Tubas and Tangents: A Profile on David Scheiman

At a concert in France, a young, excited but anxious college freshman tuba player sits backstage, adrenaline pumping through his body. Anxious fans wait as the 25,000-seat venue slowly fills up; the tour of their favorite artist has finally reached their city. As the stage is revealed and lights shine, instruments begin clashing to the beat of a roaring audience as the world-renowned tuba player Bob Stewart makes an appearance. “It’s a surreal experience,” the young tuba fanatic thinks. Who is this musician? None other than AP Calculus BC and AP Precalculus teacher David Scheiman—the very person known by students for lighting up their classes with his goofy personality when he arrived at Stuyvesant this fall. 

Growing up in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, Scheiman always had an interest in music, citing his experience with the tuba in elementary and middle school. “[My interest in music] started at P.S. 41,” Scheiman revealed. “[At] the end of my senior year in elementary school, in sixth grade, my teacher came in and played some chords and notes on the piano and it was a test to see if I could distinguish chords. Then at Wagner [Junior High School], the teacher played all the instruments for us and everyone went ‘Yuck’ when they heard the tuba. And I said, that’s my instrument and I auditioned for LaGuardia [High School],” Scheiman remarked. The young musician was accepted into LaGuardia, and his experience at the world-renowned performing arts school eventually influenced his future life decisions. “My teacher at LaGuardia [was] one of the more world-renowned tuba players, and at the end of senior year he said, ‘You know, if you keep practicing, you might be able to tour the world,’” Scheiman recalled. 

After graduating from LaGuardia, Scheiman did exactly as his teacher recommended: he toured different countries with a band for weeks on end, while simultaneously attending Rutgers University. “I was a professional musician, touring the world for four or five years in and out of college,” Scheiman said. Scheiman recalled his experience touring with the band Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy, which included Stewart. “The venues ranged anywhere from a 25,000-seat audience to a small jazz club; it [varied] where we [went],” he described. The tour traversed all of Europe, focusing on France and Austria. “If I remember correctly, we landed in Geneva, and then we took a bus ride to France. That was the first gig I ever did, and a lot of our tours were centered around France and Austria,” Scheiman explained. “Then I was in France at the end of my freshman year in college, and the rest of it is history. Where you play in a city, a different country every day, [when] you take airplanes and you’re on a bus overnight, [when] you’re up late at night, and [when] you meet very famous people that you know, that is great,” he reminisced.

Scheiman also discussed what it felt like touring with musicians he once knew from his childhood, especially from his time at LaGuardia. “At LaGuardia, we [had] the opportunity to [play at] Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, [and] Avery Fisher Hall. I met a lot of musicians that were out there, they [came] to workshops and [helped] us out,” Scheiman recalled. Scheiman also noted how uncanny it was to tour with people he had reported about. “I was going to go on a four- or six-week tour with some of the musicians I used to do my reports on. I would write [reports like] ‘Where does the tuba play a role in the instrumentation as a base,’ or ‘The perspectives of how a musician or musicians can view a tuba varies.’ [...] You do your reports on these people and all of a sudden, wow, you’re around them and you’re playing with them; it’s surreal,” he described.

Despite his lifelong love for music, Scheiman has always shown interest in math, even double majoring in math and computer science while attending Rutgers. Since then, he has taught at his alma mater, continuing even since he began teaching at Stuyvesant. “I teach at Rutgers and I’ve been teaching there since 2002,” Scheiman said. “I teach anywhere from elementary algebra to linear optimization differential equations. It’s fun and it’s [in a] larger setting.” Scheiman also discussed how it feels to balance teaching at both schools. “I feel like I’m learning every day when I’m teaching in both places. It satisfies my creativity, my joy, and my finances,” he described.
According to Scheiman, teaching at a university and a high school can be quite different. “The classes [at Rutgers] are a lot more [difficult] than what they are here, and high school and college balance each other out for me in terms of the setting dynamics,” he pointed out. Scheiman feels, however, that he knows his Stuyvesant students on a more personal level than he does his Rutgers students. “I don’t meet the students [at Rutgers] nearly as much as I do at Stuyvesant. I meet [Stuyvesant students] every day for 40 minutes, and Rutgers [students] twice a week for an hour and 20 minutes, so I don’t know them as well as I know the Stuyvesant students,” he commented.
Though he enjoyed music, Scheiman always saw teaching as the next stage in his life—in fact, he never even considered a job that fit besides teaching or music to begin with. “For me, I love teaching, and I [feel] like I’ve never had a job in my life between [teaching] and music.” When asked about his sudden stop to his music career, Scheiman emphasized the fluidity and change of life. “In life? Things happen, you know. [Music] wasn’t something I was necessarily doing actively 24/7,” he explained. Additionally, teaching offered a form of stability that Scheiman needed for the realities of life. “It’s tough to have a steady income [doing music] versus teaching,” he elaborated. 

