including Monty Pope, Jim Dressler, Bill McKee, Tim Farris, and John Markert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think I took something from each of them to create my own teaching philosophy and style,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Cheathem, these professors valued relationships and maintained high expectations, which he adopted into his own teaching. Years of teaching helped him find a better balance of the two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI used to be more hard-nosed and inflexible, but as I have gotten older, I think I have mellowed a bit,\u201d Cheathem said. \u201cNow, I value the classroom experience as being about more than just the historical content we need to cover.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his two-year course rotation, Cheathem teaches The American Presidency, Civil War America, Conspiracy Theories in American History, and Jacksonian America. He said students often engage in class discussions enthusiastically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAll of these courses have increasingly become more relevant the longer I have taught them, and my sense is that the students who enroll in them want to understand the historical context of modern-day arguments and controversies,\u201d Cheathem said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Drawing from Immanuel Kant\u2019s \u201cWhat Is Enlightenment?\u201d Cheathem challenges his students with the quote: \u201cDare to know! Have courage to use your own intelligence!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI want them to think critically about the world and not just accept that things have to be the way they are. Just like our ancestors changed the world, so can they,\u201d Cheathem said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He encourages students to develop broader perspectives beyond their own. He hopes to inspire lifelong curiosity in his students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFew things are sadder to me than people who are not curious about where we came from and how we got to this point in our society,\u201d Cheathem said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He has also served as project director of the Papers of Martin Van Buren for the last decade. This project gives undergraduate students exciting opportunities to engage in impactful historical research and preservation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGiving students the opportunity to contribute to expanding historical knowledge is a priority for us,\u201d Cheathem said. \u201cNot many people are able to make this kind of contribution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Students learn to read 19th-century cursive handwriting, transcribe documents, and study the complex process of making history accessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt helps them see the many choices that go into something as seemingly straightforward as preparing historical documents for research,\u201d Cheathem said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A friend once asked Cheathem an invaluable question: \u201cBesides teaching your students about history, how are you changing their lives?\u201d That perspective shift became vital to Cheathem\u2019s career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen I feel like a failure as a professor, I try to remember that \u2018teaching\u2019 is about more than what happens in the classroom, and my role is to help students discover themselves and their path forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cheathem is glad he returned to Cumberland to teach, noting that the university is an academic ecosystem that encourages growth, development, and change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPlaces like Cumberland are institutions that help communities preserve local memory and culture for future generations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cheathem refers to the architecture of Labry Hall in his lecture on the Great Depression, which incorporates walls from the old gymnasium built in the 1930s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf universities like Cumberland can help their students see the history that literally surrounds them, then I think that helps make history more interesting and not just useless trivia devoid of the human experience,\u201d Cheathem said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cheathem has dedicated his life to studying Tennessee history and Southern history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “As a nation, I think we need to make a significant investment in rebuilding the historical profession, not at the Ivies but at colleges and universities like Cumberland,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Through his teaching, he brings stories of the past to life, helping students navigate connections between the past and present. He promotes critical thinking, curiosity, and learning from history in order to shape a brighter future. GN<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WHEN DR. MARK Cheathem arrived at Cumberland University in 1992 as an undergraduate student, he was an English major planning to become a high school English teacher. When he realized high school education was not his calling, he double-majored in English and history. This pivot allowed him to find passion in his field, a passion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":23553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/lebanon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2026\/04\/5-3-1024x683.jpg\")
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