2001-04-23 - 9:05 p.m.
what's the buzz

Yeah, so. There's this teacher in the Philosophy department who has a... reputation. He also gives lectures in Humanities 110, which is the only experience I have with him. He's very brilliant and apparently quite outstanding in his field. He does lectures from no notes and, with the exception of his first lecture of the year, with no preparation. He likes saying things that he thinks are shocking, especially about sex, and this is very effective for getting significant numbers of freshmen to eat out of the palm of his hand.

He's reputed to have married {0, 1, 2} of his thesis students, depending on who you ask. Most of the student body is pretty much in agreement that he's plenty brilliant and plenty lecherous and occasionally irresponsible to the extent that it's lucky for him he has tenure. I do know one Philosophy major who defends him staunchly. She says he's really a sweetheart once you get to know him. I say, hey, being a silly old pervert doesn't preclude being a sweetheart.

So tonight this same young lady sits down at our dinner table and we notice that she's crying quietly. Someone asks her what's wrong. "I just found out that my teacher's leaving," she says. Which teacher? Yeah. That one. She's really upset. Tells us about how he inspired her, and she keeps thinking of the class when he made her cry because he was so passionate about philosophy. How what she really loved about her major was all in his department. How, "you know how you think you'll have someone around and so when you screw up you think it's okay because you have time to fix it?"

So, if someone flaunts their tenure with irresponsible teaching practices, and uses insinuations instead of arguments in the class that he doesn't want to teach, and marries {0, 1, 2} of his thesis students, and ignites in a bright young biology student such a love of Plato that she switches majors and now can't wrap her mind around studying here if he's gone...

Do I have to take him seriously now?

And what's Hum 110 going to be like without him around? What's this place going to be like without the professor that I regularly hold up as an example of "Oh yeah, well just imagine if Professor X was a woman, and now imagine her *ever, ever* getting tenure"?

And who the hell inspires people like that in *my* major? There's only one acting teacher, really. And I like her okay, she certainly cares a lot about her work, but she doesn't make *me* want to work. I care more about how the other students feel about the work I do than I care about what she says. I'd miss her if she left, but I probably wouldn't miss her even as much as I'm going to miss a couple of the other teachers who are taking off next year.

Well, maybe the other students are the inspiring ones. ...As a matter of fact, they are. There are people I've worked with who made me want to do my best work much more than the teacher ever did. Too bad the ones who really inspire me are graduating this year or next.

As my friend the Philosophy major said tonight, "Do you ever get that feeling that you were born just two years too late?"

[/babble]

[edited 1/1/03]

test - 2017-10-08
boing - 2003-06-07
walk walk trudge trudge slog slog travel travel - 2003-05-21
ob-la-di - 2003-05-18
not dead. - 2002-12-08