Devil's Advocate Teachers (was: Philosophical Questions For Everyone)
blpurdom at yahoo.com
blpurdom at yahoo.com
Sat Oct 6 14:14:07 UTC 2001
Reading the posts about the professor who made a less-than-sensitive
remark about the attack on the Pentagon reminded me of my days about
17 years ago as a student advisor/ombudsman. My job was to listen to
students' complaints/concerns about instructors and to try to work
out disputes between them. Most departments had one SA/O, but I
was "shared" by the Intellectual Heritage (IH) and the Classics
departments. At Temple U., IH is the same as Western Civ elsewhere;
a two-semester survey that every freshman must take, regardless of
the school or college in which they are enrolled at the university.
Since I was in the honors program, I was lucky enough to get full
professors (and very good ones), instead of graduate students.
However, some of the freshman honors students were not prepared for
one professor in particular from the Religion department (the IH
department had no faculty but drew on various departments in the
College of Arts & Sciences). He was the devil's advocate incarnate.
He revelled in making statements that he knew would set people off,
and even though every freshman at the university took this course and
he taught only one section, nine out of ten students waiting outside
my office to grouse about a teacher were there because of him.
Since I had had him for IH myself, when students started going off
about what he was like in class, I knew exactly what they were
talking about. I tried to explain his teaching methods; they weren't
accustomed to a teacher who WANTED them to argue. This was
especially valued in honors classes. Most students understood what I
was talking about, and when I genuinely thought he'd gone over the
line and the student deserved an apology, it was always graciously
given. His goal was not offend, but to get students thinking. He
often elicited a very visceral reaction, which he valued more than
merely intellectual musings. He was always my husband's favorite
professor (he had him for IH, too) and when he went to the man's
funeral a couple of years ago, he was quite broken up for days,
thinking of all of the funny/touching/bizarre things people had to
say at the memorial service, which had a HUGE turnout.
So although it's possible that the professor in question was simply
being insensitve to the nth degree, it is also possible that this is
someone who uses the same sort of devil's advocate teaching methods
as my old IH professor, and he perhaps WANTED the kind of visceral
reaction he elicited. Of course, he obviously miscalculated when it
came to HOW MUCH of a visceral reaction, but professors are not gods;
they make mistakes too.
--Barb
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