Calvin Weng ’26
Contributor

Faculty Spotlight: Mr. Edgar’s Multifaceted Musings

David Edgar —teacher, fiancé, and stage director—has overcome many barriers to become who he is today.
An English and History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies faculty member, Mr. Edgar lives in Harman Hall, leads and coaches the Model UN program, and directs Stage II.
Mr. Edgar claimed that his most memorable teaching moments arise from his daily check-ins with students at the beginning of every English or History class. These peer-led conversations about life at Loomis Chaffee ‘help him engage in his students’ everyday experiences and keep the class intriguing,’ Mr. Edgar said.
However, the beginning of his career at Loomis teemed with obstacles. During his first year, Mr. Edgar was challenged to design classes meant for virtual learning immediately after he had finished his teaching certification. Working hard to perfect his online classroom, Mr. Edgar created a productive virtual classroom environment and even took a course on how to teach online classes more effectively.
Mr. Edgar not only pursues perfection in his teaching but also in his role managing and coaching the Model United Nations (MUN) program.
“When I first took over, I thought to myself that I should keep what’s there and build on it to truly bring the program to the next level,” Mr. Edgar reflected.
He eventually devised a five-year plan, making new progress and improving the student experience each year through the leadership of upperclassmen delegates, who help newcomers familiarize themselves with MUN. Along with the head delegates, Mr. Edgar strives to provide copious opportunities for more inexperienced students to participate in events.
Much of Mr. Edgar’s expertise as a teacher arises from his own experience as a student. University, where he had his first encounter with his future fiancé—soon-to-be wife—in their comparative ethics class in 2014, was a memorable time for Mr. Edgar.
“I just knew… the first time that I was going to marry her,” he recalled about meeting his fiancé.
Mr. Edgar also had some silly moments as a college student, including the time when he and his friends managed to convince their neighbors that some jam in a jar was facial cream and took pictures of them with jam on their face. Mr. Edgar said that “it still makes him laugh every time he thinks about it, and it reminds him of his past friends.’
Reminiscing on his time studying, Mr. Edgar expressed a desire to go back and remind his younger self to never underestimate the diligence required for success.
“There are people who are more talented than you already and still working three times as hard and making something out of their lives, and I figured that only till I went to grad school,” he said.
As an English teacher, Mr. Edgar cited several literary works and films as inspiration for his personal philosophy. He referenced Luke Thompson’s version of the Brothers Karamazov to represent his life story. “It’s all of my failing and all of my hopes in a single audio piece,” he said.
Mr. Edgar also mentioned three influential movies: Andrei Rublev, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky; Why has Bodhi-Dharma left for the East?, directed by Bae Yong-kyun; and Tokyo Story, directed by Yasujiro Ozu.
“It’s about all the universe and suffering and why bad things happen… just trying to make sense of that,” he said regarding Andrei Rublev. “It’s a masterpiece… truly amazing… I won’t [even] say anything else about it.”
He added, “The guy who directed Why has Bodhi-Dharma left for the East? [also] wrote it and hand-directed it himself, which is just incredible. It was the first Korean film to make the respectable circuit outside of the country. [The film is] a suggestion that we can keep things in perspective… that it’s possible to have a balanced outlook of things.”
“And Tokyo Story… its director [is] debatably the best Japanese director of all time. Some people would argue on behalf of Kurosawa, but [in my opinion] he doesn’t compare,” Mr. Edgar joked. He added that ‘Tokyo Story broke [his] heart and made [him] appreciate [his] parents more.’
Justifying his passion for appreciating diverse books and films, Mr. Edgar said, “You need to ask these various questions… when you work in the literary field. Luckily, I have friends that make good suggestions.”