Part of what made teaching so alluring to Scheiman was the ability it gave him to connect with people on a personal level. Before teaching at Stuyvesant and Rutgers, Scheiman talked about his experience as a recitation instructor in college. “I was helping out for multivariable calculus, seeing faces on students when they [had] that ‘aha!’ moment when they [understood] something. And I feel being a teacher here in a profession, that’s very personal. Where you get to know the people, you have to understand their personalities,” Scheiman described. He also explained how he enjoys seeing students’ growth. “It was a natural fit for me. I enjoy helping others and I like to see positivity in people’s growth, and I have the ability to guide them to help them along the way,” he stated. 

Scheiman’s style of teaching is familiar to traditional teaching styles while incorporating his personal touch. “I’ll teach a lesson for 15 or 29 minutes and then I will go around personally to each student in the class while they’re working on the questions and they potentially present them on the board,” Scheiman described. When discussing his approach to distracted students, Scheiman emphasized being empathetic. “I’ll say [to students] ‘How are you doing? Is everything okay?’ and then they understand that means ‘Oh, Scheiman has got me.’” Scheiman’s mentality of making his class environment a safe space works to make students comfortable asking questions and talking to him.

Even though Scheiman has had much experience teaching at other schools, he specifically appreciates Stuyvesant’s students for being understanding and well-mannered. “They understand the sarcasm, they understand when you’re trying to say something but [aren’t able to] say it and it’s great,” Scheiman commented. He also compared teaching at Stuyvesant to his experience as a student at LaGuardia. “They remind me of me growing up when I was at LaGuardia, with their creativity and always trying to find a solution that isn’t necessarily the obvious one,” Scheiman described. “And to see how responsible they are and respectful they are is very nice to me. There’s a lot of promise for the future of the world.”

Teaching at Stuyvesant feels like a new start for Scheiman. Despite going to LaGuardia as a teenager, Scheiman emphasized his desire to try something new instead of teaching at his high school alma mater. “I want to move forward. LaGuardia holds a lot of memories, both good and bad, where I don’t want to be stuck in that,” he said. Scheiman also discussed the rigor of Stuyvesant and how it has affected him as a person. “I know Stuyvesant [holds] more weight than other places in terms of my growth, and I’m learning different ways of how to teach and [becoming] a better person for myself,” Scheiman explained.

Since starting to teach at Stuyvesant, Scheiman has been able to truly find his place, feeling at home as soon as he walks through the doors. “I might be feeling down before coming into Stuyvesant, [but] when I come inside, that immediately goes away,” Scheiman described. “And it's a privilege and an honor to be teaching here, to be around such great brilliance and it’s nice to see the little communities.” Appreciating the personality of students and being a member of the Stuyvesant community is vital to Scheiman. “For instance, if I walk by the escalators over here, I see a group of people, or I’ll go over there and I see another group, and the [group] dynamics are very different,” he shared. “And if you go to different floors, each floor has [its] own personality.” 

When asked if he had any advice for anyone pursuing teaching in the future, Scheiman reflected upon his own methods for improvement. “Embrace the moment, learn from the students, and have a journal. Write every day what your glows and grows were, and keep that and do it immediately after,” he urged. Despite teaching for over 23 years, Scheiman still keeps note of what he can do to improve students’ understanding. This interest in his own growth in addition to that of his students is perhaps what makes him so special to the Stuyvesant community—that and his infectious enthusiasm and cheerfulness, which can lift anyone into brighter spirits. Perhaps that is the key to Scheiman’s success as a teacher: how his passion for math can come across just as easily in a classroom as it did for music when playing tuba in 25,000-person concert venues.