Henrico's Top Teachers – David Ingraham, Fairfield MS

As a youngster growing up in Massachusetts, David Ingraham was never far from a book; his parents made sure of that. His father (an accountant) and mother (a computer programmer) made reading a focal point of the family’s activities, taking Ingraham and his siblings to library reading nights – and enforcing “penalties” when they didn’t check out a book.

Ingraham’s mom was the chief enforcer of that rule, requiring him to join her on long grocery store outings as punishment for the violation. During one such trip, Ingraham spotted a comic book in the check-out aisle, grabbed it and said “Fine, I’ll read this.”

“I was thinking I had gotten one over on my mom,” he recalled.

Not so much. When he returned home from school the next day, he found a pile of comic books waiting for him.

“She had bought every single comic book on the rack,” he said.

Soon, Ingraham was hooked on comic books – and on reading. Motivated several years later by the example of his sixth-grade teacher, Wesley Blaus, Ingraham became laser-focused on becoming a teacher himself one day. He attended college in Vermont, volunteered at one of the first alternative high schools in the state and was offered a job teaching at-risk students in Stowe upon graduation in the early 1990s.

But two weeks before he was to start, officials from the school district informed him that the job they’d offered him hadn’t actually been approved by the school system, so the offer was withdrawn.

Reeling a bit, he ended up in California, working a retail job. But eventually, he found himself lamenting that he wasn’t in a classroom. Seven years later during a phone call with his father, who was by then living in Henrico, he shared his frustrations and his dad pointed out a quarter-page ad he’d seen in the newspaper indicating that Henrico was hiring teachers.

Ingraham soon was on the move across the country, landing at Fairfield Middle School for what he anticipated would be a two-year stint before he sought to move up to high school.

But 23 years later, he’s still there – and has no plans to ever leave. His reasoning is simple.

“There are students in this school who . . . every day you can change the direction of their lives,” he said, “and once you do that, there’s no better feeling in the world. Every day, it matters.

That Fairfield is home a number of students who live in poverty and who often face other challenges in their personal lives only serves as affirmation to Ingraham that he is where he belongs.

“I didn’t get into this job to make my life easier – I got into this job to make the kids’ lives easier,” he said. “I wanted to be a teacher since sixth grade – I made it. Now my job is to infuse them with what they need to get what they want.”

To do that, Ingraham sets the bar high – and holds his students to that standard of expectation.

“David teaches with the fundamental, unflinching belief that every single student at Fairfield can succeed,” a colleague wrote in a nomination letter. “No morning is complete on the walkway without a pep talk from David about some story of perseverance and success from an FMS student who met his high expectations and was much better off for it. He's simply what you want every teacher to be: the fiercest advocate for his students; a positive role model and advocate for the teachers in his department; some one who doesn't overthink it: Just teach.”

Ingraham impresses upon each of his students a simple message: “I believe in you.”

“Some of our kids have never heard those words,” he said. “One of the problems that school districts tend to fall into is to have pity for kids who have challenges. If you pity everyone, they’re never going to pick themselves up. I tend students, ‘I will help you when you need help, but you can do this.’”

“I just never give up on a kid.”

Ingraham makes it a point to learn about the interests of each one of his students that he can engage them in the classroom or out of it. He’s well known at the school for serving as a mentor or giving advice to students who he never taught in class, but who came to him at the suggestions of others when they had questions or problems.

His advice to all students is to focus on thinking, problem solving and attention to detail.

“If you can do those three things, there is no question anyone can ask you or thing you can do in life at which you will not be successful,” he said.

He had to take his own advice when, during the pandemic, day after day of virtual learning and growing disconnect left him feeling disillusioned and unsure whether he was making a difference any longer. He questioned his own future in the field.

That’s when he hatched an idea to better engage his virtual students by altering standard reading passages to include names of his students. Then, he created an even more personal story for them.

“The story was fundamentally an action story where an 'antagonist' teacher (actually one of FMS' most beloved teachers, which made the story all the more hilarious) wanted to ‘take’ Mr. Ingraham's students from his classes so that he could teach them instead,” Ingraham’s colleague wrote. “Why would he want to ‘take’ them? Because of how special and unique and smart they were. That was the point of the story.

“Those of us who knew of this project were blown away at the tenderness and message Mr. Ingraham shared through his story. I know of no other teacher who has done something like this.”

The effort – and specifically the effect it had on one student – made all the difference for Ingraham.

“One of my students really came alive in a way that probably saved my career,” he recalled.

Now back in the classroom, Ingraham can see no other future for himself than continuing to serve the students of Fairfield. He’s determined to see the day when the community expects the same level of academic achievement from the school’s students as it has come to expect from them athletically.

“People aren’t surprised when our students do something great on football field or basketball court,” he said, “but they don’t expect the kids to do the same with academic tasks – but they can. I’ve seen them do it over and over and over.”